Chapter II: Part 2

“_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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

These machines resemble long tables, with a bench on either side, at one end of which is an iron box secured to the table. In this are fastened two perpendicular steel cylinders, firmly supported in a bed, to prevent their bending or turning around, and presenting but a small portion of their circumference to the strip. These are exactly at the same distance apart that the thickness of the strip is required to be. One end of the strip is somewhat thinner than the rest, to allow it to pass easily between the cylinders. When through, this end is put between the jaws of a powerful pair of tongs, or pincers, fastened to a little carriage running on the table. The carriage to the further bench is up close to the cylinders, ready to receive a strip, which is inserted edgewise. When the end is between the pincers, the operator touches a foot pedal which closes the pincers firmly on the strip, and pressing another pedal, forces down a strong hook at the left end of the carriage, which catches in a link of the moving chain. This draws the carriage away from the cylinders, and the strip being connected with it has to follow. It is drawn between the cylinders, which operating on the thick part of the strip with greater power than upon the thin, reduces the whole to an equal thickness. When the strip is through, the strain on the tongs instantly ceases, which allows a spring to open them and drop the strip. At the same time another spring raises the hook and disengages the carriage from the chain. A cord fastened to the carriage runs back over the wheel near the head of the table, and then up to a couple of combination weights on the wall beyond, which draw the carriage back to the starting place, ready for another strip.

THE CUTTING MACHINES.

After being thoroughly washed, the strips are consigned to the cutting machines. These are in the rear of the rolling mills, and are several in number, each when in active operation cutting two hundred and twenty-five planchets per minute. The press now used, consists of a vertical steel punch, which works in a round hole or matrix, cut in a solid steel plate. The action of the punch is obtained by an eccentric wheel. For instance, in an ordinary carriage wheel, the axis is in the centre, and the wheel revolves evenly around it. But if the axis is placed, say four inches from the centre, then it would revolve with a kind of hobble. From this peculiar motion its name is derived. Suppose the tire of the wheel is arranged, not to revolve with, but to slip easily around the wheel, and a rod is fastened to one side of the tire which prevents its turning. Now as the wheel revolves and brings the _long side nearest the rod_, it will push forward the rod, and when the long side of the wheel is _away from the rod_, it draws the rod with it.

The upper shaft, on which are seen the three large wheels, has also fastened to it, over each press, an eccentric wheel. In the first illustration will be seen three upright rods running from near the table to the top. The middle one is connected with a tire around the eccentric wheel, and rises and falls with each revolution. The eccentric power gives great rapidity of motion with but little jerking.

The operator places one end of a strip of metal in the immense jaws of the press, and cuts out a couple of planchets, which are a fraction larger than the coin to be struck. As the strips are of uniform thickness, if these two are of the right weight, all cut from that strip will be the same. They are therefore weighed accurately. If right, or a little heavy, they are allowed to pass, as the extra weight can be filed off. If too light, the whole strip has to be re-melted. As fast as cut the planchets fall into a box below, and the perforated strips are folded into convenient lengths to be re-melted. From a strip worth say eleven hundred dollars, eight hundred dollars of planchets will be cut.

ADJUSTING ROOM.

The planchets are then removed to the adjusting room, where they are adjusted. This work is performed by ladies. After inspection they are weighed on very accurate scales. If a planchet is too heavy, but near the weight, it is filed off at the edges; if too heavy for filing, it is thrown aside with the light ones, to be re-melted. To adjust coin so accurately requires great delicacy and skill, as a too free use of the file would make it too light. Yet by long practice, so accustomed do the operators become, that they work with apparent unconcern, scarce glancing at either planchets or scales, and guided as it were by unerring touch.

The exceedingly delicate scales were made under the direction of Mr. Peale, who greatly improved on the old ones in use. So precise and sensitive are they that the slightest breath of air affects their accuracy, rendering it necessary to exclude every draft from the room.

PROGRESS IN COINING.

The methods of coining money have varied with the progress in mechanic arts, and are but indefinitely traced from the beginning; the primitive mode, being by the casting of the piece in sand, the impression being made with a hammer and punch. In the middle ages the metal was hammered into sheets of the required thickness, cut with shears into shape, and then stamped by hand with the design. The mill and screw, by which greater increase in power, with finer finish was gained, dates back to the Sixteenth Century. This process, with various modifications and improvements, continued in use in the Philadelphia Mint until 1836.

