The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05
FROM THE KLoNDIRE TO THE
MINT.
How Alaskan Gold Finds Its Way Into
the United States Treasury.

How Alaskan Gold Finds It's Way Into
the United States Treasury.
Ever so much has been written about
| the gold that come from Klondike, but
nobody seems to have thought of in
| quiring as to what becomes OF 1t after
it has left the placer mines and the Yu-
! kon region. OF course the miners bring
it into the United Staes by steamer
done up in canvas bags and all sorts Of
thus fetched to Seattle, which is a con-
| venient port. In Seattle there is no
trouble in converting the raw natal
| into the ordinary currency realm. The
merchants accept it, by weight, as
readily as any other form of money,
| and the banks are always ready GUS
toners for gold.
Most of the miners, laden with the
yellow wealth, take it directly to the
Seattle banks, and deposit it. just as If
it were dollars. They receive credit for
it in the same way; but ordinarily the
| banks act simply as agents for the sale
| of the gold to the government. Uncle
Sam, you see, advertises to buy all
gold that is offered, with no limit on
| the quantity. His purchasing office,
nearest to Seattle, Is at Helena, Mont.
| So the banks which eventually get all
| the gold accepted by the merchants,
| forward the stuff to the assay Office at
1 ~ te, rad ttA
paid for. The payment is made inrne-
diately on It's receipt by treasury
4 checks.
| If, then, you are a minor just re-
turned from Klondike with a bag Of
| gold, you may convert 1T into every
day money at very short notice. The
| treasury check returned to you through
the bank is for only 9S per cent. Of the
estimated value of the dust and mug
gets. That you get without any delay
| at all, beyond the time required for ex-
pressing the stuff to Helena and for the
return Of the check by mail The bal
ance due to you comes as soon as your
gold has been subjected to the neces-
4 sary assay You have right, under
the law, to receive gold coin for your
check, If you choose to ask for It. II
you make no such demand, the treas
ury will give you paper money; but the
check is really payable in gold, If you
want it. The idea back of this is that
any man has right to offer raw gold
to the United States government, and
to receive gold coin in return.
This legal obligation II fulfilled at
considerable cost by the government.
Every gold coin contains its full face
value in that metal, plus percentage
of copper added to harden it. The mint
ing of 1t costs something, and for this
nothing is charged. In other words,
Uncle Sam gives manufactured arti-
Gle Of money in return for raw mate
rial Furthermore, 1t must be consid-
cred that gold pieces suffer appreciable
loss BY abrasion while In circulation.
Even gold coins In bags at the treasury
lose something of their value by being
jostled about This is a dead loss to
the government, which only protects
itself by fixing a 'liinit of tolerance"
as it is called When more than GER
tain fraction of gold piece has been
lost by abrasion, 1t is accepted only by
weight.
| It Is rather interesting fact that a
good deal OF gold from Australia Is
now coming into this country by way
OF San Francisco. 1t goes directly to
the mint In that city, and Is there con-
verified into coin. But, whatsoever the
source Of the raw gold the treatment 1t
receives on reaching the mint or assay
office is the same. Each lot Of Klon-
dixie dust, with it's sprinkling of tiny
nuggets, Is put into closed vessel
called a crucible. The crucible is
placed In furnace, and, when the met
al is melted, 1t Is poured into a mold,
which forms 1t into a brick called a
bar" While In the crucible, the mol
ten yellow stuff is stirred constantly
and thoroughly, so that all the materf-
ais 1t contains may be distributed
equally through the bar. For, Of
course, the raw gold Is apt to be com
bined with more or less Of silver, cop
per and even lead.
The bar, when cool, Is sent to the
Weighing room, where the assayer
chips from 1t very small scrap, and
this scrap is put through an elaborate
process, for the purpose of determining
exactly how much gold it contains
Eventually 1t is reduced to bit of abb
solutely pure gold, and the weight of
this bit gives to the essayer his data
for reckoning the exact value of the
bar. On this reckoning the payment
check is made out. The gold brick, be-
ing now the property of Uncle Sam, is
subjected to chemical treatment, by
which the silver and other impurities
are separated from 1t and the yellow
metal Is obtained in perfectly pure
state. In this state 1t looks more like
red gravel than anything else, and no.
body would think Of stopping by the
wayside to pick UP handful Of such
stuff
The fred gravel is pressed by n.y.
draulic power into big cakes, resem-
bling angel-food cakes in shape, but
much bigger. These cakes are worth
about $4,000 apiece. Next the material
of which the cakes are made is melted
again in crucibles, with the addition of
10 per cent of copper, and the stuff is
cast in bars for coming. Each bar is
sliced by machine into several strips,
which are put under a. powerful roller
and squeezed to just the required
thickness for the coins. Then the
strips are passed beneath punch,
which cuts out of them the blanks for
the gold pieces that are to be. Various
mechanical processes, requiring no de-
tailed description here, are gone
Il A. 50