The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-01-06
SWEATING COINS.
Nowadays Chemical Baths, Splitting
and Abrasion Take the Place
of Cruder Plugging.

mutilating coins had the advantage
| however, OF being perfectly obvious
and no careful person need be de-
ceiyed
Nowadays the work of defacing
! coins is reduced to fine art. The
old. crude method of plugging the
coins will not suffice, since the gen
eral public and the government are
far more iutolerant of the practice
than ever before. If the precious
metal is to be robbed from the coins
it must be done so cleverly that even
the expert viii be deceived. 1t no
longer pays to mutilate nickel or
even silver coins, SO, except in ex-
ceptional cases, it 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 in
such way that the coin will appear
perfect, even to the closest observer
| The federal government will not per-
NIT any gold coin to circulate the
weight of which is below the point
OF legal tolerance, which is fixed at
one-half of l per cent If coin is
found to be lighter than this it is
stamped with large l., to indicate
its lightness, and is returned to the
| bank or the individual who last
handled it. The only redress of the
| owner is TO have the coins sent to
Washington to be reminted The
| owner must stand the loss In weight,
which is often considerable. 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
difficult Of all to detect is the cleo
troplating method The gold coins
are placed in a chemical bath, and
part of the gold js detached by cleo
tricity and deposited on some other
object. In this way the gold is re-
moved with perfect evenness from
all parts of the coin. The letters and
general design or the milling may be
slightly dulled In the process, but
only as it might be from general
wear and tear. The lightness of the
coin will be detected by the scales at
the treasury, but in the meantime
such coin may pass from hand to
hand for long time without arous-
ing suspicion. 1t is obviously ex-
ceedingly difficult to trace the Of
fender.
Another battling method is to
split the coin and remove the gold
from the inner surface. The hole is
then filled up with some baser met
al, so that the weight will be the
same, and the two sides are then
welded together. 1t is possible to
take dollars worth of gold or
more in this way from a twenty dol
lar gold piece. If the work be skill
fully done it is impossible to detect
such coin by it's weight, and the
only clew will be in some flaw in the
milling. Naturally it takes a train
ed, experienced eye to pick out such
a coin. Meanwhile the gold piece has
probably circulated for days or even
months, and it is exceedingly diff
cult to trace the offender.
One Of the commonest methods OF
sweating" is to shake up number
OF gold coins in chamois bay and
preserve the dust and microscopical
particles which have been ioosened
The bag Is first moistened, so that
the gold will adhere to it, and is af,
terWard burned and the gold assay
| ed. The bruises or dents on the
coins will appear to have been made
in the ordinary handling. The profit
from this treatment is small, but
many people seem to find profit in
it. The question arises If the in.
SSuulIy duu ldDOF mus expended
would not bring larger return if de.
voted to some legitimate work.
? The men who handle the gold be-
come marvelously expert in detecting
the "sweated" coins. In handling
millions Of dollars worth of gold a
defaced coin will rarely get past
them. The coins are spread out in
trays before them and turned over
and the light coins picked out. A
slight flaw in the milling, dulled
appearance of the lettering or a sus.
picious nick of the surface will be
quickly identified. AS final test
the scales, which will weigh a single
hair, are resorted to and II the
slightest discrepancy can be found
every coin is examined separately
until the faulty one has been discoy.
ered.-New York Times.