and a few half-dimes were issued towards the close of that year. The
general operations of the institution commenced in 1793. The coinage
effected from the commencement of the establishment to the end of the
year 1800 may be stated in round numbers at $2,534,000; the coinage
of the decade ending 1810 amounted to $6,971,000, and within the ten
years ending with 1820—$9,328,000. The amount within the ten years
ending with 1830 is stated at $18,000,000, and the whole coinage from
the commencement of the institution at $37,000,000. On the second of
March, 1829, provisions were made by Congress for extending the Mint
establishment, the supply of bullion for coinage having increased beyond
the capacity of the existing accommodations. The Mint edifice, erected
under this provision, stands on a lot purchased for the object at the
northwest corner of Chestnut and Juniper streets, fronting 150 feet on
Chestnut street and extending 204 feet to Penn Square, (the central
and formerly the largest public square in the city). The corner-stone
of the new edifice was laid on the fourth of July, 1829; the building
is of marble and of the Grecian style of architecture, the roof being
covered with copper. It presents on Chestnut street and Penn Square
a front of 123 feet, each front being ornamented with a portico of
60 feet, containing six Ionic columns. In the centre of the structure
there was formerly a court-yard (now built up) extending 85 by 84 feet,
surrounded by a piazza to each story, affording an easy access to all
parts of the edifice. Present officers of the Mint: Hon. Daniel M. Fox,
Superintendent; William S. Steel, Coiner; Jacob B. Eckfeldt, Assayer;
Patterson Du Bois, Assistant Assayer, James C. Booth, Melter and Refiner;
N. B. Boyd, Assistant Melter and Refiner; Charles E. Barber, Engraver;
George T. Morgan and William H. Key, Assistant Engravers; M. H. Cobb,
Cashier; George W. Brown, Doorkeeper.
On July 4, 1829, Samuel Moore, then Director, laid the corner stone
of the present building, located at the northwest corner of Chestnut
and Juniper streets. It is of white marble, and of the Grecian style
of architecture, and was finished, and commenced operations, in 1833.
Subsequent to that date necessary changes in the interior arrangements,
to accommodate the increase in business, have been introduced at various
times, and it was made more secure as a depository for the great
amount of bullion contained within its vaults, by having been rendered
fire-proof in 1856.
COPY OF THE PAPER LAID IN THE CORNER STONE OF THE MINT, JULY 4, 1829.
This corner stone of the Mint of the United States of America, laid
on the 4th day of July, 1829, being the fifty-third anniversary of
our independence, in the presence of the Officers thereof, Members of
Congress of the adjacent districts, architect, and artificers employed
in the building, and a number of citizens of Philadelphia, in the which
with this instrument are deposited specimens of the Coins of our Country
struck in the present year. The Mint of the United States commenced
operations in the year A. D., 1793, increasing constantly in utility,
until its locality and convenience required extension and enlargement,
which was ordered by the passage of a bill appropriating $120,000 for the
erection of new and convenient buildings, to accommodate its operations,
vesting the disbursement in the judgment and taste of the Director and
President of the United States. In pursuance of the above bill, passed
during the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, arrangements were made and
designs adopted; William Strickland appointed architect; John Struthers,
marble mason; Daniel Groves, bricklayer; Robert O’Neil, master carpenter,
and in the first year of the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, this corner
stone was placed in southeast corner of the edifice.
The names of the officers of the Mint of the United States at this time,
are as follows:
DOCTOR SAMUEL MOORE, Director,
ADAM ECKFELDT, Coiner,
JOSEPH CLOUD, Melter and Refiner,
JOSEPH RICHARDSON, Assayer,
DOCTOR JAMES RUSH, Treasurer,
WM. KNEASS, Engraver,
GEORGE EHRENZELDER, Clerk.
MINT OF THE UNITED STATES,
_Philadelphia, March 20, 1838_.
TO HON. LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury.
Sir:—I had the honor to receive your letter asking my attention
to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the United
States, passed March 5, 1838, as follows:
EXTRACT FROM RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS RELATING TO MINT.
