done so if everyone were equipped with accurate scales and the means of testing the fineness, but this was of course out of the question. Traders in general could not distinguish between them, and were hence likely to be cheated, while at the same time sharpers could reap the advantage in handsome profits with little danger of detection. Guaranteed uniformity is an absolute essential with money. 48. THE COINAGE PROCESS AT THE UNITED STATES MINTS1 BY HORACE WHITE The successive steps in the making of coins at the United States mints are (1) assaying, (2) refining, (3) alloying, (4) coining. The bullion is first melted in a crucible. While in the molten state it is stirred until thoroughly mixed. It is then allowed to cool in the form of a brick. Small pieces are clipped from two corners of the brick most distant from each other and given to two different assayers to test the fineness of the metal. If their tests do not agree within a certain fraction, the brick is returned to the melting-pot and the process repeated. When the test is satisfactory and the amount of foreign substance is known, the whole of the impurity is removed by chemical means. Then the requisite amount of alloy is added by remelting and mixing, to harden the mass. Thus, to nine pounds of pure gold one pound of copper is added, so that the coins shall be nine-tenths fine. The bullion is rolled into strips or ribbons a little wider than the coin to be struck. It is then "drawn" in a machine which reduces it to the thickness of the coin. The strips are then passed through another machine, which cuts out of them circular pieces of the proper size, called "blanks." Each blank is examined by an expert both by weighing and by sounding. If one is found too light, or if it does not "ring true," it is returned to the melting-pot. If it is too heavy, the excess of metal is removed by filing. The blanks are sent to a machine by which a slight rim is raised around the edge of the piece on both sides, so that its weight shall rest on the rim and not on the whole surface of the coin, in order to minimize the abrasion. This process is called "milling." The blanks are then put in a cylindrical case and sent to the coining machine. At each revolution of the machine one blank drops from the bottom of the cylinder, is seized and conveyed to a sunken steel I 1 Adapted from Money and Banking, pp. 20-22. (Ginn & Co., 1895.) bed which contains a die that prints one surface of the coin. This bed has a serrated edge or "collar." Directly above this sunken die is a steel stamp containing a die which prints the other surface of the ⚫ coin. This stamp descends on the blank underneath with sufficient force to impress upon it the letters and figures of both surfaces of the coin. This pressure also squeezes the coin against the serrated collar, producing an indentation on the edge of the coin, the object of which is to prevent any clandestine removal of metal. If a piece were clipped from the edge, or any portion were removed by filing, the fraud would be detected by the absence or irregularity of the indentations. 49. COINAGE RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES1 a) RECEIPT OF BULLION All bullion deposited or purchased at any of the mints or assay offices of the United States shall be weighed in the presence of the depositor or his agent, and the weight shall be verified by the registrar of deposits. If the bullion deposited is found to be of less value than $100, it may be legally refused. If, upon report of the assayer, it is found to be unsuitable for the operations of the mint, it shall be refused. b) ASSAYING As soon as the weight of a deposit has been ascertained and recorded the assayer takes at least two samples in sufficient portion for assay and proceeds to test the quality of the metal. The assayer shall insert in the report the fineness of the gold or silver contained in the deposit. If the base is ascertained to be copper suitable for standard metal, he shall so state in his report. He shall also insert in his report the charges to which the deposit is subject. c) MINT CHARGES Section 3524, Revised Statutes of the United States, provides that the charges for the various operations on bullion deposited and for the preparation of bars shall be fixed from time to time by the Director of the Mint, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, so as to equal, but not exceed, in their judgment, the actual average cost to each mint and assay office of the material, labor, wastage, and use of machinery employed. 1 From General Instructions and Regulations in Relation to the Transaction of Business at the Mints and Assay Offices of the United States. The following are the principal mint charges: 1. Melting charge. On deposit of bullion a charge of $1 shall be imposed for each 1,000 ounces of bullion or fraction thereof as shown by weight after melting, except in the case of uncurrent United States coin and mint-fine bars, for which no charge is made. 2. Parting and refining bullion.-The charges for parting and refining bullion vary with the amount of impurities and base metal. Bullion containing 800 thousandths or more of base metal is not accepted. At the other extreme no charge is made for bullion containing 992 thousandths of gold and upward. The charges on other bullion vary from one-half cent per ounce to four cents per ounce, depending upon the amount of base metals and copper alloy contained. For instance, where bullion contains from 950 to 991 thousandths, inclusive, of gold and not more than 30 thousandths base, the charge is 2 cents per ounce. The depositor is given credit for the copper contained in the bullion. There is no charge for parting and refining foreign coins unless they are below standard fineness. 3. Toughening charge.—Bullion containing one or more of the following substances, viz., iron, lead, antimony, bismuth, țin, arsenic, zinc, or sulphur, in amounts sufficient to make it impossible to obtain a satisfactory assay, shall, at the discretion of the superintendent, be subject to an additional charge equal to the cost to the Government for remelting and treatment by the deposit melter. 4. Copper alloy.-Two cents per ounce for copper required, to be determined by taking one-tenth of the standard weight of gold, except where the base in the deposit is all good copper and the fineness above standard, when the method of determining the number of ounces of copper required shall be by taking the difference between the standard weight and the gross weight of the deposit. 