The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1910-11-17
WELL GUARDED CASH
The Millions Piled Up In the Mint
at Philadelphia.
STORED IN ARM0RED VAULTS.

Underground Strong Rooms Are IN.
preanabie-The Night Watch.
The Philadelphia mint always con.
tains coin and bullion which fuctuates
in value each day between half and
three-quarters Of a billion dollars. One
hundred millions of dollars of this
amount is in silver dollars stored for
several years in q room by itself 100
by SIS feet in area. About $500. OOO, 600
Is in gold coin. ready to be put in cir
eulation or to be stored In the national
treasury at Washington against the is
sue of a corresponding number of gold
certificates. A million or two is in
bronze and nickel coins. Finally an
amount of bullion varying from
small quantity to several hundred mil
lions of dollars worth occupies the
four massive vaults designed for the
uncoined metal.
Now. how is this vast hoard pro-
tected?
First Of all, the whole mint is en-
bedded in a solid concrete foundation
about three feet deep. Concrete, as
every one knows, is one of the strong
most impervious to drilling or wear.
Then OIL the interior. where the vaults
are placed. within this concrete protec-
ton. comes a solid armor of battleship
steel six inches thick. SO strong that
an expert working on it a week could
scarcely make an impression. much
less penetrate it by hand tools.
The vaults themselves are sunken
deeply below the ground. Descending
several fights of stairs and passing
ray of rifles for use by the night
guards. long, fairly wide corridor
Of solid concrete masonry shows the
entrances to the six vaults. one for
the silver already referred to. one for
all kinds of coinage, but mostly for
gold. and the remaining four for the
gold, silver and nickel bullion. The
bronze bullion lies in another room by
itself. but as a few dollars worth Of
this substance makes an uncomforta-
bly, heavy load it is not thought nec-
essary to surround it with the minute
safeguards used in the case Of the
precious metals
The vaults themselves have double
combination. That to the outer door
Is known by the cashier only and that
to the inner door by the custodian Of
the vaults only. To enter vault both
men have to be together. and it is
rule Of the department that both shall
stay together till the inspection or
other object for which the huge safe
is opened is accomplished.
Entering one Of these great cages
after five minutes working at the
combination. one finds himself In
huge room partitioned off in fifteen
compartments by steel gratings of the
strongest kind. A. straight passage
six feet wide and the height Of the
chamber 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 these storage places steel
grated door in the passage itself has
to be opened and then still another
to get completely to the end Of the
room. All along the length of this
passageway. from the entrance to the
vault to the end. are the compart-
ments for the coins, separated from
the passageway 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 compart-
ments, each locked. These compart-
ments 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 to the stor.
age Of gold the coin is stored first in
bags which contain 5000 each in half
eagles, eagles or double eagles. and
then these bags are arranged twenty
on q shelf: Each shelf has thus $780,
600 on it. The shelves are arranged in
rows downward. ten from top to bot
tom Of the compartment. each row
having thus 100000 in gold in it.
Electricity lights the entire section
Of each vault. and the electric current
Is so arranged that IL it were possible
for the vaults to be tempered with the
electricity would Immediately give no
tice outside that 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 to shoot down
any one attempting an entry.
For the protection of the mint from
Dire well drilled FIRE brigade has
charge of the extinguishing apparatus
There are thirty-one fire alarm sta
lions located In the corridors and
rooms throughout the building.
At night every fifteen minutes thirty
one watchnlen ring signal notifying
the watch in the telephone room that
all is well. All these men carry re-
volvers during the night watch. II the
signal from any Waterman was not
heard at the right time an instant
alarm would be sounded.-Philadelphia
Record.