“_Resolved_, That the Secretary of the Treasury report to this
House the cost of erecting the principal Mint and its branches,
including buildings, fixtures, and apparatus; the salaries and
expenses of the different officers; the amount expended in the
purchase of bullion; the loss arising from wastage, and all
other expenses; and the average length of time it requires to
coin at the principal Mint all the bullion with which it can be
furnished; and further, what amount of coin has been struck at
the several branch mints, since their organization.”
MINT OF THE UNITED STATES, PHILADELPHIA.
The cost of the edifice, machinery, and fixtures, was $173,390
Ground, enclosure, paving, etc. 35,840
---------
Total cost of buildings, etc. $209,230
=========
This amount does not include expenditures made under special
appropriations for the years 1836 and 1837, for milling and
coining by steam power; and for extensive improvements in
the assaying, melting, and parting rooms, and machine shops,
amounting to $28,270.
It may be proper to mention that the Mint building is on the
best street in the city, is of large dimensions, with the
whole exterior of marble, and two Ionic porticos; and that the
machinery and apparatus are of the best construction. The cost
must therefore be considered as very moderate. The new Mint
lately erected by the British India Government at Calcutta,
cost 24 lacs of rupees, or about $1,138,000.
The Director receives per annum $3,500
Treasurer 2,000
Chief Coiner 2,000
Assayer 2,000
Melter and Refiner 2,000
Engraver 2,000
Second Engraver 1,500
Assistant Assayer 1,300
Treasurer’s Clerk 1,200
Bookkeeper 1,000
Clerk of the weighing room 1,200
Director’s Clerk 700
-------
Total for salaries $20,400
=======
No expenses are allowed, beyond the above sums, to any officer,
assistant, or clerk, for the performance of his duties.
As all the gold and silver brought to the Mint is purchased at
the nett Mint price, there is no expense, properly so called,
incurred on this account.
R. M. PATTERSON,
_Director of the Mint_.
Previous to the passage of the law by the Federal government for
regulating the coins of the United States, much perplexity arose from
the use of no less than four different currencies or rates, at which
one species of coin was recoined, in the different parts of the Union.
Thus, in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Vermont, Virginia and Kentucky, the dollar was recoined at six shillings;
in New York and North Carolina at eight shillings; in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Maryland at seven shillings and six pence; in Georgia
and South Carolina at four shillings and eight pence. The subject had
engaged the attention of the Congress of the old confederation, and the
present system of the coins is formed upon the principles laid down
in their resolution of 1786, by which the denominations of money of
account were required to be dollars (the dollar being the unit), dismes
or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths of a dollar.
Nothing can be more simple or convenient than this decimal subdivision.
The terms are proper because they express the proportions which they are
intended to designate. The dollar was wisely chosen, as it corresponded
with the Spanish coin, with which we had been long familiar.
VISITING THE MINT.
The Mint, on Chestnut street near Broad, is open to the public daily,
excepting Sundays and holidays, from 9 to 12 A. M. Visitors are met by
the courteous ushers, who attend them through the various departments.
It is estimated that over forty thousand persons have visited the
institution in the course of a single year. Owing to the immense amount
of the precious metals which is always in course of transition, and
the watchful care necessary to a correct transaction of business, the
public are necessarily excluded from some of the departments. These,
however, are of but little interest to the many and are described under
their proper heads. The system adopted in the Mint is so precise and the
weighing so accurate, that the abstraction of the smallest particle of
metal would lead to almost immediate detection.
On entering the rotunda, the offices of the Treasurer and Cashier are to
the right and left. Farther in, in the hall, to the rear, on the right,
is the room of the Treasurer’s clerks; a part of this was formerly used
by the Adams Express Company, who transport to and from the Mint millions
of dollars worth of metal, coin, etc.
THE DEPOSIT OR WEIGHING-ROOM.
[Illustration: SCALES.]
On the left is the Deposit or Weighing-room, where all the gold and
silver for coining is received and first weighed. The largest weight used
in this room is five hundred ounces, the smallest, is the thousandth
part of an ounce. The scales are wonderfully delicate, and are examined
and adjusted on alternate days. On the right of this room is one of the
twelve vaults in the building. Of solid masonry, several of them are
iron-lined, with double doors of the same metal and most complicated and
burglar-proof locks.
