The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1915-09-17
Foreign Money Melted in
New York Assay Office
and Prepared for Philadel-
phia Mint.

eY GOTHAM kNfckEReockER.
NEW YORK, Sept 17.-Good- d-by,
English sovereign. All hail American
eagle!
You have heard a lot lately about
the dollar ruling the world and some
undoubtedly have been a bit puzzled
by all this talk of drops in foreign
exchange, balance Of trade and the
like. 4
But II you had been down In the big
United States assay office with me
last week you could have seen some
thing that a child could understand
two million pounds of English gold
disappearing, and rough, dirty gold
bricks taking their places. The bricks
will soon become good American
money
New York has recently got three
gold shipments from England, each
Of about $4,000, 900, brought by fast
British cruiser to Halifax and. then
carried overland with elaborate pre-
cautions.
The first two consignments were in
United States coin-some we have
had to ship over to Europe in other
yO0A . "hCA I4C III oOC O0l0uCC Wd6 tAC
other way. Then the Bank of England
evidently ran out of eagles. for in the
last shipment were $7.S5O.O00 in
United States coins and $11,615, 600
In soyereisns: s -.---ss.@ a.-
Mutilating Coins.
The British treat our eagles most
shamefully. They ship them by
weight To bring each bag UP to the
required heft they chop coins into
many triangular bits and add these
piece by piece until the scales tip.
The sub-treasury here credits the
importer only with the whole coins
and the chips are turned over to the
assay Office which melts them up into
bricks. These chips amounted to
several thousand dollars in the recent
three big shipments.
AS to the sovereigns, the assay Of
Ace found itself with 1850, 900 on ite
hands. The importers were anxious
to get the benefit Of the amount.
A law has been passed allowing
them to be credited with the sover-
eigns as bullion without melting them
up, but there has been a dispute over
the deductions to be made for wear
on the coins, dirt and other considera-
tions which could not be settled and
this has made the law a dead letter.
How They are Melted.
Uncle Sam charges 81 a thousand
ounces for melting the gold. This
does not cover the cost by lot.
It takes ones breath away at frst
to look around the furnace room OF the
assay Office, for gold is lying about
In an apparently most careless way.
The sovereigns are heaped into wood
en- troughs. The furnace men wear
heavy wooden shirts and asbestos
gloves to protect their bodies from the
intense heat.
The gold is melted in rough three
gallon crucibles which rest upon a
crate on which jets spray crude oil
A fierce fame beats around the cru
cibles
A workman seizes q few pounds of
gold coins, protects his face with one
hand and throws them into the retort
In few minutes the mass is a golden
liquid.
Grease the MouIds.
Another workman ladies the pre-
cious metal into what looks like extra
large mufiin tins. These moulds are
creased as a cook would, too, and the
lard flames up as the hot gold strikes
The 100000 sovereigns are now
nothing more than stack OF dirty
charcoal smudged bricks, each worth
about $1,000. They are smaller than
a building brick. but weigh between
twenty-five and thirty pounds apiece
They are not as careless as they
look at the assay Office, however.
The gold given to each furnace man
ts weighed before being given to him
and the bricks he produces must con.