The first steam coining press was invented by M. Thonnelier, of France, in 1833, and was first used in the United States Mint in 1836. It was remodeled and rebuilt in 1858, but in 1874 was superseded by the one now in operation, the very perfection of mechanism, in which the vibration and unsteady bearing of the former press were entirely obviated, and precision attained by the solid stroke with a saving of over seventy-five per cent. in the wearing and breaking of the dies.

DIES.

The dies for coining are prepared by engravers, especially employed at the Mint for that purpose. The process of engraving them consists in cutting the devices and legends in soft steel, those parts being depressed which, in the coin, appear in relief. This, having been finished and hardened, constitutes an “_original die_,” which, being the result of a tedious and difficult task, is deemed too precious to be directly employed in striking coins; but it is used for multiplying dies. It is first used to impress another piece of soft steel, which then presents the appearance of a coin, and is called a _hub_. This hub, being hardened, is used to impress other pieces of steel in like manner which, being like the original die, are hardened and used for striking the coins. A pair of these will, on an average, perform two weeks’ work.

TRANSFER LATHE.

The transfer lathe, a very complicated piece of machinery, is used in making dies, for coins and medals. By it, from a large cast, the design can be transferred and engraved in smaller size, in perfect proportion to the original.

THE COINING AND MILLING ROOMS.

This department, the most interesting to the general visitor, occupies the larger portion of the first floor on the east side of the building. The rooms are divided by an iron railing, which separates the visitors, on either side, from the machinery, etc., but allows everything to be seen.

The planchets, after being adjusted, are received here, and, in order to protect the surface of the coin, are passed through the milling-machine. The planchets are fed to this machine through an upright tube, and, as they descend from the lower aperture, they are caught upon the edge of a revolving wheel and carried about a quarter of a revolution, during which the edge is compressed and forced up—the space between the wheel and the rim being a little less than the diameter of the planchet. This apparatus moves so nimbly that five hundred and sixty half-dimes can be milled in a minute; but, for large pieces, the average is about one hundred and twenty. In this room are the milling machines, and the massive, but delicate, coining presses, ten in number. Each of these is capable of coining from eighty to one hundred pieces a minute. Only the largest are used in making coins of large denominations.

The arch is a solid piece of cast iron, weighing several tons, and unites with its beauty great strength. The table is also of iron, brightly polished and very heavy. In the interior of the arch is a nearly round plate of brass, called a triangle. It is fastened to a lever above by two steel bands, termed stirrups, one of which can be seen to the right of the arch. The stout arm above it, looking so dark in the picture, is also connected with the triangle by a ball-and-socket joint, and it is this arm which forces down the triangle. The arm is connected with the end of the lever above by a joint somewhat like that of the knee. One end of the lever can be seen reaching behind the arch to a crank near the large fly-wheel. When the triangle is _raised_, the arm and near end of the lever extends outward. When the crank lifts the further end of the lever it draws in the knee and forces down the arm until it is perfectly straight. By that time the crank has revolved and is lowering the lever, which forces out the knee again and raises the arm. As the triangle is fastened to the arm it has to follow all its movements.

Under the triangle, buried in the lower part of the arch, is a steel cup, or, technically, a “die stake.” Into this is fastened the reverse die. The die stake is arranged to rise one-eighth of an inch; when down it rests firmly on the solid foundation of the arch. Over the die stake is a steel collar or plate, in which is a hole large enough to allow a planchet to drop upon the die. In the triangle above, the obverse die is fastened, which moves with the triangle; when the knee is straightened the die fits into the collar and presses down upon the reverse die.

Just in front of the triangle will be seen an upright tube made of brass, and of the size to hold the planchets to be coined. These are placed in this tube. As they reach the bottom they are seized singly by a pair of steel feeders, in motion as similar to that of the finger and thumb as is possible in machinery, and carried over the collar and deposited between the dies, and, while the fingers are expanding and returning for another planchet, the dies close on the one within the collar, and by a rotary motion are made to impress it silently but powerfully. The fingers, as they again close upon a planchet at the mouth of the tube, also seize the coin, and, while conveying a second planchet on to the die, carry the coin off, dropping it into a box provided for that purpose, and the operation is continued _ad infinitum_. These presses are attended by ladies, and do their work in a perfect manner. The engine that drives the machinery is of one hundred and sixty horse-power.