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC WEIGHING SCALES.]
It is estimated that about fifteen hundred million dollars worth of
gold has been received and weighed in this room; probably nine-tenths
of this amount was from California, since its discovery there in the
year 1848. Previous to that time the supplies of gold came principally
from Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. During the past ten years
considerable quantities have been received from Nova Scotia, but most
of the gold that reaches the Mint, at the present time, comes from
California, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Dakota,
Virginia, South Carolina, and New Mexico.
Formerly the silver used by the Mint came principally from Mexico and
South America, but since the discovery of the immense veins of that metal
in the territories of the United States the supply is furnished from the
great West.
The copper used comes principally from the mines of Lake Superior, the
finest from Minnesota. The nickel is chiefly from Lancaster County, Pa.
THE DEPOSIT MELTING ROOM.
After the metal has been carefully weighed in the presence of the
depositor and the proper officials, it is locked in iron boxes and taken
to the melting room, where it is opened by two men, each provided with
a key to one of the separate locks. There are four furnaces in this
room, and the first process of melting takes place here. The gold and
silver, being mixed with borax and other fluxing material, is placed in
pots, melted and placed in iron moulds, and when cooled is again taken
to the deposit room in bars, where it is reweighed, and a small piece
cut from each lot by the Assayer. From this the fineness of the whole is
ascertained, the value calculated, and the depositor paid. The metal in
its rough state is then transferred to the Melter and Refiner.
OFFICE OF THE MELTER AND REFINER.
Adjoining the Deposit Melting Room are the Melter and Refiner and
assistants. This is the general business office of the head of this
department, and is also used for weighing the necessary quantities of the
metals used in alloying coin.
THE PROCESS OF ASSAY.
The two essential things regarding every piece of metal offered in
payment of any dues were, first, the weight or quantity, next, the
fineness or purity of the same. The process of weighing even the baser
metals used in coining must be conducted by the careful use of accurate
scales, with precise notes of the results. In precious metals, gold,
silver, and their high grade alloys, a very small variation in the
fineness makes a great difference in the value. Nothing is more essential
than the accurate determination of the weight of the sample and of
the metal obtained from it. It requires keen sight and most delicate
adjustment in the hand which manipulates the Lilliputian scales of
an Assayer’s table. The smallest weight used in the Mint is found in
the Assay Room; it is the thirteen-hundredth part of a grain, and can
scarcely be seen with the naked eye, unless on a white ground. The Assay
Department is strictly a technical and scientific branch of the service.
It has been practically under one regime, for the last fifty years. There
have been but three Chief Assayers in that time, the only removals being
by death, the only appointments by promotion. Its workmen are all picked
men, selected from other parts of the Mint for special fitness and good
character.
THE ASSAYING ROOMS.
These are on the second floor, in the southwest corner of the building.
In one of these are fires, stills, and other appliances used in the
delicate and complicated process of assay, by which the specific standard
of the fineness and purity of the various metals are established and
declared.
ASSAYING GOLD.
The gold is melted down and stirred, by which a complete mixture is
effected, so that an assay piece may be taken from any part of the bar
after it is cast. The piece taken for this purpose is rolled out for the
convenience of cutting. It is then taken to an assay balance (sensible
to the ten-thousandth of a half gramme or less), and from it is weighed
a half gramme, which is the normal assay weight for gold, being about
7.7 grains troy. This weight is stamped 1000; and all the lesser weights
(afterwards brought into requisition) are decimal divisions of this
weight, down to one ten-thousandth part.
Silver is next weighed out for the quartation (alloying), and as the
assay piece, if standard, should contain 900-thousandths of gold, there
must be three times this weight, or 2700-thousandths of silver; and this
is the quantity used. The lead used for the cupellation is kept prepared
in thin sheets, cut in square pieces, which should each weigh about ten
times as much as the gold under assay. The lead is now rolled into the
form of a hollow cone; and into this are introduced the assay gold and
the quartation silver, when the lead is closed around them and pressed
into a ball. The furnace having been properly heated, and the cupels
placed in it and brought to the same temperature, the leaden ball, with
its contents, is put into a cupel (a small cup made of burned bones,
capable of absorbing base metals), the furnace closed, and the operation
allowed to proceed, until all agitation is ceased to be observed in the
melted metal, and its surface has become bright. This is an indication
that the whole of the base metals have been converted into oxides, and
absorbed by the cupel.
