The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-25
CARLOADS OF COIN.
Twenty Seven Freight Oars Filled
With Silver.
THAT Is tho Amount There Would 30
Wcrc Ten Million Dollars In Half
Dollars, Quarters and Dimcsto
TO Transported by Rail.


elbow many wagon loads Of sive,
would those New York bankers get Il
they sell the Treasury ten million dol
lars worth of bonds and take their pay
In subsidiary silver coin, as they arc re-
ported likely to do?" said the Washing
ton correspondent of the Jacksonville
,Times-Union, to an official of the mint
bureau.
l. Wagon loads, young man? You don't
propose to measure ten million dollars
worth of silver by wagon loads do
your
"Why not?"
because there is too much of it. a
:wugon load would not figure in calcu-
iating the weight of ten million dollars
in silver
elbow much would a million dollars
of It wcigh?"
"Only twcnty-seven TONS" WINS tho
smiling reply. "If it was in silver dol
lars it would weigh thirty tons, but in
subsidiary silver coin it would weigh
twenty-seven tons and little over
.twenty-seven and half tons in round
numbers"
''How does it come that subsidiary
coin weighs less to the dollar than the
silver dollars?"
'"Thc subsidiary silver coin used to be
Icxactly equal to the dollar. That is to
say, two fifty-ccnt pieces or four quar-
tiers, originally weighed the same us one
silver dollar, but, away back in the fif-
ties, n slight change WINS made in the
weight of the dollar, and of the sub
;sidiary coin also, and when the dollar
f,r-- ~, 4 L L. - a..
ard the subsidiary coin was not
changed"
'Then according to your figures it
would require something moro than
horse and cart to transport the $4,000
GOO Of half dollars, quarters and dimes
ito New York in case the New York
bankers como down with their $4,000
600 of bonds and take small change in
pay for them as they are reported like
: ~ to do?"
well, slightly. The $40, 100000 of
silver would weigh 2T5 tons, which
means, of course, ~ carloads. A prct-
ty good freight train that would be
with 81 cars loaded with silver"
"And suppose it were in dollars?"
"Thcn the $4,000, 900 would weigh
500 tons instead of 275, and would add
two or three more cars to the train"
Suppose the $4,000, 900 were in gold
instead OF silver, what would it weigh
then?"
about $1,000 pounds, or, in Il general
way, it would make two carloads. One
million dollars in gold coin weighs 9GS6
pounds, while in silver dollars, as have
said, it weighs thirty tons"
Suppose they were to take their ten
millions in nicllcls, how much would it
weigh thcn?"
9 well, $1,000 in nichcls weighs 90
pounds. at that rate $1,000, 900 would
weigh eco, 900 pounds, SO that by a brief
calculation you will find that to trans
port $40, coo, 900 in niclscls would take q
train of cars numbering considerably
over 100, or, in other words, Il train
about a half mile long"
And to follow this interesting oues-
ton to it's last step, what is the weight
of $1,000 or 81, 10000 in pcnnics?"
"The weight of $1,000 in pennies is
Ds5 pounds, and 100000, of course,
would be 6S5,O0O pounds. To trans
port $40, 900, 900 in pennies would require
about $50 cars, or make train couple
of miles long"
Just below the windows of the mint
bureau is Il large asphalted surface,
looking like section of Pennsylvania
avenue, which has bobbcd up in the arci.
inside of the Treasury building. 1t is the
upper surface of the covering of the
huge vault built few years ago for the
deposit of silver dollars and other coin
held by the Treasury Department, This
vault. with the others belonging to the
Trcasurcr's Office, has in it about S175,-
600, 1000 in silver and gold coin, the total
weight of which is calculated to be
about 4,S00 tons, or sufficient to load q
train of cars about two and n half miles
in length. To carry ont this interesting
calculation one step farther, it might
be added that the Director of the Mint IN
his recent report calculates the amount
of metallic money in the United States
Mt the close Of the last fiscal year
to have been SG95, Oo0, COO in gold and
S4G3, 0oo,0 600 in silver, which, upon the
basis of weight indicated in the above
conversation, would be 1850 tons of
gold and 1896 tons of silver A pretty
good load for the American people tc,
carry around in their pockets, which is
another evidence that we are a great
people.