The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1898-11-19
SHIPPING GOLD.
How the Coin Is Moved About
the World.
The Mode OF Packing Is Little known
Outside of Banking Houses
There Are Tricks In
the business.

The men who receive the gold say
that gold comes to this country as
means of final settlement. Our Eu-
ropean correspondents pay with secur-
tiles and bills of exchange" said
banker, las long as they can do so, and
when there ceases to be any profit in
that method they send us the gold
All agree that the influx of gold is an
unmistakable sign of activity in bust
ness. 1--WE have the same conditions
right in our own country said Maurice
L. Muhleman, deputy assistant United
States treasurer. when the cotton is
being harvested in the south and the
grain in the west. New York sends to
the banks in those regions advances in
the shape Of bankers drafts. This COM
mercial paper is used again by them
and there is no need for sending actual
money. But when the crops are I'M
usually large and it requires eXtraor-
binary sums of money to pay for har-
vesting, then the local banks are COM
PEELED to ask for money instead of pa
per. They need it for their customers,
y
are prevented from making further in
roads on their own supply because of
the law which compels them to have q
certain amount of cash always on de-
post as reserve. That is the case at
present, and large sums of actual
money are being sent to New Orleans
and the west to help the little banks
along.
THE same causes are at the bottom
of the gold shipments from abroad. In
times when there is no demand for
money, when business is slack, bankers
| have so much gold that they prefer to
receive paper; but with large crops to
move, increasing pay rolls due to in
/ crease in manufacturing with in
creased freight transactions and the
additional business which follows in
the wake of a manufacturing revival
the supply of money becomes low, and
the consequence is that we ask our Eu-
ropean correspondents to send us gold
instead of paper"
But gold is not shipped like ordinary
merchandise. and the mode of packing
is little known outside the banking es-
adjustment to which it is consigned
The coin gold from Great Britain
comes in lots of 500 ounces. These lots
are usually packed in five bags of 1OC
ounces each. and the bags are PLACED
in box, which is tightly nailed anC
strapped. 1t frequently happens thai
a lot is slightly over weight, and il
such cases a coin is clipped to make
the weight exact.
Bar gold is also shipped in boxes
each box containing 500 ounces. Thu
bars are kept from chatting by being
packed between layers of sawdust.
American gold coin which has los
less than one-half per cent. by wear i
received for its face value. but all piece
which are light as much as one-hal
per cent. are received by weight only
The assay Office advances 80 per cent
on all the gold which is left there, ant
2 when the actual value has been deter
3 mined settles by check on the subtreas
8 ury. American gold coin, like tn
E French and the German, is nineteenth
fine. British coin is eleven-twelfths fine
9 and bars are of various grades. BE
8 cause Of the variation in quality all SET
8 Elements are made on the basis of ''fin
6 gold"
There are tricks in the gold bus
& ness" said another banker, (which ar
g not known to the rest of the bushes
world. For instance, the Lightweight
coin dodge. A man buys America
8 gold in Europe for shipment to thi
8 country. He buys it by weight an
8 uses it here for its face value. If tn
g coins have been slightly worn in eli
8 culation, but not down to the one-ha
5 per cent, limit, the shipper makes til
= difference"
Gold when shipped to Europe froi
the United States is usually packed
kegs or boxes, each containing five bag
of $4,000 each, and when one sees
large dray in the Wall street distric
attended by several men, but loade
only with one or two small kegs, he ma
4 know that there is an actual movemeI
in gold.-N. Y. Tribune.