The cupellation being thus finished, the metal is allowed to cool slowly,
and the disc or button which it forms is taken from the cupel. The button
is then flattened by a hammer; is annealed by bringing it to a red heat;
is laminated by passing it between the rollers; is again annealed; and
is rolled loosely into a spiral or coil called a _cornet_. It is now
ready for the process of quartation. This was formerly effected in a
glass matrass, and that mode is still used occasionally, when there
are few assays. But a great improvement, first introduced into this
country by the Assayer in 1867, was the—“platinum apparatus,” invented
in England. It consists of a platinum vessel in which to boil the nitric
acid, which is to dissolve out the silver, and a small tray containing
a set of platinum thimbles with fine slits in the bottom. In these the
silver is taken out, by successive supplies of nitric acid, without any
decanting as in the case of glass vessels. The cornets are also annealed
in the thimbles; in fact there is no shifting from the coiling to the
final weighing, which determines the fineness of the original sample by
proportionate weights in thousandths. In this process extra care has to
be taken in adding the proportions of silver, as the “shaking” of any one
cornet, might damage the others.
ASSAYING SILVER.
The process of assaying silver differs from that of gold. To obtain the
assay sample, a little of the metals is dipped from the pot and poured
quickly into water, producing a granulation, from portions of which that
needed for assay is taken. In the case of silver alloyed with copper
there is separation, to a greater or less degree, between the two metals
in the act of solidification. Thus an ingot or bar, cooled in a mould,
or any single piece cut from either, though really 900-thousandths fine
on the average, will show such variations, according to the place of
cutting, as might exceed the limits allowed by law. But the sudden chill
produced by throwing the liquid metal into water, yields a granulation of
entirely homogeneous mixture that the same fineness results, whether by
assaying a single granule, or part of one, or a number.
From this sample the weight of 1115 thousandths is taken; this is
dissolved in a glass bottle with nitric acid. The standard solution of
salt is introduced and chloride of silver is the result, which contains
of the metallic silver 1000 parts; this is repeated until the addition
of the salt water shows but a faint trace of chloride below the upper
surface of the liquid. For instance: if three measures of the decimal
solution have been used with effect, the result will show that the 1115
parts of the piece contained 1003 of pure silver; and thus the proportion
of pure silver in the whole alloyed metal is ascertained. Extensive
knowledge and experience are required in such matters as making the
bone-ash cupels, fine proof gold and silver, testing acids, and other
special examinations and operations. The Assayer must, himself, be
familiar with all the operations of minting, as critical questions are
naturally carried to him. The rendering of decisions upon counterfeit
or suspicious coins has long been a specialty in this department. Once a
year the President appoints a scientific commission to examine the coins
of the preceding year. There has never yet been a Philadelphia coin found
outside of the tolerance of fineness.
THE SEPARATING ROOM.
This department occupies the largest part of the west side of the
building, on the second floor. Here the gold and silver used by the Mint
in the manufacture of coin and fine bars are separated from each other,
or whatever other metals may be mixed with them, and purified. It goes to
this room after having been once melted and assayed. In separating and
purifying gold, it is always necessary to add to it a certain quantity of
pure silver. The whole is then immersed in nitric acid, which dissolves
the silver into a liquid which looks like pure water. The acid does not
dissolve the gold, but leaves it pure. The silver solution is then drawn
off, leaving the gold at the bottom of the tub. It is then gathered up
into pans and washed.
