The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-19

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sheet roles ouc like dough. The size of
this sheet. rolled out ready for the stamp
er's hand was more than ninety miles
around the edge. and II stood Up ike
wheel IL would have reached from here 10
the sky. Mounted on 10. as on a bicycle,
Uncle sam could have wheeled into Mars.
The mysterious processes through which
silver goes from the time it enters the
mints back door until il comes rolling
out the front az dollars are kept az silent
as possible. Tor the silver dollar has never
been couaterfel-ei. and the United States
officials do not mean that it ever shall
be. Counterfeit silver dollars there are.
Of course, bu> so wretched is the imita-
ton that none but an absent-mlnded per-
son at twilight would accept one. De
ceptions so glaring that they do not de-
ceiye are not feared by the government.
With the gold dollar it is a little differ
ent. This Is supposed 10 be worth Its
weight In gold. no matter in what form
IL Is. As a lump. in a watch chair. as a
gold sugar spoou-no matter how-it is
still supposed 10 be worth as much as It
weighs. That is. if it weighs as much as
a gold dollar. it is considered worth
dollar in gold.
But with the silver dollar there is a
little difference. You can buy just as
much with it as YOU can with the gold
dollar and more, II gold is below par.
as it may be- but the silver dollar is not
worth a dollar if IL is melted up. 1t is
then worth about half a dollar.
The workmanship which the govern
ment puts upon "a silver dollar adds one
| half 70 its value. And % cents worth
Of silver. properly combined, melted,
! rolled kneaded and finally stamped out,
milled and completed, becomes 81. II
And the process Of getting il from lump
10 legal tender is a secret of Uncle sam
workshops-a mighty secret that costs
the government millions year, as wen
as bringing millions into 1t.
In PHILADELPHIA, san Francisco, Dem
yer, Carson City. New Orleans and
| cities where the United States mints are
| located, there are stories always cur
rent In the air Of queer happenings at
the mints. Tales of how people come
with Jumps of silver ore, worth more or
less after being separated; and tales Of
teap0ts. spoons and jewelry! 1t is said
that never do the minis refuse TO take
/ these offerings; and, though the process
be ever so slow and tedious, they will
ingly go through Il and give the owner
Of the metal as much as ii is worth
after money -has been made out of IT,
Without these minis the banking of
the, country would be as primitive as
! the swapping OF metals Dy the saw
ages, and there would be no standard of
value. You could get much or little for
4 your lump Of gold or silver, just as you
| can get much or little for your watch
according to your luck at selling or
| swapping.
The making of dollar, say a silver
| dollar, since silver is the word you now
| hear, Is expensive to the government
| Some genius delving into facts and fig-
ures, found that it costs Uncle Sam
more than a dollar to make each dollar
| whether Of gold or silver and that by
| the time he had turned out the ma gic
| little wheel 1t had cost him more in La
| Dor and metal than people would pay
| him for it. 1t costs him 40 cents, while
| he could only get 100 cents for 1t. But
/ even II this be so, and the investigation
| of II would take one too far into the
| private records of the treasury, the
money all comes back to the govern
ment in time, so that Uncle Sans pocket
| strings do not suffer from his painstaking
| in getting up his legal tender.
| The process of making the silver dollar
| is like that of cake making, at least
| II so strikes visitor to the inmOst re-
| gions of the mint You read that a sill
| yer dollar is 800 parts of pure silver to
| one of copper alloy, and that IL weighs
| 412k grains This constitutes the recipe
| for the raw material, as it is to be mixed
| up and rolled out The recipe and the
| making have a curious touch of the
| kitchen
If you we're to visit any of the minis
:
| cred into a small waiting room and told
! to be seated until the amount due you
| could be paid You might be told to
| come again when the assaying was be-
! ing done. But II you arrive at the
/ right time you would have the pleasure
| of seeing your metal placed upon the
| scales and weighed. The scales weigh
l from 500 ounces to the thousandth part
of an ounce. Not a jot due you is to be
kept back.
The metal is now taken further in and
s,H... l.
or other foreign substance mixed with
il. 1t is kept bubbling for a few min
utes, then is poured into mOulds that turn
it out in shining bars.
All this time the assayer's assistant
has been around overseeing the process.
| When the bars have cooled he orders
the metal taken back to the weigher S
/ room, where it is put upon the scales
sawed off and the owner of the metal
is paid for il according to the quality of
the metal he brought. The assayer ac-
| curately determines this by his own
| tests, and the man who came stagger-
ing in under a rock of mixed ore with
| a little metal in 1t goes out with some
real coin juggling in his pocket. After
this preliminary work comes the business
| of making the dollars.
1t is estimated mat a billion dollars
worth of metal in the rough has been
carried into the reception room of each
mint. all to go through with this pro-
cess.
The mysterious part of the work now
begins. The metal is taken into a room
where there are caldrons over hot fires.
Into these it is placed and brought to
the proper heat An expert knows just
when this is. At the right moment he
dips into the boiling metal with small
cup and lifts up just so many hundred
dollars worth Of the metal. He can es-
innate 1t so accurately that he seldom
varies over dollar, and he never spills
a drop over the side of the cup.
With this cup of metal he fills small
mouds each holding a certain number
of dollars in weight. These moulds are
the right width for the making of a dol
lar.
When the metal has cooled in these
mouids it is taken TO a rolling room
where it is rolled out very long, but not
wide. 1t is rolled down and down until
it is the right thickness. Then a cutting
machine. manipulated by a girls def
fingers, goes over It ana cuts out the
dollars. and another goes over il and
stamps them. The milling, or the max
ing of little ridges around the edge of the
dollars, is done at this time.
The critical period comes in between
the cutting and the stamping. After the
coin is cut IL must be weighed uDOu a