Semi-weekly herald., 1910-05-09
partment that both shall stay together

nludtlOU, one unuB ulmSeu III u huge
room, partiiioned off in fifteen com
partments BY steel gratfngs OF the
strongest kind straight passage six
feel wide and the height of the cham
ber goes down the length OF the room
from the door. At the entrance are
stored The bronze coins. the cents,
about $4,000 worth of Them, but the
amount varies from day to day Next
come the more precious nickel coins,
of which the value usually totals about
100000
Beyond thees storage places a steel
grated door in the passage itself has
TO be opened. and then still another
10 get completely to the end of the
room. All along the length of this
passageway, from The entrance to the
vault at the end, are the compartments
for the coins, separated from the pas
| saReway by exactly the same kind of
gratings as those which divide the
way itself into sections.
The bottom, the sides and the top of
this vault are lined with steel plates,
and about the entire vault is the three
foot protection of concrete. Within
the vault itself are the separate com
part ments. each locked These com
partments are examined shortly after
the end of the fiscal year, and are then
| sealed by the examiners. SO that any
entrance TO them would be impossible
without the breakage of the seals. In
each compartment devoted 10 The stor-
age of gold there is $4,000. 900 OF the
yellow metal. 1t is stored first in
bags which contain $1,000 each in half
eagles, eagles or double eagles, and
then these bags are arranged twenty
on shelf. Each shelf has thus $780,
600 on 1t. The shelves are arranged in
rows downward. ten from Top to bot
tom of the compartment each row
having thus S1,00O000 in gold in It,
There are forty of these rows alto.
sether so that 5000 900 is accom-.
modated. Occasionally it is desired
to place more than this sum in one
compartment. and then more bags are
squeezed In to shelf
Electricity ligl the entire section
OF each vault, ant he electric current
is so arranged thai If II were possible
for the vaults to q tampered with
the electricity woulG 1mediately give
notice outside thai something was
wrong.
A detachment of guards every night
is stationed at the entrance to the
stairways leading to the corridor,
which gives access to the vaults them
selves. Their orders are 10 shoot
down anyone attempting an entry.
AS explained. however. by Cashier
Murphy, although the precautions here
tional treasury, to certain extent
the character of The treasures at the
mint protect themselves. No man liv
ing could make off with quarter of a
million in gold. Fifty thousand dol
lars would be a huge load for any
one. Even the $1,000 bags are not
the most comfortable thing in the
world to carry. The same remarks ap
ply to the silver with almost exactly
thirty times more potency, as gold is
now worth about thirty times the same
weight as silver. The same thing is
true of the bullion.
In a crowded city like Philadel.
phia," said Mr.. Murphy, ''it would be
impossible for theft to occur on an
express wagon bringing the bullion to
the mint from the stations or piers
Deliveries to the mint are never made
except in broad daylight. Hence it
follows that II there were any loss 1t
would have TO be the work of a sneak
thief and one, moreover, who was ar
extraordinarily rapid worker. The
wagons are in charge of two men,
and even il thief managed to elude
the vigilance of the two. his shrift
would he short. 1t is no easy task to
run away with bullion. Try for your
stilr tbuliuueu lne CdSnler, pointing
to a pile of the yellow bars, hold
that bar in your arms for five min,
utes."
1t did not take more than half that
time to prove the correctness of the
assertion.
Wouldn't be pleasant, would it?' he
continued. "to run down the street,
hanging on to that piece of gold and
with mob at the back OF you and
several policemen showing up in front ?
Every imaginable precaution, as
you have seen, is taken here, but there
are some strange stories abroad of the
way things are done. An old tale
which Is still alive in far-away dis
tricts is that every visitor to the Phila.
delphia mint is stripped before leaving
and searched all over. So many peo-
pie have visited the new mint from
out of town, however that that myth
seems TO be pretty dead now.
Another story was that we were so
careful about any gold that went up
the refining furnaces that we sent
| armed sweepers over the roofs of the
buildings in the neighbOrhood every