The silver in the condition in which it is received from the hands of
the depositor, and generally filled with foreign impurities, is melted
and then granulated, after which the whole mass is dissolved with nitric
acid. The acid dissolves the base metals as well as the silver. The
liquid metals are then run into tubs prepared for it, and precipitated,
or rendered into a partially hard state, by being mixed with common
salt water. After being precipitated it is called “chloride,” and
resembles very closely new slacked lime. By putting spelter or zinc on
the precipitated chloride, it becomes metallic silver, and only needs
washing and melting to make the purest virgin metal. The base metals
remain in a liquid state, and being of little value are generally thrown
away. The process of refining silver is of two kinds; that of melting it
with saltpetre, etc., which was known some thousands of years since, and
the modern process of dissolving it in nitric acid, like the method of
extracting it from gold in the above described operation.
After the separating process has been completed, the gold or silver is
conveyed to the Drying Cellar, where it is put under pressure of some
eighty tons, and all the water pressed out. It is then dried with heat,
and afterwards conveyed in large cakes to the furnaces.
THE MELTING ROOMS
are on the first floor, in the west side of the building. Here all the
metal used in coining is alloyed, melted and poured into narrow moulds.
These castings are called ingots; they are about twelve inches long,
a half-inch thick, and vary from one to two a half-inches in breadth,
according to the coin for which they are used, one end being wedge-shaped
to allow its being passed through the rollers. The value of gold ingots
is from $600 to $1,400; those of silver, about $60. The fine gold and
silver bars used in the arts and for commercial purposes, are also cast
in this department.
[Illustration: CASTING INGOTS.]
[Illustration: INGOTS.]
These are stamped with their weight and value in the deposit room. The
floors that cover the melting rooms are made of iron in honey-comb
pattern, divided into small sections, so that they can be readily taken
up to save the dust; their roughness acting as a scraper, preventing any
metallic particles from clinging to the soles of the shoes of those who
pass through the department, the sweepings of which, and including the
entire building, averages $23,000 per annum, for the last five years.
The copper and nickel melting rooms, wherein all the base metals used
are melted and mixed, is on the same side and adjoining to the gold and
silver department. Up to the year 1856, the base coin of the United
States was exclusively copper. In this year the coinage of what was
called the nickel cents was commenced. These pieces, although called
nickel, were composed of one-eighth nickel; the balance was copper.
The composition of the five and three cent pieces is one-fourth nickel;
the balance copper. The bronze pieces were changed in 1859, and are a
mixture of copper, zinc and tin, about equal parts of each of the two
last; the former contributing about 95 per cent. There are seven furnaces
in this room, each capable of melting five hundred pounds of metal per
day. When the metal is heated and sufficiently mixed, it is poured into
iron moulds, and when cool, and the rough ends clipped off, is ready to
be conveyed to the rolling room.
THE ROLLING ROOM.
From the melting rooms through the corridor we reach the rolling room.
The upright engine, on the right, of one hundred and sixty horse power,
supplies the motive force to the rolling machines, four in number. Those
on the left, are massive and substantial in their frame-work, with
rollers of steel, polished by service in reducing the ingots to planchets
for coining. The first process or rolling is termed breaking down; after
that it requires to be passed through the machine until it is reduced to
the required thinness—ten times if gold, eight if silver, being annealed
in the intervals to prevent breaking. The rollers are adjustable and the
space between them can be increased or diminished at pleasure, by the
operator. About two hundred ingots are run through per hour on each pair
of rollers.
The pressure applied is so intense that half a day’s rolling heats, not
only the strips and rollers, but even the huge iron stanchions, weighing
several tons, so hot that you can hardly hold your hand on them.
When the rolling is completed the strip is about six feet long, or six
times as long as the ingot.
It is impossible to roll perfectly true. At times there will be a lump of
hard gold, which will not be quite so much compressed as the rest. If the
planchets were cut from this place, it would be heavier and more valuable
than one cut from a thinner portion of the strip. It is, therefore,
necessary to “draw” the strips, after being softened by annealing.
[Illustration: ROLLING MACHINE.]
ANNEALING FURNACES.
These are in the same room, to the right facing the rollers. The gold
and strips are placed in copper canisters, and then placed in the
furnaces and heated to a red heat; silver strips being laid loosely in
the furnace. When they become soft and pliable, they are taken out and
allowed to cool slowly.
THE DRAWING BENCHES.