Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-12-02
SWEAT TING COINS.
Gold Pieces cleserly Robbed of
Their Precious Metal.
THE sYsTEMsIs A FINE ART.


and Abrasion Take the. Place Of the
Older and cruder PIussing-Brand-
ing tho -Lishtweisht Monsy.
A drilled or plugged" coin has be-
come something OF q curiosity. Every
one remembers the Inconvenience OF
these nutilated coins. II was mat
ter of daily occurrence 20 find one
self In possession OF a silver. gold or
even nickel coin defaced In this way
Sometimes the hole was filled With
some hnser metal; often 10 was left
open. This system OF mutilatipg coins
had the advantage. however. OF being
perfectly Obvious. and no careful poP
son need be deceived
Nowadays the work ofdefacing coins
is reduced to q fine art. The old. crude
method of plugging the coins will not
suffice. since the general public aud
the government are far more intolcr
ant Of the practice than ever before
IL the precious metal il to be robbed
from the coins II must be done so
clcverly that even the expert viii bc
deceived IL no longer pays to mutt
late nickel OF even silver coips, SO. ex.
cept In exceptional cases. Il Is only
the gold coins which are mutilated
This practice. commonly known as
sweating" requires considerable skill
and the ingenuity displayed is often
amazing.
The Sweating" must be done en-
such a way that the coin will appear
perfect. even TO the closest observer
The federal government will not per
NIT any gold coin 90 circulate the
weight of which Is below the point Of
legal tolerance. which Is fixed at one
half Of per cent. IL coin is found
TO be lighter than this Il Is stamped
with large l.. TO indicate its light
ness. and Is returned TO the bank or
the individual who last handled Il.
The only redress Of the owner is to
have the coins sent to Washington to
the loss in weight. which is often con
siderable. In cases where the coin
has been ''sweated" an investigation
may follow. with criminal prosecution
One OF the most insidious methods Of
sweating" and perhaps the most diffi-
cult OF all TO detect In the electroplat-
ing method. The gold coins ara placed
I'm n chemical bath. and part OF the
gold Is detached by electricity and de.
posted on some other object. In this
way the gold Is removed With perfect
evenpess from all parts OF the coin
The letters and general design or the
milling may be slightly dulled In the
process. but only as Il might be from
n
OF the coin will be detected by the
scales at the treasury, but I'm the mean
time such coin may pass from hand
TO hand for long time without arous-
Ing suspicion. Ii is obviously exceed
ingly difficult TO trace the offender.
Another battling method is to split
the coin and remove the gold from
the inner surface. The hole Is then
hlled up with some baser metal. so
that the weight will be the same. and
the two sides are then welded together.
II Is possible TO take dollars worth OF
gold or more I'm this way from a twenty
dollar gold piece. If the work be skill
fully done II is impossible to detect |
such coin by Its weight. aud the only
ciew Will be In some flaw In the mill |
ing. Naturally II takes a trained. ex-
perienced eye TO pick out such a coin |
Meanwhile the gold piece has prob |
ably circulated for days or even
months, and IL Is exceedingly difficult |
to trace the offender
One or the corpmonest methods OF 1
sweating" is 10 shake up, number Of |
gold coins IN a channels bag and pre- |
serve the dust and microscopical parti- |
cles which have been ioosened The
bag Is FIRST moistened, so that the geld |
viii adhere TO IL, and In afterward |
burned and the gold assayed. The
bruises or dents on the coins will ap-
pear to have been made In the ordi.
nary handling. The profit from this
treatment Is small. but many people
seem to flnd profit init. The question
arises II the ingenuity and labor thus
expended would not bring a larger re-
turn II devoted to some legitimate
work.
The men who handle the gold be-
come marvelousiy expert In detecting
the "sweated" coins In handling mil
lions or dollars worth OF gold a de.
raced coin will rarely get past them
The coins are spread out In trays be-
fore them and turned over and the
light coins picked out. A slight flaw
In the milling. n dnIled appearance OF
the lettering or suspicious nick on
the surface viii be quickly Identified.
AS fnal-test the scales. which will
weigh a single hair, are resorted TO.
and II the slightest discrepancy can
be found every coin is examined sepa-
rately until the faulty one has been
discovered.-New York Times.