The Hattiesburg news., 1910-04-30
WELL GUARDED CASH
The Millions Piled Up In the Mint
at Philadelphia.
STORED IN ARMORED VAULTS.

The Whole Building Is Embedded In
Solid Concrete Foundation, and the
Underground Strong Rooms Are In
presnable-The Night Watch.
The Philadelphia mint always con-
tains coin and bullion which fluctuates
In value each day between a half and
three-quarters of billion dollars. One
hundred millions of dollars of this
amount is in silver dollars stored for
several years in a room by itself 100
by 80 feet in area. About $300.0O0.000
is in gold coin, ready to be put in cir
culation or to be stored in the national
treasury at Washington against the is
sue of 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
est of all known substances and the
most impervious to drilling or wear.
Then on the interior. where the vaults
are placed, within this concrete protec-
tion, 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 1t by hand tools.
The vaults themselves are sunken
deeply below the ground. Descending
several flights Of stairs and passing
by doors guarded by fearsome ar
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 nee
essary to surround it with 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 a 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 a 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 $1,000 each in half
eagles, eagles or double eagles, and
then these bags are arranged twenty
on a shelf Each shelf has thus $780,
900 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 if it were possible
for the vaults to be tampered with the
electricity would Immediately give no.
tice outside that something was wrong.
A detachment of guards every night