The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-16
WHERE THE GOLD GOES
ALASKA'S RICHES POURING INTO
THE u. S. MINT


THE U. S. MINT
Uncle Sam Buys All the Gold Offered
and Nearly All Tint Is Mined
Eventually Reaches His CrucibIe
What He Does With the Yellow
Metal.
Washington Cor st. Louis Globe Democrat.
Ever so much has been written about
the gold that comes from the Klondike,
but nobody seems to have thought of
inquiring as to what becomes of it after
it has leet the placer mines and the
Yukon range.
II you are a miner just return
ed from the Klondike with a bag of
gold, you may convert it into every
day money at very short notice. The
treasury check returned to you through
the. bank is for only SO 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
Balance due to you comes as soon as
your gold has been subjected to the
necessary assay. You have a right
under the law, to receive gold coin for
your check if you choose to ask for it.
If 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 a right to offer raw
gold to the United States government
and to receive gold coin in return.
This legal obligation is fulfilled at
considerable cost by the government.
Every gold coin contains it's full face
value in that metal, plus a percentage
Of copper added to harden it. The
minting of it costs something, and for
this nothing is charged. In other
words, Uncle Sam gives the manufac-
tured. article Of money in return for
raw material. Furthermore, it must be
considered that gold pieces suffer ap-
probable loss by abrasion while in cir
culation. Even gold coins in bags at
the treasury lose something of their
value by being jostled about. This is
q dead loss to the government, which
only protects itself by fixing limit
of tolerance" as it Is called. When more
than a certain fraction of a gold piece
has been lost by abrasion, it is accept
ed only by weight.
1t is a rather interesting fact that a
good deal of gold from Australia is
now coming into this country by way
of San Fracisco. 1t cones directly to
the mint in that city, and is there con-
verified into coin. But, whatsoever the
source Of the raw gold, the treatment
it receives on reaching the mint or as
say Office is the same. Each lot of
Klondike dust. with it's sprinkling OF
tiny nuggets, is put into a close vessel
called a crucible The crucible is placed
in furnace, and when the metal is
melted it is poured into a mold, which
forms it into a brick, called a 'bar"
While in the crucible, the molten yell
low stuff is stirred costantly and thor
oughly. so that all the materials it con-
tains may be distributed equally
through the bar. For, of course, the
raw gold is apt to be combined with
more or less of silver, copper and even
lead
The bar, when cool. is sent to the
room, where the assayer
chips from it a very small scrap, and
this scrap is put through an elaborte
process, for the purpose of determin-
ing exactly how much gold it contains.
Eventually it is reduced to a bit of alb
solutely pure gold. and the weight of
this bit gives to the assayer 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 impuri-
ties are separated from it, and the vel
low metal is obtained in a perfectly
pure state. In this state it looks more
like red gravel than anything else, and
nobody would think of stopping by the
wayside to pick up a handful of such
stuff.
The 'red gravel is pressed by hy-
draulic power into big cakes. resenn-
bling angel-food cake in shape. but
much bigger. These cakes are worth
about $4,000 apiece. Next, the mate
rial of which the cakes are made "a
melted again in crucibles, with the adj
dltion 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
for the coins. Then the strips
are passed beneath a punch. which
cuts out of them the blanks for the
sold pieces that are to be. Various me-
processes, requiring no detail
ed description here, are gone through
incidentally, but at length the coin
blanks are put one by one in a stamp-
ing machine, which gives to them the
beautiful designs THAI make the gold
pieces of the United States current a,
face value all over the world.
In the Snake River, Idaho. reg,1lar
mining is done for flour gold''-so call
ed because it occurs as a very fine pow
der mixed with the sands at the bot
tom of the stream. These sands are at
tackled by stern-wheel f1atboats. which
are floating dredges propelled by steam
The f1atboat anchors in suitable
place, and the gravel is hauled aboard
with buckets attached to an endless
chain. The gold is caught on copper
plates with the aid of quicksilver. and
the refuse is carried overheard by
stream of water
The beach sands of the Oregon sea
coast are quite rich in gold. which is
very pure, though finely divided. There
has been a good deal said lately about
the gold in ordinary sea water, which
does amount to about 11sc per
ton. But the water of the Caspian sea.
which is very salty, contains from Ice
to 1Sc worth of gold per ton, and it is
there that the proposed works should
be set up for the purpose of separat
ing the yellow metal from it's saline
solution by electrolysis. Unfortunate
y, separating by this process is ex-
pensive, powerful current being re-
luired.