The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-04-09
CARLOADS OF COIN.
Twenty-Seven Freight Cars Filled
With Silver.
That Is the amount There Would he
Were Ten Million Dollars in Half
Dollars. Quarters and Dimesto
lie Transported by Rail.

GLOW many wagon loads of silver
would those New York bankers get II
they sell the Treasury ten million dol
lars worth of bonds and take their pay
4 subsidiary silver coin, as they are re-
ported likely to do?" said the Washing
ton correspondent of the Jacksonville
Times Union, to an official of the mint
bureau.
Wagon loads, young man? You don't
propose to measure ten million dollars
worth of silver by wagon loads, do
you?"
'Why not?"
Because there is too much of it. A
wagon load would not figure in calcu-
lating the weight of ten million dollars
in silver"
''lIow much would million dollars
of it weigh?"
only twenty-seven TONS" was the
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 a half tons in round
numbers"
"How does it come that subsidiary
coin weighs less to the dollar than the
silver dollars?"
The subsidiary silver coin used to be
exactly equal to the dollar. That is to
say, two fifty-cent pieces or four quar-
tcrs, originally weighed the same as one
silver dollar, but, away back in the fif-
ties, slight change was made in the
weight of the dollar, and of the sub
sidiary coin also, and when the dollar
was changed back to it's present stand
ard the subsidiary coin was not
changed"
''Then according to your figures it
would require something more than a
horse and cart to transport the $10,000,-
900 of half dollars, quarters and dimes
to New York in case the New York
bankers come down with their $40, O,000,-
900 of bonds and take small change in
pay for them as they are reported like
ly to do?"
well, slightly. The $1O,OOO,O 900 of
silver would weigh 275 tons, which
means, of course, 81 carloads. A pret-
ty good freight train that would be
with 27 cars loaded with silver"
''And suppose it were in dollars?"
>'Then the S10,0OO,0OO would weigh
500 tons instead of 275, and would add
two or three more cars to the train
Suppose the $iO, 900, 900 were in gold
instead of silver, what would it weigh
then?'
about $1,000 pounds, or, in a general
way, it would make two carloads. One
million dollars in gold coin weighs $3.50
pounds, while in silver dollars, as l have
said, it weighs thirty TONS"
Suppose they were to take their ter
millions in nickels, how much would il
weigh them"
"Well, 81 900 in nickels weighs 22(
pounds. At that rate $4,000 woult
weigh 100000 pounds, so that by brie.
calculation you will find that to trans
port $40, ,0O0, 900 in nickels would take
train of cars numbering considerably
over 100, or, in other words, trai1
about half a mile long"
'And to follow this interesting ques
ton to its last step, what is the weigh
of $1,000 or 81, 100000 in pennies?"
''The weight of $1,000 in pennies il
6S5 pounds, and $1,0O0,OOO, of course
would be 6S5,O0O pounds. To trans
port $40, 900, 000in pennies would requir,
about $50 cars, or make train coupl,
of miles long"
just below the windows of the min
bureau is a large asphalted surface
looking like a section of Pennsylvania
avenue, which has bobbed up in the are'
inside of the Treasury building. 1t is tn
upper surface of the covering of tn,
huge vault built a few years ago for tn
deposit of silver dollars and other coil
held by the Treasury Department Thi
vault, with the others belonging to tn
Treasurer's office, has in it about S175
900, 900 in silver and gold coin, the tota
weight of which is calculated to b
about 4,S00 tons, or sufficient to load
train of cars about two and half mile
in length. To carry out this interestin
calculation one step farther, it nigh
be added that the Director of the Mint i
his recent report calculates the amour
of metallic money in the United State
at the close of the last fiscal yea
to have been $685., 100000 in gold an
S3i63, 100000 in silver, which, upon tn
basis of weight indicated in the abov
conversation, would be 1880 tons c
gold and 1896 tons of silver. A prett
good load for the American people t
carry around in their pockets, which
another evidence that we are gret
people.
Opi IN sausages.