Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-04
UNCLE SANS BURDEN
The Governments Silver a Load for
100000 Able-bodied Men.
4 OW BULLION Is BOUGHT,
Some Interesting Facts About the
Precious Metals.
THE PROCESS AT THE MINIS.

THE PROCESS AT THE MINIS.
n n NCLE SAM IS CAR
III rying a heavy load
WI of silver just now.
Being dead weight,
the stock of the met
:: :: :: :: !: ::
al now on his hands
&SST& would burden 3O0,0
EI~NSM able-bodied m n
XSL,E W Sustaining 100 pounds
Exf4N each and marching
S-~Z4ST6 six feet apart, they
&SSyS@e would stretch in a
single file $50 miles. or
as far as from Balti-
more to Boston.
Stacking their freight in a single heap,
they would find that its total bulk was
$4,000 cubic feet. Transported by rail il
would require thirty trains of twenty-five
cars each, each car taking twenty tons.
Nevertheless, the treasury has kept on
buying more of this precious substance.
Every month, obeying the Sherman law.
it has been acquiring 100000 ounces. This
quantity is just about equal to the total
silver product Of the United States. By
such obligatory purchases it is claimed that
TIC SoNcIuufcut mas lOSt since tne
legal enactment above referred to went in
to force. This sum represents the differ
ence in money between what it has paid
for the metal and what the latter is worth
today.
How the silver Wss Bought.
On three days in each week the director
of the mint received bids from dealers in
bullion who wished to sell the commodity
TO Uncle Sam. Offers had to be sent in be-
fore I o'clock p. m. They came by tele-
graph-nearly all of them between IL 80 and
O'Clock because the silver merchants
wished to take advantage of the latest quo
tations. The kilograms were recorded in a
book, and those bids were accepted which
seemed reasonable. Advices as to the
state of the market reach the treasury
every day from New York and London.
The dealers are allowed five days to de-
liver the metal at the minis. On deliver
Ing it the seller gets more than a moiety
OF his pay at once in the shape of a check
signed by the superintendent of the mint.
He collects the balance as soon as the ex-
act value of the stuff has ben ascertained.
II should be understood that the mines sell
their ore to the smelling and refining
works; the latter sell the metal in bricks
10 the dealers in bullion, who dispose Of
them at the best price they can get. What
they cannot sell to Uncle Sam they dispose
OF in London. which is the worlds mar
ket for silver
Bullion at the Mints.
The treasury at Washington never han
dies any bullion. All of it is kept at the
minis. In the great coin factory on Chest
nut street, Philadelphia, is now stored
slol,VO0 in silver bricks. Uncle Sam owns
at present almost exactly S50O.OOO,O 900 worth
ra.afa 10
VO.OOO is in standard dollars and SUBJ
sidiary coins. the balance being bullion.
Yet only 5S70.0O9 silver dollars are TODAY
IN circulation, more than five times as
many being locked up in The government
vaults unused They take up a lot of room.
on million or them will occupy a space of
Zoo cubic feet Oudiy enough, q box con-
tanning only l5O cubic feet will hold 81 900 600
In quarters or dimes. because they rack SO
much better
Silver sold by the bullion dealers IN the
minis is reduced to absolute purity by a
chemical process. 1t is first dissolved With
nitric acid in great tank. Salt water is
put m, and that causes the precious metal
10 ran TO the bottom, where ii looks like
SO much plaster of paris. The base rle,aIs
mat were mixed with II remain in solution
ana are thrown away. But the silver has
taken up from the salt an element called
chlorium, making it chloride of silver. This
must be got rid Of So the metal is shoyeled
INTO another tank containing a solution of
ENC which absorbs the chlorium and leaves
the silver perfectly pure. The latter now
mas the appearance of fine gravel II is
next pressed into cakes and dried In on
oven, after which it is ready to be melted
for making coins.
A Mystery.
Nobody has ever been able tn exnla;r
what becomes of all the silver and gold
produced in the world The total loss of
both those substances from shipwreck. fire
has
ii, 4ooo0 per annum. The entire amount OF
silver now in the possession of mankind
is only equal to what has been produced
during the last eighty years. What has
peen the fate of the vast balancee The
white treasures Of past administrations
are tney! 1t is an unsolved mystery AT
lne beginning OF the Christian era the
precious metals in the Roman empire
amounted to 81, 6i0 900, 0OO This store sbrnnk
SO rapidly during subsequent Centuries
mat at the date of the discovery of America
the stock of silver and gold money in Eu-
mentioned. e SUM
The depleted currency of the old world
was made full again by supplies from the
new Today America furnishes nearly ali
oi tne SILVER used by the inhabitants of the
giope The great source of supply is what
geoioglsts term the Cordilleran system
embracing the Rocky mountain region the
Mexican plateau and the Andean chain of
produced to any important extent anywhere
else. In 1892 the United States yielded S;.-
0V,ooo worth OF 1t and Mexico $50 900 OO0 IT
Is among the foremost of American mo-
ducts. For that reason, among othnrs. Sill
yer advocates claim that we ought To vn
hold 1t In the worlds markets at all haz-
ards.
Silver coin undergoes loss in weight due
TO wear and tear of circulation. 1t falls on
Uncle Sam and amounts to about 2 per
cent. The life" Of a standard dollar roll
ing through the channels of trade Is only
fifteen or twenty years, while quarter
does not last half as long. and a dime il
even more rapidly perishable. But. whereas
only reduction Of one-haf Of one per cent
Is allowed on gold. no limit is set by the
treasury against silver pieces. The latter
are accepted at face value so long as the
mint stamp on them is visible This rule
Of course, does not apply II they have been
purposely punched. mutilated otherwise or
'sweated."
Current Tokens.
The gold coins Of the United States, you
see, are the peoples money. Uncle Sam
issues them at his own expense. the yellow
metal in them being worth their face. But
the silver dollars and subsidiary pieces are
circulated by the government on its own
account, the profit on them being 10 its
own advantage. Intrinsically they are not
equal to their face value; in effect they are
merely tokens. the stamp OF the treasury
making them current. Accordingly the