Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-11-22
NEW COINS CAUSE
CURSING IN MINT.
MACHINES WON'T WORK AND IR-
REVERENCE DEPLORED BY
PRESIDENT OUTCOME.
SPECIAL APPARATUS NEEDED.
Work of St. Gaudens Utterly Changed
by Notifications by Other
Designers.

WASHINGTON. D. c.. Nov. 16.-The
irreverent expressions the President de-
clares are caused by the motto In God
We Trust" are nothing as compared
with the profanity provoked in the Phil
adelphia mint when the first attempt was
made to strike the new gold coins from
the st. Gaudens design.
The presses in the big money making
establishment would not work at all
when run at the ordinary rate of speed,
and even now, after the Introduction of
special devices to overcome this difficulty,
conditions are far from satisfactory. Even
at the Philadelphia mint where the ma
chimes used i'll making gold eagles have
been altered to handle the new high relief
dies. the work of turning out the coins
is slow and expensive, while at the New
Orleans, Denver and San Francisco
minis it is impossible to make the new
coins at all.
Special Machines Needed.
The principal difficulty from a mechan-
ical standpoint, is that the design for the
new coin provides for an extremely high
relief on both sides of the piece, and the
ordinary coin press used in the minis is
incapable of turning out the coins in per
feet condition.
1t was found Immediately that moth
ing but medal press could be used sue
cessfulIy, without altering the machin-
cry, and to turn out SO gold pieces at
the slow rate of speed accomplished by
a medal press would make the coins SO
expensive that they could not be pro-
duced for general circulation.
Therefore the machines used on this
particular coin have been provided with
mechanical attachment which permits
the presses to be run at somewhere near
the usual rate of speed.
1t is an open secret now that the new
coin designs are not distinctly the work
of Augustus st. Gaudens, the noted
sculptor at all. The fact is the coin
has been changed in two or three re-
spects from the designs of the late sculp-
tor. Even after the sculptor had finished
his work notifications We're made which
utterly changed the appearance of the
| finished coins.
Change Needed in $40 Design.
| Preparations are now being made to
produce the double eagle, or $50 gold
piece after the new design, but the de
! sign will have to be changed, or at least
| an entirely new effect will have to be
| impaired to it to make the coin accept
able in business and in order that it may
be produced economically by the mints.
| A few pieces from the double eagle de.
!
present a much worse appearance than
the eagle piece to which so much objec
| ton has been made.
Instead of Mary Cunninghams head
one side of the $50 piece bears the stand
! ing female figure of liberty, holding in
one hand q torch and in the other al
olive branch.
On the reverse is a high relief figure
of the bird of freedom, flying apathetic-
ally through space, with wings hardly
half spread AS in the $40 piece, side
view of the eagle is presented, but the
conception is such that there is no action
whatever in the figure.
Pattern Coins Do Not "Stack."
The 500 piece also differs from the
SO coin in that the words ''E plurlbus
unum" appear on the edge of the coin,
alternating with stars to represent the
states of the union.
After the design for the $40 piece was
approved it was found that the coins
would not stack, and so were unfit for
circulation. At about the same time
the Philadelphia mint authorities called
attention to the fact that the relief OF
the coin was so high that the piece would
last only a few months in general circu-
lation so great would be the damage
from abrasion.
Accordingly it was decided to reduce
the relief presented by the head and
the strutting eagle. and in addition tC
this it was decided to erect around the
edge of the coin a high line or ring as o
further protection against abrasion.
The $40 piece, nominally designed by
St Gaudens, will have to be treated tC
a similar process, for the first pieces
struck have convinced the mint authOri
ties that the coins would last only 6
short time in circulation.
The President has no power at pres
ent to change the appearance of the sill
yer coins, as the statutory twenty-five
years have not elapsed since the presen
design was adopted and executed.