The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-10-15

Ihc last nItV years.
After the gold and silver used by the
mint have been separated from each
other and purified, they are conveyed
to the drying cellar, put under pressure
OF some eighty tons, and all the water
pressed out. The metal is then dried
with heat, and afterwards taken in
large cakes to the furnaces. The melt
ing rooms are on the first floor. Here
all the metal used in coming is alleged.
melted and poured into narrow molds.
These castings, called ingots, are about
a foot long. a half inch thick and from
one to two and a half inches in breadth.
The value of gold ingots is from six
hundred to fourteen hundred dollars
each; those of silver about sixty dol
lars. The floors that cover the melting
rooms are made of iron in honeycomb
pattern. SO that they can be readily
taken up to save the dust, their rough
ness acting as scraper and preventing
any metallic particles from clinging to
the soles of the shoes of those who pass
through the department The sweep
ings of the entire building have aver
aged twenty-three thousand dollars per
anpum for the last five years.
The methods of coming money have
varied with the progress in mechanic
arts, and are but vaguely traced from
the beginning, the primitive mode be-
ing by the casting of the piece in sand,
the impression being made with a
punch. In the middle ages the metal
was hammered into sheets of the re-
quired thickness. cut with shears into
shape and then stamped by hand with
the design. The mill and screw, sby
which greater increase in power, with
finer finish, was gained, dates back to
the sixteenth century. This process.
with various notifications and improve
ments, continued in use in the Phila-
delphia mint until 1886.
The first steam coming press was in
vented by NJ. Thonnelier. of France,
in 1888, and was first used in the United
States mint in 1886. 1t was remodeled
and rebuilt in 1858, but in 1874 was SUI
perseded by the one now in operation,
the very perfection of mechanism, in
which the vibration and unsteady bear
ing of the former press were entirely
obviated and precision attained by the
solid stroke, with a saving of over sew
enty-five per cent. in the wearing and
breaking of the dies. The dies for COIN
ing are prepared by engravers especial
ly employed at the mint for that pur-
pose. The process of engraving them
consists in cutting the devices and lc-
gends in soft steel, those parts being
depressed which in the coin appear in
relief. This, having been finished and
hardened, constitutes an original
die" too precious to be directly en-
ployed in striking coins, but used for
multiplying dies. 1t is first employed
to impress another piece of soft steel,
which then presents the appearance of
a coin and is called hub. This hub,
being hardened, is used to impress
other pieces of steel in like manner,
which, being like the original die, ere
hardened and used for striking the
coins. A pair of these will on an av-
erage perform two weeks work.
The planchets, or discs, of metal not
yet stamped, after being adjusted, are
first, in order to protect the surface of
the coin, passed through the milling
machine. They are fed to it through an
upright tube, and as they descend from
the lower aperture are caught upon
the edge of a revolving wheel and car
ried about quarter of a revolution,
during which the edge is compressed
and forced up, the space between the
wheel and the rim being little less
than the diameter of the planchet This
apparatus moves SO nimbly that five
hundred and sixty half dimes can be
milled in a minute, but for large pieces
the average is about one hundred and
twenty. In this room are the milling
machines and the massive but delicate
coming presses, ten in number Each
of these is capable of coming from
eighty to one hundred perfect pieces a
minute. Only the largest are used in
making coins of large denominations.
After being stamped the coins are
taken to the coiner's room and placed
on long table-the double-eagles in
piles of ten each. The light and heavy
ones are kept separate in coming, and
when delivered to the treasurer they
are mixed together in such proportions
as to give him full weight in every dc.
livery. by law the deviation in the
standard weight in delivering to him
must not exceed three pennyweights
i'm one thousand double-eagles. The
gold coins-as small as quarter-eagles
being counted and weighed to verify
the count-are put up in bags of five
thousand dollars each. The three-dol-
lar pieces are put in bags of three
thousand dollars, and one-dollar pieces
in one thousand-dollar bags. The silver
pieces, and sometimes small gold, are
counted on a very ingenious contriv-
ance called counting board" by
this process twenty-five dollars in
five-cent pieces can be counted in less
than minute. The boards are q sim.
pie fat surface of wood with copper
partitions the height and size of the
coin to be counted, rising from the sur.
face at regular intervals and running
parallel with each other from top to
bottom. They somewhat resemble a
common household washing board. y
with the grooves running parallel with
the sides, but much larger. The boards
are worked by hand over box, and
as the pieces are counted they slide
into drawer prepared to receive them.
They are then put into bags and are
ready for shipment
For the various duties of the mint
there are over three hundred persons
employed as clerks, workmen, etc
say about two-thirds men and one
third women-the number depending
largely, of course, upon the amount OF
work to be done.-Melville Phillips, in
Once q Week.