St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-11-11
GLIMPSES IN "A MINT.
Something About the Process of COin-
ing the Precious Metals.

| Something About the Process of Coin
ing the Precious Metals.
1t is rather difficult to attempt de,
scription of how money is made. Even
encyclopedias. which are supposed to be
equal to any and all emergencies, object
| 20 that. In measure they are right.
10 get the best idea of the multiple and
minute processes of minting one must be
an eyewitness. 1t adds charm to the
| proceedings to stand by the dusty fur
faces, arranged in sentnel-like rows, to
see them open their jaws and look right
down into the fiery cavern, where insa-
table tongues of flame are licking up the
molten masses of silver and gold
4 day or two ago Officer Brown
standing beside q visitor who had
watched with all the fascination of a
novice the great iron mouths opening
and closing, betrayed himself into neat
little explanation of the process Of mint
ing money. Officer Brown has been
many years at the mint, so the visitor
listened with interest, as to one who
spoke with authority. Here is the pro-
cess in nutshell:
shaking money! said he, with one Of
those eloquent waves of the hands he
keeps by him to use on explanatory oc-
casions such as these, sis just like
making cake. You mix the dough, we
mix the metal. You roll out the dough
into shape, we roll out the metal into
bars You cut the dough into cakes, we
cut the metal into coins. Then we stamp
them. The metal left over is melted up
and used again, just as the cook gathers
up the lcftOvers, rolls them again and
cuts more cakes"
In other words, an amount of metal,
say the equivalent of 500, 900 in gold,
which chemically is made up Of 80 per
cent. gold and 10 per cent. copper, is
put into black lead crucible about the
size of peck measure 1t is kept in the
furnace one hour and fifteen minutes.
The workman watches his gold as sacred
ly as the cook her cakes, and when the
molten liquid is brought to the proper
consistency he takes three cornered
black-lead cup, about the size that
would fit a monkeys head, and dips up
$4,000 worth of the metal at time,
pouring it out again with that marvellous
dcXtcrity which only comes from practice
into moulds holding 81 900 each. Moth
ing can be more beautiful than tho fiery
Stream of young and pure gold as it
glidcs into the locked arms of the
iron mould. When the liquid solidiiies
1t forms a bar, or, to be technically cor
rect, an ingot about twelve inches long
and about half an inch thick.
These ingots are subjected to process
of rolling out which lengthens them with
out increasing the width. The bars are
then ready to be cut. One machine cuts
the coin, another stamps them after the
process of milling has been performed.
Milling, in mint parlancc, has somewhat
of different Specification than in ordin
Rry vernacular 1t signifies the rolling
over Of the edge Of the coin preparatory
to stamping it with the minute dcnticula
tions, which are commonly known as the
milling. The latter is pat ef the pro-
cess of stamping, and is done at the tins
that the signct is put on the coin.
Speaking of stamping, introduces the
large corps of women who form a con-
siderable part of the wol king force of the
mint. About 100 of them are employed,
md they attend entirely to the adjusting
and stamping. 1t may be said in ex-
PLANTATION of the process Of the term "ad-
Iusting' that every coin before it is
shaped is carefully weighed. If too
heavy the edge is dclicatcly filed until
the coin is Of lawful weight; if too light
The piece is sent to be remeltcd.
This process Of weighing and
adjusting is an employment to which wo-
men, with their dclicacy of touch, are
well suited. They are also in charge OF
the stamping. incidentally it may be
said that most presses stamp from 50 tc
10 coins every minute. In one short hour
et5, 0GO in ter dollar gold pieces can be
stamped around the edge and on both
sides.
There is another part of the work
which comes under the charge of the wo-
pen employed at the mint. They do the
sewing. At first thought it seems trit1e
tncOngruOus to associate sewing with
money minting, but all the bags used by
;he mint are scwcd in the building. The
bags are made Of white duck and run up
by machine, being sewed twice for Sc
eurity. The bag making is no small
thing when you come to consider the
lumbcr it takes to pack up the newly
coined wealth of the country each year.
The tive-cent pieces are packed in Sc
bags and the pennies in $40 Eass, and
the small silver in $1,000 and the gol55
in $1,000 pouches. Roughly speaking.
last year fully 2,C00 bags were made up
for gold alone, 100 0 for silver, 5,00G
for half dollars, besides mnny thousands
fer the smaller coins. Philadelphia
Times.
Electricity in Gardening.
g.
BY the use of electric light W. ".
RaYsn Of Rim ntnn MasS claima ia