The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-27
HOW OUR MONEY IS MADE.
An Interesting Home Industry Little
Noticed.

NOllUtu,
A Stroll Through the Philadelphia
Mint-The Process of Minting Money
by Uncle Sam Described as Very
Similar to Making Cake by Skillful
Housewife.
From the Philadelphia Times.
There is always a singular fascination
about money ''fresh from the mint" Ev-
erybody likes to get hold of it and is
loath to let it go. There is peculiar
pleasure in handling new coins, and no
matter how old you are the pretty bright
things please you almost as much as a
brand new doll or gorgeously colored
picture book tickles the latest baby.
The trouble with this interest is, it is
too ephemeral. 1t fades out of the mind
| when the money slips through the fingers
1t is questionable if more than a very few
ever get beyond the coin to the mint.
They know all about the nickel when 1t
| has graduated into the image state with
the likeness of the goddess impressed on
one side and the wreath-entwined V
on the opposite, but as to the other
stages in the metamorphosis of the coin
not much. Such a knowledge would
entail visit to the mint, and Philadel-
| phians, as a rule, are not much given to
| visiting the mint, Independence Hall and
| other of the places which make the city
| the lungs that breathe into American
| history the breath of life. Now and
then, when relatives are here from the
country, they pay perfunctory visit to
the mint. As TO the people who have no
| country relatives, they are contented to
let the visiting be done by strangers
within the gates. So it happens that
men and women living right here in Phil
| adelphia pass by the mint without ever
seeing the other side of the door, while
travellers from England, France and Ger
many put it down as the next place to
| visit after the state house.
| In an educational way the mint paws
/ for all the loss of time and the trouble
visit may entail, but there is great
| deal of pleasure mixed up with the profit,
| too. Money is one of the most interest
| ing things that comes within the reach of
| human experience, and making money is
| the big business of the age. The work of
the mint, therefore, touches the spirit of
| the times on the sensitive spot of its eye
ball
1t is rather difficult to attempt de-
| scription of how money is made. Even en-
| encyclopedias, which are supposed to be
| CQu 10 airy anu all tIutIRSDClGS, ODlGCb
| to that. In a measure they are right. To
get the best idea of the multiple and min
ute process of minting one must be an
| eyewitness. 1t adds charm to the pro
| ceedings to stand by the dusky furnaces,
arranged in sentinel-like rows. TO see
them open their jaws and to look right
down into.the fiery cavern, where insa-
table tongues of fame are licking up the
molten masses of silver and gold.
A 0aV or two AGO officer RrONNn stand
| ing beside visitor who watched with all
the fascination of novice the great iron
mouths opening and closing. betrayed
| himself into neat explanation of the pro
| cess of minting 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
process in a nutshell:
Making money" said he, with one of
those eloquent waves of the hand he keeps
by him to use on explanatory occasions
such as these, lis 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
that is left over is melted up and used
again, just as the cook gathers up the left
overs, rolls them again and cuts more
cakes"
In other words, an amount of metal
say the equivalent of $4,000 in gold
which chemically is made up of 90 per
cent. gold and 10 per cent copper, is put
into black lead crucible about the size
of peck measure II is kept in the fur
mace one hour and fifteen minutes. The
workman watches his gold as sacredly as
the cook her cakes, and when the molten
liquid is brought to the proper consis-
tency he takes a three-cornered black
lead cup, about the size that would fit
monkeys head, and dips up 50 900
worth of the metal at a time, pouring it
out again with that marvellous dexterity
which only comes from practice into
moulds holding 81 900 each Nothing can
be more beautiful than the fiery stream
OF young and pure gold as it glides into
the locked arms of the iron mould When
the liquid solidifies 1t forms a bar, or, to
be technically correct, an ingot IL inches
long and about q an inch thick
These tngots are subject to process of
rolling out which lengthens them without
increasing the width. The bars are then
ready to be cut One machine cuts the
coin, another stamps them after the pro-
cess OF milling has been performed Mill
ing in mint parlance has somewhat of a
different Specification than in ordinary
vernaoular. 1t signifies the rolling over
of the edge of the coin prepare
tory to stamping il with the
minute denticulations, which are
commonly known as the milling. The
latter is part of the process Of stamping,
and is done at the time that the signet is
put on the coin.
Speaking of stamping introduces the
large corps of women who form consid-
cradle part of the working force Of the
mint. About 100 of them are employed,
and they attend entirely 10 the adjusting