The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25

ne rooms are swept every Gay, anu
the sweepings of this mint amount to
about $4,000 year. We save every bit
of the ashes. Our old pots are broken
up and remelted, and every bit Of
gold gotten out. We have, In fact, a
record Of almost every atom of gold
which comes into the mint, from the
time it enters the deposit room until 1t
goes out in coin or bullion"
MAKING GOLD EAGLES.
But let us follow the golden ingots
we have just seen drop from the molds.
They are Of the right standard of fine
ness for gold double eagles, and it
would seem that the process of turning
them into money would be simple
enough. We have the idea, held by
many, that our coins are made by cast
ing, the gold and silver being melted
and turned into molds, just as in the
making Of bullets, save that, when the
molds are opened, out drop gold dollars
and silver dollars, instead of balls of
lead. There was never greater mis-
take. Our coins are not nodded. They
are stamped out Of cold metal, and an
enormous pressure puts upon their
faces the beautiful images Of the god
dess of liberty and the American eagle.
The gold ingots, gold chisels, wedges,
or whatever you choose to call them,
are first rolled between cylinders of
steel. so graduated that the ingots grow
smaller and smaller as they are pulled
through them until at last they reach
the thickness of twenty-dollar gold
piece. They also grow longer and
longer, and they have now been
stretched from one foot to between
three and four feet in length. AS they
come from the rolling machines they
look like so many strips of hoop iron,
save that they are yellow. They are
next carried to what might be- called
the puncher. You have seen the punch
ers by which cookies, animal crackers
and gingerbread men are made out Of
dough. Well, it is oh the same prin-
ciple that the yellow disks, out of
which the coins are made, are cut out
Of the strips of metal rolled from the
1ngots, save that the work here is done
by machinery, and heavy press of
steel does the cutting. The strips are
run under a vertical steel punch which
cuts round pieces of gold out of them
at the rate of about sixty a minute or
at the rate of twenty dollars worth of
gold every second AS the disks are
cut out they fall down through a hole
into g. box below, and the remainder of
the yellow strip out Of which they are
cut is taken away to be melted up to
make more ingots. AS we look we note
that the box under the machine Is now
filed with these round gold blanks
They are not milled, and there are a
number of processes through which
they must go before they can be turned
into money.
EVERY COIN WEIGHED.
In the first place every one of those
gold disks or blanks must be weighed
by hand to see that 1T is Of just the
right weight before it Is stamped
This is done with blanks Of both gold
and silver, the blanks for the silver
dollars being handled again and again
to be sure that they are accurate be-
fore they are sent to be made into
coins. We follow the box of these
round pieces of gold to what is known
as the adjusting room. This is an i'm
mense hall, in which there are a num-
Der Of long tables, covered with piles of
gold blanks. About the tables sit 100
women, each having one of these piles
before her. Each woman has pair
of small scales SO sensitive that
breath of air would affect their ac-
curacy. With these she weighs each
blank. If the balance is perfect, the
gold blank is dropped into q box con-
tsining those ready for coming If
it is a trif1e too heavy the woman rasps
some gold off its edge with a fiat file.
II it is much too heavy, or much too
light, it is thrown out to be melted
over again. This process goes on until
every disk in the box is weighed. The
perfect disks are now ready for coin
age.
HOW THE MILLING rs DONE.
The milling Of the coin is the first
operations. BY this Is meant the max
Ing the little raised edge which you
find around all our coin. The process
dropped into an upright tube, whence
they fall into groove in a steel table,
and are carried along between the rim
about the edge Of the liable and a
rapidly revolving horizontal wheel. The
distance between the wheel and the rim
Is trif1e less than the diameter of the
disk, so that in the revolution the
cages of the golden disk are forced up,
thus forming the raised or milled
edges. There are no little grooves on
the edges as yet. This Is left for the
coming machine. AS they come from
the milling the disks are merely round
pieces OF gold with raised edges. They
look dirty and they have to be pol
ished and cleaned before they are
stamped
WASHING PRECIOUS METALS.
In company with the coiner we go
to room on the lower floor, where the
gold is washed before coming The
yellow blanks are carried down stairs
in wooden boxes and emptied into a
big copper colander, the lid of which
can be tightly closed When the col
ander is nearly full it is raised by ma
chinery and dropped into a vat of acid
The acid quickly eats off the dirt, and
fifteen minutes later the coins are
bright and shining. The 5colander is
now dropped several times into bath
OF clear water to get rids of the acd
and the washing is complete The dry
ing is done in a hot cylinder. This
cylinder is half filled with sawdust
After the coins are dumped in it is
made to revolve by machinery, and as
the disks become dry, they are thrown
out into a barrel of wire netting
through the meshes of which the saw
dust drops, and from which the golden
disks, now of a beautiful pure yellow,
flow on into a box, in which they are
carried upstairs to be coined
IN THE COMING ROOM.
Now comes the stamping of the
blanks with the Impressions which
turns them from disks of gold into gold
eagles. This work is done by what is
known as the coming machine The
golden blanks are fed through a tube,
which drops them down one at a time
on what might be called little brass
table. As the yellow disk drops a steel
finger and thumb comes out from the
machine and graSps 1t and places it
between two dies, which move up and
down between enormous steel arms
The upper die bears the picture of the
goddess of liberty. and the lower that
of the American eagle and the letter
ing Of what might be called the tail
side Of our gold pieces. AS the disk
comes between these two dies an enor-
NOUS pressure Is exerted. The dies
squeeze 1t and second later they drop
it, with the perfect impression Of one of
our double eagles upon it. At the same
time the machine. carries 1t off and