Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-05


machine and in front thereof young wo-
man with a canvas apron. into which she
now and then placed handful of the new
disks. The mouth of each ravenous ma
chine is a small upright tube of the diam
eter of the coin to be stamped. and into this
the blanks were continually inserted in
high cylindrical stacks. From the upright
brass tube pair of automatic fingers rap
idly took each bottom coin and placed 1t
upon the lowermost of two dies rapidly
claShing together like hungry Jaws These
at one blow struck the top and bottom i'm
preston and al the same time, by force of ex-
pansion, the disk of metal frightened within
fiuted collar which gave the finished coin
reeded edge. Silver dollars and gold coin
were thus stamped at the rate of eighty
hive per minute: quarters and half dollars,
ninety a minute; nckels, 10 a minute
pennies. 40 minute. You viii note that
this is the first time / have mentioned nick
els and pennies. They are distinctly Phil
adelphfa coin, not being stamped at other
minis. But the stamping is the first pro-
cess which Uncle Sam subjects them to-.
Their planchets are supplied by a New
England firm.
From the coming room the finished
money goes to the proving department,
where it's accuracy is again tested. 1t is
now ready for the counting room. In this
department gold coins, silver dollars and
half dollars are all counted by weight.
being stacked up inside of steel frames and
swept off into the pan of huge scale. The
quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies are
shuffied over large fiat boards with par
allel strips of brass. between which a row
of coins fits loosely. Being filed with the
money, it is tilted until the pieces flowing
over it fill all the spaces between strips.
Double rows having been allowed to fall
off into a bin beneath, the board stands ex-
actly full, no more, no less. In this way
81 900 in dimes were being counted on a
single board every eighteen seconds and
thrown into an aperture at the front of the
counters table. Leaving the counters. the
;,,tD hox
to await shipment to the various subtreas-
uries in money bags inclosed in iron-hooped
cases sealed with wax.
Workmen's Clothes Melted Up.
will give you some surprising facts
about the hair-splitting economy which
Uncle Sam is exacting since he moved into
this new coin factory The loss of a grain
of gold or silver dust is prevented. if pos
sble. by making recoveries from the roof
to the very wells of the cellar. The floors
of the melting room are of honeycombed
iron. Anything dropped thereupon will go
through. This honeycomb in the neigh
borhood of the furnace is removed daily
The dust then swept from the bare floor
is together with all broken crucibles,
crushed in a mill and put through a pro-
cess for separating the precious metal par
ticles. The clothing which the meters and
molders wear, also the aprons of the wo-
men coiners, must never leave the build
ing. Lockers and dressing rooms where
they change their clothes under guard are
provided The working apparel and nit
tens when worn out are burnt, and the
gold and silver extracted from them. These
recoveries from the melting department
are averaging s12.4 400 a year. while the
total loss in the entire mint is falling below
$500 year.
There has also been devised an improved
system of safeguards against dishonesty
among the 375 men and IFS women en-
ployed In the great factory. All gold. sill
yer, nickel or bronze is placed In strong
boxes every evening Taken out in the
morning, it is carefully weighed on giant
scales graduated to detect from LOO ounce
to 10000 ounces. Thence 1t passes to the
appropriate departments In the course of
its transit or manufacture 1t is throughout
the day brought back at intervals and re-
weighed. Thus there is a system Of trans
fers in operation all day long. At daily
settlement the accounts of all departments
are balanced up by three checkers, re-
spectively representing the superintendent,
melter and coiner If there be a shortage
id any department, its employees are held
until it is made good. The last shortage
was due to small strip Of gold adhering
inside a copper canister used in annealing.
All hands were held until it was recovered.
Under the old system thefts were easier.
Two years ago a melter stole abrased five
cent pieces worth $40 and received eigh-
teen months imprisonment. Some years
before that way clerk got away with
$4,000. His property was conffscated and
he served seven and half years.
JOHN ELFREnH WATKINS, JR.