The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-02-28
FROM THE KLoNDlKE TO THE MINT
How the Alaskan Gold Finds It's Way Into
the United States Treasury.
washington Letter in Boston Tran
script)

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Ever SO much has been written abou
the gold that comes from the Klondike
but nobody seems to have thought of in
curing as to what becomes of it after il
has left the placer mines and the Yuko1
region. OF course the miners bring i
into the United States by steamer, done
up in canvas bags and all sorts of othel
packages. And the bulk of it is thus
fetched to Seattle. which Is convenient
port. In Seattle there is no trouble il
converting the raw metal into the ordi
nary currency realm. The merchant;
accept it by weight, as readily as any
other form of money, and the banks are
always ready customers for gold.
Most of the miners, laden with the vel
low 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 gold to
the government. Uncle Sam, you see,
advertises to buy all gold that is offered,
with no limit on the quantity. His pur-
chasing office, nearest to Seattle, is at
Helena, Mont. So the banks, which even
tually get all the gold accepted by the
merchants, forward the stuff to the assay
Office at Helena, and there it is received
and paid for. The payment is made i'm
mediately on its receipt by treasury
checks.
If, then, you are a miner just returned
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 Ia for
only SO per cent. of the estimated value
of the dust and nuggets. That you get
without any delay at all, beyond the time
required for expressing the stuff to Hele-
ma 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 right,
under the law, to receive gold coin for
your check, il you choose to ask for it..
If you make no such demand. the treasu-
ry 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 con-
siderable cost by the government. livery
gold coin contains its 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
return for raw material. Furthermore,
it must be considered 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 jottled about. This is q
dead loss to the government, which only
protects itself by fixing limit Of toler-
ance, as it is called. When more than a
certain fraction of gold piece has been
lost by abrasion it is accepted 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
Francisco. 1t goes directly to the mint
in that city, and is there converted 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 Klondike dust, with
its sprinkling of tiny nuggets, is put into
q closed vessel called a crucible. The
curcible is placed in a furnace, and, when
the metal is melted, it is poured into a
mold, which forms it into a brick called
q "bar" While in the crucible, the mol
ten yellow stuff is stirred constantly and
SO that all the materials it
contains 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
wejphipo room where the assayer ohips
from it very small scrap, and this scrap
is put through an elaborate process, for
the purpose of determining exactly how
much gold 1t contains. Eventually it is
to bit of absolutely pure gold,
and the weight of this bit gives to the as
saver his data for reckoning the exact
value of the bar. On this reckoning the
payment check is made out The gold
brick. being now the property of Uncle
Sam, is subjected to chemical treat
ment, by which the silver and other i'm
puripies are separated from it and the
yellow metal is obtained in 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 q handful of such
stuff.
The fred gravel' is pressed by hydraul-
io power into big cakes, resembling angel
food cakes in shape, but much bigger.
These cakes are worth about $50, OOO
apiece. Next the material of which the
lakes are made is melted again in cruo1-
1lss, with the addition of ten per cent.
Of copper, and the stuff is cast in bars for
,oining. Each bar is sliced by a machine
nto several strips, which are put under
powerful roller and squeezed to just the
'eouired thickness for the coins. Then the
trims are passed heneath punch which