5. Assays of bullion and plated ware.-Samples of gold and silver bullion will be assayed at the mints and assay offices at a charge of $2 per sample. In case of plate, or what is known as rolled or filled plate, the charge shall be $4 for each assay; or the assay may be refused, at the option of the assayer. d) ADVANCES OR PARTIAL PAYMENTS ON DEPOSITS In case of deposits, the fineness of which may be readily determined approximately by inspection, payment may, at the discretion of the superintendents of the coinage mints and the assay office at New York, be made within 10 per cent of their value, or within 2 per cent when already closely determined by assay and awaiting remelting or reassay for exact determination: Provided, No partial payment shall be made on a deposit containing less than $5,000 in gold, or 5,000 ounces of silver. e) DEPOSITS OF UNITED STATES COIN United States gold coin of legal weight shall not be received from depositors except in sums of not less than $5,000 in exchange for gold bars. Mutilated or otherwise uncurrent United States gold coins, of any denomination, will be received at any of the mints or assay offices of the United States, and the value of the fine gold contained will be paid to the depositor at the rate of $20.67 per ounce fine, or $18.60 per ounce standard (0.900 fine). f) MODE OF PAYMENTS Payments for deposits of gold bullion at the coinage mints and at the assay office in New York will be made in fine bars, coin, or by check, as may be desired by the depositor. At the minor assay offices payments are made by check on an Assistant Treasurer of the United States, or Government depository bank nearest at hand. g) MANUFACTURE OF BARS Unparted, fine, and standard bars may be manufactured at the coinage mints and the assay office at New York, and unparted bars at all of the institutions. Fine bars may be approved when they have a fineness of 0.992 and upward, and no bar of gold or silver of less weight than 5 ounces shall be issued at any of the mints or assay offices of the United States. 66 h) THE 'TOLERANCE OF THE MINT" AND "TRIAL OF THE PYX" The weight of a new gold eagle, or double eagle, must not vary more than half a grain from the standard weight fixed in the law. That of the smaller gold coins must not vary more than a quarter of a grain. This allowable variation is called the "tolerance of the mint." The testing of this weight is determined by a "Trial of the Pyx." Five pieces out of every thousand coined are taken out by the superintendent upon receipt from the coiner and tried separately by him. If successful, these pieces are sealed and deposited in a pyx which is kept under the joint care of the superintendent and the assayer and secured so that neither can have access to its contents without the presence of the other. If the original trial by the superintendent proves unsatisfactory, all the coins shall be weighed separately, and such as are not of legal weight shall be defaced and delivered to the melter and refiner. Four times a year the samples from the minor mints are sent to the mint at Philadelphia. The entire quantity of samples is then subjected to an annual "Trial of the Pyx" by a special Assay Commission, composed of the Judges of the District Court of the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Assayer of the assay office at New York, and such other persons as the President may, from time to time, designate. If an error is found, the officers implicated in the error are thenceforward disqualified from holding their respective offices. The penalty imposed upon an officer of the mint for debasing, embezzling, or in any way altering coins, or for tampering with the scales or weights used at the mints, shall be a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars and imprisonment for not more than ten years. i) THE STANDARD TROY POUND For the purpose of securing a due conformity in weight of the coins of the United States to the provisions of this Title, the brass troy-pound weight procured by the minister of the United States at London, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, for the use of the mint, and now in the custody of the mint in Philadelphia, shall be the standard troy pound of the mint of the United States, conformably to which the coinage thereof shall be regulated. Duplicates of this standard troy pound shall be procured for the other mints and assay offices. Inspection and testing of these shall be made annually by the Assay Commission along with the testing of coins. j) ABRASION Where gold is used extensively as a circulating medium there is a considerable loss from wear and tear, or abrasion. The law in the United States permits an abrasion equal to one-half of 1 per cent in 20 years, and proportionally for each year. For instance, an eagle, at the end of 20 years, would be current if it weighed only 256.71 grains instead of 258 (or 258.50 when allowance is made for the tolerance of the mint). The annual abrasion permissible is .0645. Experiments have shown that this limit of abrasion is high enough to avoid frequent recoinage in the United States. In case a gold coin is uncurrent on account of abrasion in the United States the loss falls on the last holder. This appears like an injustice, since the loss is due to social wear. It has thus far been held, however, that the impossibility of determining whether the light weight is due to abrasion or sweating makes it necessary to charge the loss entirely to the last holder. k) COUNTERFEITING "Whoever shall falsely make, forge, or counterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely made, forged, or counterfeited, or shall willingly aid or assist in falsely making, forging, or counterfeiting any coin or bars in resemblance or similitude of the gold or silver coins or bars which have been, or hereafter may be, coined or stamped at the mints and assay offices of the United States, or in resemblance or similitude of any foreign gold or silver coin which by law is, or hereafter may be, current in the United States, or are in actual use and circulation as money within the United States; or whoever shall pass, utter, publish, or sell, or attempt to pass, |