Show v e t Communications cat ons i o e 3 A VISIT TO A UNITED S SA PA rA TES MINT I During the early spring of 1890 two Utah youths both of whom were stu ex de dents of our Alma Mater chanced to be in Perms Penns Favorite City and among the then n noted ted places visited was the mint on Chestnut street J This This is the oldest United States mint in existence the bill ill establishing it being approve approved approved ap ap- proved prove l by President Washington March 3 3rd d r 1791 I The present marble maible building was vas was completed in 1833 the e building machinery fixtures and beautifying the grounds costing upwards of off f t I On going into the building we were met by one of the ushers who very kindly showed us through most of the i rooms and then requested us to put our names and residences in the visitors' visitors book We vVe were first shown into the Deposit Weighing Room where all the gold and silver for coining is received and first weighed The weights use used in this this' room run from ounces to the T Vw part of i ounce The extremely delicate scales are examined examined examined exam exam- ined and adjusted every other day More than worth of gold have been weighed in this room tenths nine-tenths of which came from California The silver comes mostly from the V Western e tern States and Territories while the copper for alloying the coins ic is sent mostly from the Lake Superior mines but the finest is from Minnesota the nickle arriving principally principally principally prin prin- from Lancaster county Pennsyl Pennsyl- vania The metal being carefully weighed in inthe inthe inthe the presence of the depositor and the mint officials is locked into iron boxes and taken into the room where it is to be melted Here it is opened by two men each provided with a key to the two separate separate separate sep sep- arate locks I In n this room which contains four furnaces the first melting is done The gold and the silver mixed with borax and other fl fluxes are melted in pots then run into moulds cooled and The fineness of the metal is ascertained its value calculated and the depositor is paid The cooled bars are now taken to the and Refiner To get the fineness and value of the bullion it has tobe tobe to to- be assayed Probably one of the finest finest- and most delicate pairs of scales in the the- world is in the assay room The smallest weight used here is part of a milligram milligram milligram milli milli- gram which is the r 31 v J part of a grain and can scarce scarcely y be seen by the unaided eye unless on a white ground The assayed bullion is taken to the separating separating separating sep sep- room where the gold is separated from the silver and other impurities The whole is put into nitric acid which dissolves dissolves dissolves dis dis- solves everything but the gold as nitrates This solution is clear and colorless It is isnow isnow isnow now drawn off an and leaves the gold in the bottom of the tubs the gold is gathered up in pans washed and is then ready for drying The acid solution containing all the silver and baser metals is run into tubs and the silver is precipitated as a chloride by letting brine run into the dissolved dissolved dissolved dis dis- solved metals thus separating it from its baser companions The silver chloride which to the eye very closely resembles new slacked lime is changed into metallic silver by having zinc zinc put put in contact with it The gold and the silver are now separately separately sepa sepa- separately put u under tinder der a pressure of about eighty tons to get out all the water They are are- next dried with heat and then taken to the furnaces in large cakes In these furnaces all the metal used in coining is alloyed melted and cast into intI long narrow strips called ingots They are one foot long half an inch thick inch thick and vary in width from one to two-and-one-half two inches according to the coin for which they are used The gold ingots are worth from to 1400 I those of silver but about 60 The fine gold and silver bar bars used in the arts and commerce are also cast here These are stamped with their weight and value in the Deposit Room The floors of the melting elting rooms are iron of a honeycombed honeycombed honeycombed honey honey- combed pattern divided into small sections that the dust may be saved The sweepings sweepings sweepings sweep sweep- ings of the building averaged per annum for the past seven years The ingots are next rolled until they are very nearly of uniform thickness by machines machines machines ma ma- chines run by a power horse-power engine the gold ingots being rolled ten times and those of silver eight times both being annealed or heated to to redness and cooled slowly at intervals to prevent nt breaking As it is impossible to roll the ingots perfectly perfectly perfectly per per- true tnie they must also be drawn out between cylinders which are a certain distance apart and are thus red reduced to an equal thickness These strips are passed through the cutting machines which punch out the i. i e. e the round pieces of metal resembling metallic gun wads and each when stamped becomes a coin The Thela la from each end of the strip are weighed and if these are right all the of the strip are correct if not the whole strip must be After being adjusted the are sent to the Milling and Coining Room The work here is all done by ladies The are first pa passed sed through a milling machine when the edges of the future coins are compressed and forced up forming forming forming form form- ing the he rim of the coins to protect their surfaces The apparatus moves so nimbly that half dimes can be milled in a minute but for larger pieces the the- average e is IS about 5 i In the same room are the ten coining presses each of of which can coin from eighty to one hundred pieces per minute Each of these machines contains the dies and is the last the passes through to become a coin The milled are now put into a tube stamped by a weight of several tons on the die and the coins are now perfect The gold coins as small as quarter e eagles being counted counted and counted and and weighed to verify verify verify ver ver- the count count are are put into bags of each the 3 pieces are put into bags of and t the e 1 I pieces into 1000 1000 bags The silver pieces are arec c counted on a counting board By this way 25 5 in five cent pieces may be counted in less than a minute The boards are flat wooden surfaces divided with copper partitions the height and size of the coins to be counted rising from the surfaces at regular intervals and running running run run- ning ping parallel with each other from top to bottom They are worked by hand over o overa oera a box and a as the pieces are counted slide into a drawer they are then put into bags and are ready for shipment The mint employs over hands about third one-third of whom are women The usher next took us to the cabinet and left us to look over the rare collection collection collection tion of coins of all ages and nearly all places and descriptions from the historic widows widow's mite to the present double eagle From the coins themselves can be told the histories and the degrees of civilization of the various countries which struck them off After spending about two hours here looking over the coins of the time of Socrates Socrates Socrates Soc Soc- rates Alexander and C Caesar Cassar sar of Ptolemy and Mohammed of Greece Rome Persia Egypt and Syria of Medieval Europe as aswell aswell aswell well as of China and Japan of France Germany Russia Switzerland England Spain Portugal and Brazil the colonies and t the various coins of the United States we left the mint more than pleased with what we had seen and heard while under that government roof NIEMAND |