Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1899-10-18
UNCLE SAM'S SILVER
Handling and Care of It Costs Hin
 Large Sum.
The Transfer, Counting and Steering of the Vast Amount Costs Asav- fly Cost sf Coinage
 Ia Small.

CArting to the United States min vaults st Spring Garden and Sixteenth streets the vast masses of silver eullioI and silver dollars that have been storeC in the old mint and the post office build ing has attracted attention to the fac that the successive transferring, count ing and storing of the white metal sine, its purchase as bullion about ten yean ago. to say nothing of the depreciation of about a third in the market pric' since that time. has cost the govern ment many thousands of dollars in ex cess of its actual money value. In fact the government would have saved . great deal of money if it had throwT away the silver dollars as soon as they were coined. The keeping and handling of them has proved 10 be the most ez pensive luxury in which the govern ment has ever indulged.
 The Philadelphia mint holds $200. OQO,000 in silver. over se0,c0O,000 oi which has been coined into the cart tendsnt since that time has had the sii yer counted or transferred from ont place 10 another, the operation usually requiring year or more and costing over S3o.O00 in the single item of count ing. As the superintendents are under SsOO. .o00 bonds, their bondsmen natural ly insist upon knowing just what they are responsible for, and SO the counting process is undergone with each sue ceeding administration, Uncle San paying the bill
 When Daniel M Fox was superintend cut of the mint about ten years ago tht silver dollars were transferred from the mint 10 the post office building. The cost of carting the load from the min to the post office was 2s cents per q, 900 exclusive of the pay of the lAborers em. ployed in handling it.
 In imitation of the celebrated strat. sgy of the French general, whose cam. paign consisted of marching up hil and then down again. the succeeding superintendent, Col. Bosbyshell, cartsc the silver dollars from the post ofiet back 10 the mint, duplicating the cost
 Then Eugene Townsend became su- peTintendent, and the process of trans ferring :he silver from his predecessor to himself, the hand-counrng of the whole mass being involved, again cost the government over S3o,O0O.
 When Herman Kretz succeeded Dr Townsend the transfer was made with. out extra cost 10 the government, the usual force at the mint being employed in the task of counting on this econOm- ical occasion, but a system of packing the silver dollars in boxes was intro duced at q cost of five cents per box and this cost the government about S7,5OO.
 The transfer of She silver from NIT. Kretz to Harry K. Boyer. the present superintendent. cost the government. as before, over S30. 600. Silver dollars to the amount of s21, ,OOO, 900 were taken again 10 the post office building for storage. This labor was completed only about three weeks ago, and now the whole bulk of silver is being re- carted to the new mint at the regula- tion price demanded by the express company of 25 cents per s1 900, with the additional cost of five cents per box containing Sl .O0O and the laborers' pay.
 The details involved in all this nov ing and counting are intricate in the extreme. Superintendent Boyer's count. recently completed. was rem dered as expeditiously as possible. yet it took year or more to complete it. The transfer required the service of IS extra men daily at three dollars a day each, or S45 6 day for year. In sddi- ton to all this some 12 or IS men have 10 be employed day and night to watch the hoarded mass.
 Thus each transfer from one superin- tendent to another has cost the govern ment about S3O,O0O, the handling over SlS,o0O and the boxing over S7,sO0. 10 say nothing of the other heavy incident al expenses, such as the watching. To coin the silver bullion costs the govern ment only one cent for each dollar. but 10 guard it and protect it are tremen- dously expensive. For instance, among the details of transferring the silver from one superintendent to another are the employment of two counters for each bag weighing 60 pounds, the weighing and the registering of the bags and the compilation of each bags individual history.-Philadelphia h. quirer.