Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1916-11-03
JEWELLERS USED GOLD COINS
How Government Stopped Practice Of
Converting Money into Articles
of Adjournment.

New York.-There are few things
more interesting to the average stu
dent of business matters than the odds
and ends that often crop up in con-
versation with veterans of the manu-
featuring or wholesaling trades when
found in a reminiscent mood. 1t was
in such mood that reporter found
julius Wodiska the other afternoon.
Mr.. Wodiska, who is a manufacturer
of jewelry, is widely known in the
trade.
1t may have Eeen the recent rise in
iridium or it may have been the re-
cent heavy shipment of gold to this
country, or both, that caused Mr.. WOd-
iska to tell how the United States
government stopped some forty-Odd
years ago the melting up of $50 gold
pieces in order to use the metal in
the manufacture of gold jewelry. In
those days it was the custom of many
of the jewelry makers to use these
coins instead of buying fine gold, as
matter of convenience. So they went
to a bank and got $50 gold pieces
enough, or $40 ones, for that matter,
to supply the sufficient metal for the
work in hand. The gold pieces being
% karats fine, "a karats being absO-
lutely pure gold, it was not difficult
for the jewelers. to melt them up and
add the necessary alloys to produce
the degree of fineness desired for the
jewelry they We're going to make.
However" related Mr.. Wodiska ut
was Tot long after this practice be-
came more or less general that the
government authorities began to won
der what was becoming of the $W
gold coins. They began missing the
$40 ones, too, but the disappearance
of the former was by far the more
RAPID. The officials did not think that
the people Of the country were hoard
ing the gold, because most of the small
Ter coins. remained in circulation. So
a quiet investigation was begun, and
it was Tot lo2g before it was diScOy-
cred that the makers Of gold jewelry
were melting theul up for trade pur-
poses.
Having found TIE cause, it was not
difficult for the officials to effect
cure. They did it by 'peppering' the
$50 coins with iridium. Now iridium,
which is not altogether Unlike back
emery in the crude state, requires a
heat of 3,542 degrees Fahrenheit to
melt it. In the degree of heat required
for this purpose it is only second TO
rhodium, which needs temperature
Of 1852 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce
it to a liquid state. Gold, on the
other hand, can he melted at 1913 de-
greeS Fahrenheit. From tbs it is easy
to see that the unsuspecting manufac-
turer, melting up gold pieces at the
temperature required, got a numDeE
of uDnelted specks of iridium IN MS
metal when he let it cool. This made
trouble VIXEN the metal was worked
up.
"At the tine this was being dons
there was a great vogue of fine EtruS-
can work il solid gold which requireu
perfectly smooth surface in order
to be produced properly. Imagine the
dismay of the jewelers., therefore,
when they found the much-needeu
smooth surface dotted here and thefe
with little pepperlike specks Oh lrI.ii-
I'm. To leave them il meant that Inc
decorative work could not be done
properly, ard to take them out meant
leaving the piece pockmarked VIII
tiny holes. 1t was not long before
the gold pieces, whether they con
tanned iridium or not, were eyed Wilh
suspicion by the manufacturers "no
then secured their metal from olne'
sources"