The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-06
THE COIN IN THE MINT,
Annual Settlement Between
Mr.. Daggett and the
Government.
The Latter Represented by an Agent
While the Money Is Being
Counted.

Superintendent Daggett of the United
States Mint is now making his annual
settlement with the Government, and
Chief Clerk Robert Barnett is kept pretty
busy in consequence counting the coin In
sented by J. Farley Wilder of the New
York assay Office.
Altogether there is about $53, 900, 600 in
coin on hand, nearly all gold. No silver
has been coined at the Mint since May.
Up to that time seigniorage amounting to
about 100000 was coined monthly. There
are II ,O00, 900 ounces of silver on hand in
bars, which was purchased while the Sher-
man act was in operation. Mr.. Daggett
says he has no orders to coin any of this
silver just at present.
The Mint has been closed since the mid
die Of June. On Monday it will be open
again, at least TO depositors.
The work of counting gold coin, as might
easily be supposed, is a tedious and very
particular process. Two methods are used,
the one serving as check upon the other,
viz: counting and weighing. 1t must not
be thought that in counting the bright $40
gold pieces they are gathered up with a
scoop and shoveled into a tray and then
shaken into piles from which they may
afterward be taken in stacks of $500 worth
at time. No; the fact is they have
already been counted beforehand, and
were neatly stacked away in boxes when
coined and in that shape packed away
into the vaults.
Each box is weighed, the avoirdupois
of the wooden case being deducted, leaving
the weight of the coin of the realm as the
| net result. Then the stacks of yellow
disks are gone over carefully. 1t does not
take much of box to hold $4,000, but it
is no easy lift.
The Government is very particular as to
the exact weight and quality of its coins
and nothing is taken for granted. The
whole system of coinage is such that one
branch or department serves as a check
upon another
Every means is taken to prevent defal-
cation, shrinkage, leakage or robbery. OF
course, if the executive head of a mint is
not himself imbued with the spirit of this
system, he may be swindled and the result
would be a shrinkage anu an expose. An
INSCRIPTIONS depositor might palm off
allowed metal-and even base metal-upon
him in exchange for good Government
money. The investigation into the Carson
mint shrinkage shows that something like
this was done in a systematic manner,
owing to the loose way in which the mint
was conducted, if there was really no col
fusion.
Yet the system is not perfect. It works
all right SO long as an honest and capable
man is superintendent, for dishonest
one could easily enough take advantage OF
the confidence reposed in him by the
Treasury Department. By collision with
swindlers and the making of false returns,
if not by actual thievery itself, he could
Feather his nest" as the saying goes; but
the annual examination and settlement
would come along in its time, and rep
resentative of the Government would be
present to make the damaging comparison
between the existing facts and the ficti-
tious reports. The burden of honesty
would then fall upon the Governments
representative. 1t might prove too late,
though.
The San Francisco Mint has a pretty
clean record. All the metal is carefully
assayed, and sample of each lot of coin
made is sent to the Assay Commission to
be tested. Reports are made to the Treas
ury Department daily.
AS Mr.. Daggett says: "The whole sys-
tenn, with its numerous checks of one
branch OF department upon another, is
purely matter of business, and not of
sentiment, and an honest man doesn't
mind being watched"