Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-12-02
sfAKING THE D1ES FOR THE
NEW COINS.

| street last week that Uncle Sam had an
agent down in the iewelry district, in
Maiden lane, buying diamonds,
He was Mr.. 81. w. Meigs, one of the
assistants of director of the Mint
Leech, and although his purchases
we're neither numerous nor costly the
precious stones he bought will be used
IN making millions of money.
For the past six months, says the
| NelU York Herald, the Director of the
Mint has been engaged in selecting
designs for the new issue of dimes,
quarters and fifty cent pieces author
lied by the last Congress. These
designs have now received final approx
al, and this week the diamond points
purchased in New York will be at work
making the dies for the new coins
These designs are entirely different
from any of those that have appeared
on the coins of the United States, and
have been selected from over three
hundred drawings and photographs
which were submitted to the depart
ment. They consist of female head
on the diverse of the coin and a sym
bolic device on the reverse, as at pres
ent, but the position and details of the
canoes are essentially different from
any yet issued,
In making the dies for the new coins
the government has adopted an entirely
new process, and the aid of a machine
will be called On to execute work that
would be impossible for the most ex-
pert die sinker to accomplish.
In making the first models of the
design the artist takes a quantity of
white wax and mixes it with proper
ton of resinous gum. To this mass Is
added vermillion enough to give it
brilliant red color, and then the mix
ture is kneaded under warm water
until it is perfectly homogeneous.
When this bright red wax is ready for
use the artist sketches the ground
work of his design on a large piece of
slate and proceeds to make a cameo
many times the size Of the die he in
tends to produce. With skilful fingers
he moulds the wax until it approxi-
mates the contemplated design, and
then he brings q number of little
boIwood gravsrs into play. With
these he brings his wax model up to
high state OF fanish, but even then he
is not satisfied. and to complete the
work no tool IL delicate enough.
The grsvers are thrown aside, and
with the nails Of his thumb and little
finger of the right hand, which are
allowed to grow very long, and are
pared to the desired shape with razor
like knife, the work ia completed.
With those two nails the hair of the
female head is finished up, the express
sion of the eyes is corrected and the
fine line work of the design on the re-
verse side of the coin is made.
The artists who do this work are as
careful of their hands as a piano virtu-
oso. They never dream OF carrying
anything as heavy as an Umbrella for
fear that its weight would injure the
delicate sense of touch necessary for the
use of the thumb and little finger nails.
After this design is completed it is
taken to the electrotyping room, where
1t is given a hard copper surface. After
this process it is ready for the mechani-
cal engrsver. The machine in Use was
designed particularly for the govern
ment and is an amplification of the pan
togrsph, used on plane surfaces by
artists and draughtsmen for reducing
or enlargipg drawings. The ordinary
pantograph will only work on fiat
surface, but that used to make the dies
for coins is so graduated that it also
has a counter balance horizontal
motion.
The diamond takes the place of the
drawing point, and the gem set in a
delicate spindle, is revolved many
thousand times a minute by an electric
motor. When the machine is adjusted
for work the tracing point is placed on
the electrotyped model and the dia-
mond point on piece of soft steel Of
the finest quality. The operator
guides the tracing point into every de-
preston of the model and the diamond
cuts away the steel and makes a
reduced copy in miniature many times
smaller than the first cast The pro-
cess is almost the same as the reduc-
ton of a rough drawing by photo
graphy. All the defects Of the origin
al are Imperceptlble in the die, and
the model, which was as perfect as art
could make it, is reduced by machine,
almost as perfect as the camera lens, to
copy which, excepting under the
most powerful microscope, is absolute
ly faultless. The reduction is from
four to six diameters, the model for a
dime being about six inches across It's
axis, and those of the other coins in
proportion.
After the die is finished it is tenn
pered as hard as possible. OF course
1t is cameo or raised figure like the
model, and the coin stamping die must
be an intagllo or depressed figure.
To accomplish this the cut die is placed
in hydraulic press with q piece of
soft steel as blank. Thousands of
tons of pressure are applied and
the soft metal is forced into every
depressing and tracing of the cameo.
When this is accomplished the die,
after being hardened, is ready for the
coin press, and the silver blanks are
given the official stamp of the govern
ment, which raises their face value
about twenty per cent. at the rate of a
hundred minute.
The treatment of the silver used by
the Mint Is also peculiar. The author
tiles do not trust to the assay of the
bullion as it comes from the smelling
furnaces of the mines, but has all the
precious metal thrown into nitric acid
and dissolved. The product looks
like plaster of Paris and is perfectly
pure. This is again melted IN black
lead crucibIes and the metal, after ten
per cent of copper is added to it, is
cast into bricks. These bricks are
shaved into thin strips, which are
rolled to the required thickness for the
coin.
The strips are then punched to the
required size and go to the machine
which raises the mill" This "mill"
is not the corrugated edge of the
coin, rs is popularly supposed,
but the fat raised band of metal
around the edge Of the coin which
protects the design from wear. The
corrugations are put on by the dies
which complete the coin and are tech
uically known as the "knerl.
The pieces are then softened by
being heated and come from the ovens
looking like SO many white poker
chips. A bath In a dipping" solution
and a shaking up with sawdust in re-
volving cylinder restores their polish
and then they are ready for the official