|
The United States mint was established by act of Congress April 2, 1792. The first money, copper cents, was coined in 1793 in the building erected by the government on the east side of Seventh street, near Market street, Philadelphia. The first director of the mint was David Rittenhouse, LL. D., and among his successors have been Elias Boudinot, Robert Paterson, James Ross Snowden, James Pollock, Dr. Linderman and Col. Snowden. Silver dollars were the second money made, in 1794, and next gold eagles, in 1795. The first machinery, as well as metal used, came from England, and up to 1816 all work was done by horse or hand power. During five years of the mint's existence, work has been suspended owing to the prevalence of disease in the city. The present mint, on Chestnut street, near Broad, built of white marble, in the Grecian style, was finished in 1833. No eagles were coined from 1805 to 1837, inclusive. No half eagles were coined in 1816 or 1817; no quarter eagles before 1796, nor in 1800 or 1801, nor from 1809 to 1820, or in 1822, 1823, 1828 or 1841; no dollars from 1806 to 1838, except 1,000 in 1836; no half dollars from 1797 to 1800, nor in 1815; no quarters before 1796, none from 1798 to 1803, none from 1808 to 1814, and none in 1817-24-26-29 and 1830; no half dimes in 1798, 1799, 1804 and 1806 to 1828; no cents in 1815, a few specimens in 1823; no half cents in 1798, 1801, I812 to 1824, 1827 to 1830, 1834, 1837 and 1840. A few half cents were struck every year from 1840 to 1857. The first $3 pieces were made in 1854. The silver dollar coinage of 412½ grains, the 5-cent and 3-cent silver pieces and the bronze 2-cent piece ceased April 1, 1873. The mints at Carson and San Francisco coin gold and silver only, and the Denver mint is confined to assaying and refining. The first process of the mint is in the weighing room where all precious metal—gold from California, Georgia, Montana and Nova Scotia. and silver from Nevada and most of the world—is weighed. Here come, also, family plate and bricks of silver, copper from Lake Superior and nickel from Pennsylvania. Tons of silver bricks are here, weighing from 100 to 150 pounds each. The largest weight used in the weighing room is 6,000 ounces. The smallest weight used in the mint is in the assaying room and weighs 1-1300 of an ounce. The metals for coining, including gold dust, grains of gold and crystalline lumps, next go to the deposit melting room, where they are placed in pots, and with a suitable flux, are melted and molded. Bits are cut off for assaying before the metal goes to the refiner and melter. For assaying, the small bit of gold is taken to the assayer's room, a dark department, with crucibles, kettles and pans. It is put into a black lead pot, melted and fluxed, stirred up to make a complete mixture and then cooled and rolled out. Then half a gramme is weighed, which is stamped 1000, and all the weights thereafter used are decimals of this, to the ten thousandth part. Silver for the alloying is next added, and then lead for the cupellation; the whole is cupelled until the base metals are fused, the remaining bullion is beaten in a spiral, the silver dissolved out and the remaining gold determined by weight. Iron molds are used in the melting room, which are previously greased to prevent sticking and all the gold and silver used in the mint, in molten mass, are poured into these and speedily cooled. The long, thin, rich-colored bars resulting are called ingots. From the melting room the bars go to the rolling room, where 200 per hour pass through the mighty revolving jaws of each pair of rollers, coming forth with the exact thickness of a coin. In the same room with the rollers are nine cutting presses, which, with a continual snap, snap, bite out 225 planchets of plain coin pieces in a minute. These planchets are taken in boxes to the annealing furnaces, for the hard treatment they have received makes them brittle. They are heated in the furnaces to a red heat and, having become soft and pliable as leather, are taken out to cool. The planchets then go to the adjusting room, where they are weighed and inspected. If too light, they are remelted; if a little too heavy, they are filed to the right weight; but if much too heavy, they, too, are remelted. From the adjusting room the planchets go to the cleaning room, where with acid and heat they are thoroughly cleaned, and then dried with sawdust and peanut-roaster contrivances. They are then milled and have their edges turned up, after which they go to the presses. The presses are ten massive monsters, each capable of turning out over 100 coins per minute. The amount of pressure required to make a perfect coin is from 20 to 80 tons, according to the size, of the coin. The planchets are put in a brass tube, and with each impress are caught in two iron arms and placed on the lower die, which is in the bed of the press, corresponding to the upper die, and by the coming together of these two die, the coins are struck. As the planchet rests on the lower die, the upper descends and impresses it., and the two arms instantly catch the coin struck and throw it into a box beneath. At this moment it is a legal coin. The coins are then taken from the boxes and placed on grooved counting boards, similar to washboards, which hold a certain number of coins. After this count they are poured into a drawer, out of which they are again counted, and placed in bags, ready for their mission of happiness or wretchedness. NINE GREAT WONDERS OF AMERICA |