The Dickinson press., 1891-03-21
THEFTs FROM GOLD COIN.
How Uncle Sam Has Been Robbed by In
Genious Italians and Poles.

Eenious Italians and Poles.
The United States ~sub-trcasury Off
Gals Of this city are greatly annoyed at
present by the amount of light weight
gold coin that is coming into their cof-
fers. The gold is all short in value, and
though there is 10 apparent ditfcrencein
the size OF the various pieces or their
weight to the Impractical observer,
many of them have been reduced one
third of their value.
The officials do not hesitate to accuse
persons of robbing the government by
reducing the weight Of the coin, and the
government has even gone so far as to
take steps to stop the robbery. Assistant
Treasurer Roberts said that many of the
S. gold pieces were fifty cents short. and
some of the $40 pieces were worth only
1925. The 81 coins did not suffer much,
because it would hardly pay to bother
with them.
In every case that his attention had
been called to the face of the coin had
not been worn or mutilated. The figures
and designs presented lines as sharp us
new ones, and the milling hadn't been
disturbed. These coins We're, however,
all short from twenty-five to fifty cents
in value. These facts have caused the
officials to think that there are persons
at work in the city who are making IL
regular business of d%efrauding tho gov
eminent.
The gold in these cases has been re-
moved from tho coin by means of u
chemical process, which does not appear
to affect the general appearance of the
money.
An old treasury official, i'll speaking of
the fraud, gave me some interesting
facts concerning this species of robbery.
'tThere are half a dozen ways of getting
gold off %coins,' said he, ''but the two
most in vogue are those where acid is
used, and in the sweating process. The
latter is most in vogue among Polish
Jews and Italians, who make a regular
business of it.
"In the first place they secure a stout
canvas bag and fill it about half full of
gold coins. The top of the bag is tied,
and then the coins arc shaken together
for hours at a time. The friction of one
coin rubbing against the other wears off
considerable gold, and it is deposited at
the bottom of the bag. Each time 5000
worth of gold coin is treated to the
sweating process the Italian will prob
ably securo $50 worth Of dust. The
coins when taken out looksomewhat old
"a if they had been in circulation a
long time-but they will always be ac-
copied by persons not used to handling
money.
"Toa person familiar with the frauds,
however, it is always easy to detect a
coin that has been treated to a sweat.
The Italian will always take new coin
for the purpose, and it arerson will only
stop to think he can also detect Il light
coin. The gold does not Wear off as
rapidly as is generally supposed i'll ordi,
nary circulation. Therefore when a per.
son finds a coin which from its date is
only two or three years old, that has {
very worn appearance, it has u%ndoubted.
ly been treated to Il sweat These
coins will always be found short weight
and people will save money if they
watch the date and condition of the
pieces they receive.
"The process of removing gold by al
acid bath is now resorted to more gen
orally than the old sweating system, az
it is harder to detect the shortage in the
coins. On 'sweated' coin the figures ami
milling are worn, while on the other:
the designs are not at all injured. I,
detect shortage in the latter coin weigl
them."-New York Herald.