The record-union., 1891-01-26
SWEATING GOLD.
Electrical Method of Robbing the
Government.
MANNER IN WHICH THE COINS ARE
REDUCED.
officers of the Government Secret Serv.
Ice Endeavoring to Trace the Coins
Through Different Hands aud Locate
the Offenders.

ASO A1iAoStNOIlIlfs 10 ITdC6 the CO1n8
Through Different Hands and Locate
the Offenders.
Short-weight gold coins are becoming
ahnoylngly common in the metal circu-
latlng medium. Bankers and others who
handle this character of money are fire.
quently coming across light pieces. The
discovery, few days since, of nearly
$500 in light two-and-a-half dollar gold
pieces rendered in payment of custom
duties by prominent importer, has, by
directing attention to the subject and ex-
citing scrutiny, led to the detection of
numerous pieces short i'll weight, show
ing that there is in operation systematic
scheme for robbing the Government by
stealing metal from coins. Officers of the
United States Secret Service are now at
work in Philadelphia. says the Inquirer,
endeavorlng to trace the coins through
different hands and locate the offenders.
This process of robbery, which is IA
miliarly known as sweating" coins, was
formerly practiced to a large extent, but
OF late years few instances Of it have come
to the attention of the authorities. 1t is
not highly profitable, and at best under
the old methods of extracting the metal
1t did not afford much more than living
From a careful examination of the light
pieces which are now being found, it is
quite evident that the thief is not doing
his work by the old hand method Of
shaking the coins in bag and then gath
erlng the dust by means of quicksilver,
but that he has brought into requisition
the rapid agency of electricity.
The service of an ordinary galvanic
hnf rhy-vr oh Il ~
necessary to conduct the operation by the
electric process. The scheme is similar
to that employed in plating with gold by
electricity. The coin is placed in the
fluid, and attached to it are wires from
the poles of the battery leading to another
piece OF metal prepared to receive it in
the form OF plating, the metal to be re-
moved from the coin. The battery being
set in motion, sufficient gold to form
plating is quickly transferred, and, as it
is removed uniformly from all parts of
the coin, the liability of Disagreement is
reduced toa minimum. The only effect is
to blur the characters slightly.
An authority at the mint has estimated
that about fifty CENTS worth of gold can
be removed in this way from ten-dollar
gold piece without exciting the suspicion
of the casual observer. To the skilled
eye of an expert, however, the effect is
generally apparent at a glance, and it
does not always require the scales to de-
termine whether the coin is correct or not.
In the New York Sub-Treasury there is
one man, Tandy by name, who by years
of experience in the handling of coin has
become so expert in his judgment that
he can tell by mere touch, with closed
eyes, whether piece is of spurious metal
or whether it is genuine coin that has
been tampered with. In this respect he
is not approached by any other person in
the world.
Tho aIaot rio ,,roooSo Of cfaol;,, f.o,,,
coins is not altogether new scheme.
The Government officials q few years
ago captured in New York a bard of
Italians who were operating extensively
on this plan. Few but foreigners prac-
tice "sweating'' in this country. 1t is an
institution of theft much more common
in Europe than on this side of the At
lantic, and those who operate here are
usually persons who have been driven
from their country for the same reason.
The enterprise does not yield sufficient
inducement in the way of easy labor and
born swindlers, and it is mostly monop
olized by class content to live on little
and hoard small savings.
Before the discovery OF the use of cleo
tricity for plating sweating was done
with the use of bags. A buckskin sack
similar to the sacks used by Western
miners to gather gold in was the favorite
instrument After the coins were well
shaken in this the dust was beaten out,
and the particles collected by means of
quicksilver, which rapidly forms ANAL
gamation. When sacks of cotton ma
terial are used they are burned and the
stealings collected by reduction in a
crucible. Some idea of the readiness
with which gold can be removed from
coins in this manner is found in the re-
suit of a series OF Investigations made
years ago in the Mint in this city. By
these it was shown that IS was lost by
abrasion every time million of dollars
in gold coin was handled.
The experiments were conducted with
bags containing 5000 each, and it was
shown that the mere lifting of the 200
bags, making up a million dollars, to
truck to be removed to another vault. re-
suited in the loss stated and that their
transfer from the truck again made Sec
ond similar loss.
Gold while in circulation is handled less
than any other medium. 1t is usually
kept in the vaults of banks for demand
rarely made, and for this reason the loss
by abrasion is but about one-half Of one
per cent. in any twenty years. In
twenty-dollar gold piece, the standard
weight of which is 5l6 grains, the Govern
ment allowance for loss by abrasion is
2.5S grains, but exceptin cases where the
coins have been tampered with by
sweaters" the loss rarely exceeds this
limit.
BY direction of an order issued some
time ago by the Treasury Department at
Washington the light 81 so coins found
the other day were stamped with "L,"
indicating that they were light. Shortly
after the late Daniel NJ. Fox was APP
pointed Superintendent of the Mint
in this city the Secretary of the
Treasury issued similar order. A stamp
was procured, but protests being made,
Superintendent Fox's attention was
called to the matter, and he decided that
ne had no authority in justice to mutilate
the property of another. so the stamp was
put away and never used at the Mint.
Light coins finding their way into the
Custom-house will not, however, receive
such courteous consideration.
The name of the importer who rendered
the light 81 so pieces has been withhold
by the Custom-house authorities with a
view of facilitating the tracing of the
coins through other hands and the cap
turing of the sweater"
-----
Georgia Relics.
Thomas Gresham has left at this office
a couple of relics that have been handed
down for 200 years. One is a small
hatchet, resembling the one George
Washington used, that was given him by
hie, r,,otba,. who IioJ siytoo, oo,.- .,r,,>