IMPROVEMENTS IN COINING
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Louis Joseph Dierickx, Director of the, Paris,
Mint, of the Hotel des Monnaies, in the City of Paris, for the Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Louis Joseph
Dierickx at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition,
on the 20th June 1859.
I, CHARLES LOUIS JOSEPH DIERICKX, Director of the Paris Mint, of the
Hotel des Monnaies, in the City of Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COINING," to be as follows:-
Hitherto the adjusting of gold, silver, and other planchets has been com-
pleted by using the planchet file, plane, or other tool, to take off sufficient material
to bring them to the legal weight. I propose to obtain this result by liquefaction
of the gold planchets in aqua regia, composing the bath as follows:-5 parts
of nitric acid, 20 of hydrochloric acid, and 15 to 20 parts of water, according
to the celerity with which it is desired to operate. The planchets being classed
according to the per-centage of reduction required are plunged into the bath,
and remain therein ten or twenty minutes, according to the reduction necessary
to bring them to the legal weight. The operation may be carried on in
summer at the mean temperature, but in winter the temperature of the bath
must be raised to 20% or 30° centigrade. To render the working regular,
and to make the solution act uniformly upon each individual piece, I place the
solution in a cylindrical vase of porcelain, india-rubber, gutta percha, or other
material unassailable by aqua regia. A cylindrical vase, pierced with holes and

page_text: turning on its axis by hand or mechanism, plunges into the bath above men-
tioned as often as may be necessary to effect the reduction required; (this
cylinder, which may contain as much as five hundred sovereigns, should have
several cross pieces in its interior to disperse the planchets, and present new
surfaces to the action of the solution); the cylinder and its contents must then
be plunged into successive baths of pure water until no trace of chloride of
gold remains. When the planchets have been cleaned and dried, they are
reweighed, and those remaining too heavy, again thrown into the solution.
The gold contained in the liquefacting and rinsing baths is regained by preci-
pitation with sulphate of iron, or otherwise. A pan, in which the aqua regia
and the gold could be kept in motion by a spatula, might be substituted for
the cylindrical vase turning upon its axis, as above described, but the planchets
would be more irregularly operated upon. It should be observed that by this
method a scouring is saved, if, previous to every adjusting, the planchets are
annealed, the solution of aqua regia having the same effect. This system is
applicable to every description of money, and more readily to the lower coins,
aqua regia attacking copper even more readily than gold. It may also be
applied to silver planchets, only in this case the composition of the baths will
vary with the matter to be operated upon. I do not, in forming the baths,
limit myself to any exact composition or solution, or to their temperature, nor
to any particular combination of vases or apparatus for carrying out my system,
my Invention consisting of a new system of adjusting planchets of gold, silver,
or other, and not depending upon any special apparatus, by which it may be
carried out. I also by galvanism restore metal to the planchets when
required to bring them up to the legal weight.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
:
by the said Charles 'Louis Joseph Dierickx in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th December 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
LOUIS JOSEPH DIERICKX, Director of the Paris Mint, of the Hotel des.
Monnaies, in the City of Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Louis Joseph Dierickx, Her special. licence that I, the said Charles.

page_text: Louis Joseph Dierickx, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles Louis Joseph Dierickx, my executors, adminis-
trátors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should:
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COINING," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Louis Joseph Dierickx, my executors or administra-:
tors, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-;
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same:
to be filed in the Great Seal. Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
}
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Louis Joseph Dierickx, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and>
by the following statement:-
:
: .
:
Hitherto the adjustment of gold, silver; and other planchets (used in the
manufacture of coins) has been effected by using the planchet file, plane, ort
other tool, to take off sufficient metal to reduce. the planchet to the legal.
weight. I obtain this result simply by liquefaction of the gold planchets.in>
aqua regia, composing the bath as follows, namely, five parts of nitric acid,
twenty parts of hydrochloric acid, and from fifteen to twenty parts of water,:
according to the celerity with which it is desired to operate on the planchets.
The planchets being classed according to the per-centage of reduction required,
are plunged into the bath, and remain therein from ten to twenty minutes,
according to the amount of reduction needed to bring them to the legal
weight. The operation may be carried on in summer at the ordinary or mean
temperature, but in winter the temperature of the bath must be raised to from
20 to 30° "centigrade (equal to 68 to 86% "Fahrenheit"): To render
the working regular, and to make the solution act uniformly on each individual
piece, I place the solution in a cylindrical vase of porcelain, india-rubber,
gutta percha, or other material not affected by the action of aqua regia. This
cylindrical vase (pierced with holes and turning on its axis by hand or
mechanism) is plunged into the bath above mentioned as often as may be
necessary to effect the reduction required; (the cylinder, which may contain as
many as ten thousand planchets, should have several cross pieces in its interior,
serving to disperse the planchets, and continually present new surfaces to the
action of the solution;) the cylinder and its contents must then be plunged into

page_text: a succession of vessels containing pure water until no trace of chloride of gold
remain in the last bath. When the planchets have been cleaned and dried,
they are weighed, and the small number remaining too heavy are again
thrown into the solution. The gold contained in the dissolving and water
baths is regained by precipitation, either using sulphate of iron or other
means. A A pan, in which the aqua regia and the gold could be kept in motion
by a spatula, might be substituted for the cylindrical vase turning upon its axis,
as above described, but the planchet would thus be more irregularly operated
upon. It should be observed that by this method a scouring is saved, if,
previous to adjusting the planchets, they are annealed, the solution of aqua
regia having the same effect. This system is applicable to every description
of money, and more readily to the lower coins, aqua regia attacking copper
even more readily than gold, but the composition of the bath will vary with
the metal to be operated upon. When it is required to restore or add metal
to the planchets to bring them up to the legal weight, I effect it by the action
of galvanism, as in gilding and plating.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the means by
which it is carried into practical effect, I would have it clearly understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise arrangements herein described, as
the composition or solution, the temperature of the bath, or the vases or
cylinders, may be varied to suit particular cases; but I claim as essentially of
my Invention, the system herein-before described of adjusting to uniformity of
standard planchets of gold, silver, copper, or other metals used in coining.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Louis Joseph Dierickx, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
Vu pour attestation de la signature
Ch. Diérickx apposée ci-contre.
Paris, le 8 Décembre 1859.
Le Commissaire de Police,
⚫ (L.B.)
CHARLES ALLARD.
CH. DIÈRICKX. (L.S.)