The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-22
FREE COINAGE,

Mint-Replles to Questions-TIand-
 ling, Weighing and Minting the Bull
 lion-More Public Buildings Would
 be Necessary and More Paper Mo lev
 Would be Issued,
 Director of the Mint Preston said to- day that he was being flooded with communications from all parts of the country, asking him for information on the subject of free coinage. The lack or understanding which some of his correspondents displayed was, he said, appalling. Some thought that 16 to 1 meant Sixteen silver dollars for every gold dollaf, and other opinions almost as absurd were entertained by many of the writer's
 When asked for plain explanati m of what would be done if free coiaage law were passed, MT. Preston said:
 T can only explain to you generally what the routine would be, based On experience gained before the repeal of the sherman law, and upon what free coinage of silver is generally interpre- ted to mean. In the first place, silver In any form, if not too base for the op- eration of the hints, will be received from anybody and coined into silver dollars or bars, free of charge, except the cost of the alloy employed, which Is two cents per ounce.
 ''The word unlimited as used in he Chicago platform, means that there shall be no restriction as to the amount of bullion permitted to be received and coined. Unless by legislation the aoin- age of silver should be limited to the American product, our hints would be open to all the silver in the world, and 1t may safely be stated that without such a restriction the United States would within few years have the suc- plus silver of the world. By surplus I mean all the silver not used by other nations as subsidiary coin.
 Under a free-silver law any one pos sessing old silver spoons, silverware, CT anything else containing silver, would have the privilege of taking such .rti- cles to the hints and having them coined into silver dollars. It is not to be expected, however, that the mints will be called upon to perform much work of this character It will be the smelters and refiners who will do most of this work
 There is a mistaken notion as to the class of people who take bullion to the hints to be coined. It is generally sup posed that mine owners do this As a rule they do not Their work is con- fined to taking ore from the mines and selling 1t to the smelling and ref 7ing establishments. There are about a dozen of these establishments now ia operation, and with free coinage law, of course, the number will greatly ,n- crease. There are two in Denver, Col; one each in Leadville, Col, Omaha Neb., Kansas City, Kan, Perth Ambay and Newark, N. J., Pittsburg, Pa, Chi- cago, San Francisco and one in course of erection in Idaho. From these es- establishments would come ninety per cent of the9bu1lion that would be sent to the hints to be coined.
 To avoid embarrassment to the mints by those having small quantities of old silver it is probable that bullion of less value than one hundred dolla $ will not be received, as provided in -he old coinage law. This will be the rou- tine pursued in the matter of having -- bull an- coined inte money
 1t will be taken in person or shipped direct to the respective hints It will be weighed in the presence of the depositor or his agent, and the weight verified by the register of de- posits The weight clerk and register will then enter in their respective books the name of the depositor, number and date of each deposit, kind of bullion weight before melting and, if it can be ascertained, the state or country from which it is derived. The depositor will then be given a receipt for the value cf his deposit, if it is of such character that it's value can be ascertained before melting.
 From the weight of the bullion, ae ter melting, and the report of the as- sayer and the fineness, the value of such deposit and the amount of charges will be computed, and a detailed state- lnent given to the depositor. When the depositor presents his receipt and ttr- tit1cate for the net value he will sign the receipt, and the coin or bars will then be paid to him.
 Tt is not to be presumed, however that under a free-coinage law perSo presenting bullion would have to wait for his money until the material which he has presented has actually be,n coined All that will be necessary will be to wait until the actual value of lis bullion is ascertained Nor is 1t to be presumed that any great number or people will go to the hints for their silver dollars. The chances are that you will not find any more cart-whsel dollars in circulation under free-sil- yer law than there are now. The coin is too cumbersome. The people may want free silver, but they would rather have a government paper equivalent for it than its actual weight in metal.
 "The result will be that silver certi1- cates will be authorized to take place of the silver dollar, and the United States treasury will have to be store house for the bulk of the metal. This will bring up the question of increased vault room at the treasury and ub- treasuries. Our vaults in the treasury are now overcrowded, and there IS no spaceleft for erecting additional vaults. A new treasury building may, there- fore, be in order, not to speak of the additional hints that will be necessary. We, now have hints located at Phlla- delphia, San Francisco, New Orleans and Carson City. The latter has been closed for some time. free-coinage law will mean the construction of at least half dozen additional hints.
 'aThe term '16 to I means that the pure silver in the standard dollar ks Yr0h