Evening star., 1894-03-24

|
- lE mint, the other day
| ~<sSssssSsr IN what the mint bureau
| 5@.&TSess,sS 4s<s-~1\ was prepared to do
I1 = SS~ss3a in case the Bland bill
| MyR-3[ESX became a law.
| %I.e II ==T@ I'VE can begin coin
| ~&EE ing standard dollars
Is1-,-Hf-S- soon the bill is
-S--SS=-xycs-, signed" said Mr..
| ~ Preston. There are
three mints at work
noW-those at Phila-
| delphia, San Francisco and New Orleans.
| When we stopped the coinage Of silver dol
| lars last May we put the Philadelphia mint
at work recoinng fractional currency. For
| five months past it has been working eX-
| clusively on the coinage of gold The San
Francisco mint has been coming what gold
was presented, and also reconing the frac-
| tional silver. The New ORLEANS mint has
been working on fractional silver and some
gold The suspension of the coinage Of sill
yer dollars virtually closed the Carson
mint ana 1t is now run assay office
| The coinage of any more silver will not go
| to Carson. The San Francisco mint has on
| hand enough silver to keep it busy coming
dollars for about sixteen months. The New
| Orleans mint has about twelve months sill
|
about one-half of the 42,OOO,oOO ounces of
silver to be coined under the Bland bill The
remainder of the silver bullion which we
| own (and there is in all about 10000 900
| ounces of IT. is held at the Philadelphia
mint 1t will take the Philadelphia mint
| probably two years to coin 2l 900 900 ounces
| OF silver. 1t would not pay us to ship any
of this bullion to New Orleans or San Fran
| cisco. Under the governments contract
| with the United Express Company it would
cost us 50 on every thousand to transport
the bullion to New Orleans. 1t is better to
let the Philadelphia mint coin all of the sill
yer which is not already at San Francisco
| or New Orleans. Besides, there is no hurry
about the coinage. for under the Bland bill
the Secretary of the Treasury can issue sill
yer certificates to represent this so, 100000
as soon after the passage of the act as
| pleases him"
| Last Coinage of Silver Dollars.
! WAS the last coinage of silver dollars in
May, 1882" l asked.
| I'VE coined $4,000 silver dollars at the
Carson mint in May" said Mr.. Preston
and since that time the only coinage of
silver dollars has been in striking off proof
pieces at the Philadelphia mint. Seven hun
| dred of these proof pieces have been struck
since last May. They are wanted by coilec-
premium for them. With this exception
there has been no coinage of silver dollars
| since May, 1893"
DO you think that the coinage of the
| new dollars Will at all increase the circula-
| ton Of the silver itSelf?"
| mo. The circulation of silver coins does
not vary much. The only way to get silver
| into circulation is to stop issuing certificates
| in the one, two and tive-dollar denomina-
| tions."
| Down in the vaults of The mint at Phila-
| delphia silver bars which weigh in the
! aggregate 11s,OOO,O0p ounces. This silver is
| from .99S IL to loo tine-that is, so far
as IT can be made SOFT IS pure silver. These
bars are of different sizes. None of them
| exceeds l,2oO ounces n weight. The ma
| jOrity ranges between $40 and 900 ounces
Some years ago silver reGners used to
| bring II 2,OOO-Ounce bars, and not infre-
| Quently these heavy bars broke the cru
| cibles when they were put in the furnace
| To be melted. Therefore, the director OF the
mint requested the retncrs not TO cast bars
| If more than LOO ounces. one reason for
| the slight imperfection that is found in
bars of silver is the accumulation of dirt
| on and III them-a slight accumulation, but
| un lvoiGable. Another is the oxidation of
| the surface of the silver bar There are
| other minor causes. Theoretically, the sill
| yer bars without alloy. Theoretically
| Also the silver dollars turned cut by the
| mint from certain amount of bar-silver
| should represent the weight of that silver
| plus the weight of one-niIlh much cop
per (silver OF standard 1inencsS containing
| nine parts of silver and one part of copper.
| But in fact there is a great waste of the
| precious metal it goes through the mint
| and the amount of silver which Uncle Sam
| gets back in dollars Is not the amount
| which he intruSts to the meter of the
| mint. This waste varies according to con-
| ditions. At one time more than twenty
| years ago. the waste was so much above
| the average that the Secretary CT the
| Treasury had it investigated; and the In
| vestigation proved that the wastaSe was
| on a sliding scale which could not be fixed
and which depended largely on chemical
| conditions which 10 one could control.
| There is another theory which differs from
| experience in the han Hing Of coin. The
| common understanding is that one coin
| weighs much rs another coin OF the
| same denomination when it Is issued from
| the mint. As matter Of fact there Is
| constant varia ton in he weight of stand
| ard dollars. Moreover, there Is Varia-
| ton in the fineness of standard dollars as
well as in different parts of the same dol
! lar So while one part of dollar may
come up to the government standard Or
even exceed it. another part may fall be-
low that standard. The variation Is not
| large, but it is unavoidable. Therefore.
| when the assayer of the mint wishes TO
obtain the quality of certain melt. he
takes his samples from the melting pot
and not from the :nSot. But ali of these
| variations are so slight, compare lively, that
| they are not of commercial Importance.
| There is no discrepancy between the CONS
which go out from he mint which would
| any one of them, because it was below the
| standard. Certainly there could be moth
ing above the standard to excite the Gu
| pidity Of anyone, when the silver dollar Is
worth, intrinsically, today about forty six
| cents.
A Record of Every Bar.
! For every bar which is in the vaults of
the mint at Philadelphia there is record
! on the books of the superintendent. That
i record shows the weight and fineness of
| the bar Many of the bars on storage were
| bought in 1890, when the Sherman law
| fist went into effect They have remained
untouched from the time when the stamp
! of the assayer was put on them. Now
| they will be taken out and melted with
copper to form an alloy. The exact pro-
portion of silver 10 "copper" as have said
| should be nine to one, but in the melting a
| little less than the measure of copper Is
| used so that, by adding copper latec in
| small quantities, the alloy can be made as
| nearly as possible Of the exact standard
1t is easier to work the alloy down by
| adding copper than 1t is to work 1t up by
! adding silver.
| The copper and the bar silver are put In
the crucible together. The crucible used
for melting silver is of hand-wrought iron.
These pots cost st5 each. Each of them
will hold about 800 ounces at a time.
| Each pot is good for go melts. 1t will cost
the mint about $4,000 for crucibles to melt