The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-09-07
UNCLE SAMUEL'S MINIS
CONSIDERABLE PROFIT REALIZ-
ED FROM MONEY MAKING.

Your Uncle Sam Makes About Fifty
Cents ON Every Dollars Worth of
United States Silver Coins.
The metal money of the United
States is circulated far more widely,
in a geographical sense, than most
people realize. 1t is accepted at face
value in most of the South and Cen
trail American republics. In Cuba,
which has no national. currency, it is
much used as a medium of exchange,
and in Canada our silver and gold
pieces move in trade as freely as Ca
madam money.
Our government, indeed, has re-
allied considerable profit from such
of it's silver coins as are circulated
in Canada, for silver is cheap and
it costs us only about so cents to turn
out dollars worth of dimes, halves
or quarters. We make no profit in
minting gold, but the fact is inter-
esting that our gold coins make up
the bulk of the gold reserves of the
Canadian treasury and the Canadian
banking system.
The minis of the United States do
a good deal of business of which the
public at large knows little or moth
ing. We not only manufacture met
al money for our own use, but we
make coins by the millions for other
countries. Every now and then we
get an order from some Latin-Amer-
lean republic for supply of metal
pieces, such as bolivars, colons. pesos
or what not, and we must do the
work as carefully as if the coins were
to be used in our own country.
We make their coins for them at
net cost and make not a penny of
profit on the work. We do it merely
as an act of friendliness toward our
sister republics in the western hem
isphere.
Uncle Sam makes about so cents
On every dollars worth of United
States silver coins that he minis; but
he makes a much larger profit, rela-
lively, on his cents and nickels. For
merly the minis purchased blanks
for those coins on contract, but now
all United States coins are made from
the ingot, The seignorage to the
government on one cent and five cent
Nj te b OH
$3,50O,00O.
The five-cent piece is in reality on
ly one-fOurth nickel; the remaining
three-fourths is copper, The bronze
cent is 95 per cent copper, three per
cent tin and two per cent zinc-an
alloy adopted because it i s very
durable, and because it retains polish
better than pure copper does.
In 1852 the treasury had patterns
struck for a so-called ring dollar" of
gold with a big hole in the middle.
The purpose was to make the gold
dollar larger and easier to handle,
without increasing its weight. An
other advantage was that it could be
strung together with others, like Chi
nese cash. But the ring dollar was
finally deemed unacceptable.
Hardly less remarkable than the
ring dollar were certain patterns sug-
gested in 1879 for "goloid' coins,
which were meant to serve as COM
promise between silver and gold as
monetary standards. They were of
silver, but contained some gold. The
''goloid" trial pieces are not especial
ly rare today, for the treasury pre-
scented a set of them to every senator
and representative then in congress.
Such trial pieces have a certain
historical significance and value.
From that point of view by far the
most interesting of them was the sill
yer half dime of the year 1892. Sew
eral of those half dimes are extant
today. and are said to be valued by
collectors at $50 each. They bear
the head of Martha Washington and
the silver of which they are composed
was furnished by George Washing
ton, who sent for the purpose some
of his own family plate frcm Mount
Vernon to the mint in Philadelphia.