The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-25
j, OCTOBER 20, 1S96-SiXIEEN PAGES.
STORY OF A GOLD PIECE
JOURNEY WITH $40 WORTH OF GOLD
FROM THE MINE TO THE MINT.
How Bullion Is Bought and Melted
and Purifed-Eagles Punched from
Gold Hoops by Cold Steel.

| PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 23.-ln my letters
from the Rocky mountains L have described
how the atoms of gold and silver are
| dragged forth from the rocks and by means
of chemicals and fire are turned into bull
lion. 1 have come to Philadelphia to tell
you how the bullion is turned into dollars.
The Philadelphia mint is the largest and
oldest of the United States. 1t is said TO be
one of the finest minis in the world. 1t
coins millions of dollars worth of gold
and silver every year 1t has, since It's be-
ginning, during the presidency of George
Washington, purchased more than a billion
and half dollars worth of gold Its
vaults now contain almost $500, 100000 in
gold and silver and it's wonderful machin-
cry is turning golden bricks into golden
eagles. 1t is coming silver at the rate of
thousands of dollars a day, and walk
through it's treasure chambers would Lead
you to think that the United States has
vast surplus of coin, rather than being, as
our stump speakers say, in the midst OF
money famine.
Let US take a walk through this great
money factory and how Uncle Sam
buys gold and silver bullion and turns it
into coin. The mint, you know, is in the
heart of Philadelphia. 1t is only a block or
so from the City Hall, and not more than
a stones throw from John Wanamakers
big store Thousands of hungry-eyed.
empty stomached people go by it every day.
Fortunes are being carried in and out of it
continually, and a few blocks of stone and
a plate or two of steel are all that sep
arates it's treasures from the hungry mob
1t has a single vault which contains more
than fifty million standard silver dollars.
The money is tied up in bags and stacked
against the wall like so much corn, and
| yet the precious metal is SO near the hum
CRY crowd above that, as you stand in the
vault, you can almost hear the tread of the
passersby upon the pavement. Another
| vault which 1 visited had great piles of
| golden bricks. In one corner of it there
was a cord of golden cakes, each of about
| the size of the ordinary cake of soap, and
| this pile was big enough to fill the largest
| dry goods box. 1 lifted one gold brick,
which weighed about forty pounds, and
| which the meter and refiner told me was
| worth $4,000. 1t was not bigger than the
| averag &c clay brick used in house building.
| and under it there were a score of boxes
| filled with bricks of the same metal, some
| of which were almost twice large. !
| was taken into silver vault, where great
quantities of silver bullion were stored. the
white metal, it seemed to me, being thrown
about like so much lead. walked through
cous metals were being cut and shaped in
various ways, now boiling like water amid
the fire OF the furnaces, now fashioned like
steel under the enormous weight of the
rolling mills, until at last they came forth
in the shape of the wonderfully beautiful
coins of the United States. And with it
all not an atom of gold or silver was lost.
These are the processes We shall see in our
trip through the mint.
HOW UNCLE SAM BUYS GOLD.
Our first visit is to the cashiers office
We shall go to the deposit or weighing
room, where all the gold and silver first
comes. and where it is weighed and ac-
tually tested before it is paid for. The
room is only a few steps from the front
door of the mint We follow an express
messenger, who is carrying golden brick
from the mines of Montana. There he
stands at the door. He lifts the brick with
his two hands and passes it in through a
little window like a teller's window at the
bank. We can see through the grating into
the room where it goes. The deposit clerk
takes it and lays it on one side of a pair of
heavy brass scales. The scales do not seem
to be delicate, but they will weigh down
to the thousandth part of an ounce, and
the weight of the brick, to the one-hun-
dredth part of an ounce, is ascertained. The
deposit clerk now writes out a receipt,
stating the weight and hands this back to
the expressman. The gold brick is now in
the hands Of the officials of the mint. 1t
will not be paid for, however, until 1T is
known just how fine is the gold of which 1t
is made. Gold is never found pure in the
state of nature; it always contains more or
less silver, and it is sometimes mixed with
copper and lead. Before Uncle Sam buys
10
| 1t is. and the deposit clerk sends the brick
| off to be melted He puts it into an iron
| box and locks the same with two keys, and
| # is carried to the deposit melting room
we have letters from the Director of the
| Mint at Washington to Major kretz,
| the superintendent and drought these
| the officials admit US, and we Follow
the brick We enter a room which looks
| like an immense kitchen. Into its sides
are built four great ranges, the tops or
| which slope upward at the back at an an
| gle of about 45 degrees until they meet the
! walls In the center of e-ch top there is a
| square hole covered by an iron lid which
| slides back and forth. Some of the holes
| are open and we see the coal fire blazing
below them. Sunk deep into the Goals of
| each range is a pot as large as a four-gal-
| lon crock and of much the same shape.
| These are the vessels in which the gold is
melted They are made of black lead, but
! when not in use they are of the color of
| clay and they look not unlike immense
| flower pots. In the fires they soon become
| red, and the one in which our gold brick is
| placed is already at white heat. cover
| is put upon it, the Goals are banked about
| it, and the lid of the furnace is pulled to-
| In a short time the metal of the brick has
| become one liquid mass, which the furnace
| man stirs to and fro until the material
| within is thoroughly mixed. He then lifts
| the pot out of the fire with pair of iron
| pincers and runs the flaming metal into
| iron melds. AS soon as it is cooled it is re-
| weighed and small piece is cut from each
| bar and sent to the assayer. The assayer
| tests the sample and tells Uncle Sam just
| how much gold. silver and copper the brick
| contains, and upon this estimate the de-
| positor IS paid.
| PREPARING THE GOLD FOR COIN.
The gold brick is now turned over to the
| meter and refiner. This man is one of
| the most important of the officials of the
| mint He must separate the silver and
| gold and must see that the gold and silver
are of the requisite fineness for coin. 1t
| is he who manages the l6-to-1 business, and
/ if the political parties could agree upon a
/ method of controlling him there would be
/ No room for discussion According TO our