After being stamped the coins are taken to the Coiner’s room, and placed on a long table—the double eagles in piles of ten each. It will be remembered that, in the Adjusting Room, a difference of one-half a grain was made in the weight of some of the double eagles. The light and heavy ones are kept separate in coining, and when delivered to the treasurer, they are mixed together in such proportions as to give him full weight in every delivery. By law the deviation from the standard weight, in delivering to him, must not exceed three pennyweights in one thousand double eagles. The gold coins—as small as quarter eagles being counted and weighed to verify the count—are put up in bags of $5,000 each. The three-dollar pieces are put up in bags of $3,000, and one-dollar pieces in $1,000 bags. The silver pieces, and sometimes small gold, are counted on a very ingenious contrivance called a “counting-board.”

By this process twenty-five dollars in five-cent pieces can be counted in less than a minute. The “boards” are a simple flat surface of wood, with copper partitions, the height and size of the coin to be counted, rising from the surface at regular intervals, and running parallel with each other from top to bottom. They somewhat resemble a common household “washing board,” with the grooves running parallel with the sides but much larger. The boards are worked by hand, over a box, and as the pieces are counted they slide into a drawer prepared to receive them. They are then put into bags and are ready for shipment.[8]

THE CABINET.

The room in the Mint used for the Cabinet is on the second floor. It was formerly a suite of three apartments connected by folding-doors, but the doors have been removed, and it is now a pleasant saloon fifty-four feet long by sixteen wide. The eastern and western sections are of the same proportions, each with a broad window. The central section is lighted from the dome, which is supported by four columns. There is an open space immediately under the dome, to give light to the hall below, which is the main entrance to the Mint. Around this space is a railing and a circular case for coins. The Cabinet of Coins was established in 1838, by Dr. R. M. Patterson, then Director of the Mint. Anticipating such a demand, reserves had been made for many years by Adam Eckfeldt,[9] the Coiner, of the “master coins” of the Mint; a term used to signify first pieces from new dies, bearing a high polish and struck with extra care. These are now more commonly called “proof pieces.” With this nucleus, and a few other valuable pieces from Mr. Eckfeldt, the business was committed to the Assay Department, and especially to Mr. Du Bois, Assistant Assayer. The collection grew, year by year, by making exchanges to supply deficiencies, by purchases, by adding our own coin, and by saving foreign coins from the melting-pot—a large part in this way, at a cost of not more than their bullion value, though demanding great care, appreciation, and study. Valuable donations were also made by travelers, consuls, and missionaries. In 1839, Congress appropriated the sum of $1,000 for the purchase of “specimens of ores and coins to be preserved at the Mint.” Annually, since, the sum of $300 has been appropriated by the Government for this object. More has not been asked or desired, for the officers of the Mint have not sought to vie with the long established collections of the national cabinets of the old world, or even to equal the extravagance of some private numismatists; but they have admirably succeeded in their purpose to secure such coins as would interest all, from the schoolboy to the most enthusiastic archæologist. The economic principle upon which the collection has been gathered is a lesson to all governmental departments in frugality, as well as a restraint upon the natural tendency to extravagance which has heretofore distinguished those who have a passion for old coins. There are thousands of coin collectors in the United States, and fortunes have been accumulated in this strange way. More than one authenticated instance has been known in this country where a man has lived in penury, and died from want, yet possessed of affluence in time-defaced coins.

RELICS.

Having referred to the portraits of the Directors of the Mint, we will cite other interesting subjects of observation, before describing the coins.

The first object in the Cabinet attracting attention is a framed copy of the law of Congress establishing the Mint, with its quaint phraseology with the signature of Thomas Jefferson. (See fac simile on page 11.)

In the first section, near the western window, is the assorting machine, the invention of a Frenchman, Baron Seguier, and which is now in use in the Mint at Paris.

The planchets for coinage are liable to be a little too heavy or too light; it is therefore necessary, at least in the case of gold, to assort them by weighing. This machine is designed to enable one person to do the work of many. “The planchets are thrown into the hopper at the rear, and, being arranged by the action of the wheel, slide down balances. By machinery beneath they are carried one by one to the nearest platforms to be weighed. If too heavy, the tall needle of the beam leans to the right and lifts a pallet-wire, which connects with an apparatus under the table by which the planchet is pushed off and slides into one of the brass pans in front. If the piece be light, the needle is drawn over to the left, and touches the other pallet, which makes a passage to another brass pan. If the piece be of true weight, or near enough, the needle stands perpendicular between the pallets, and the piece finds its way into the third brass pan.”

On the opposite wall is a fine cast of Cromwell, a duplicate of one taken shortly after his death. It was placed here by Mr. W. E. Du Bois, who received it from H. W. Field, Esq., late Assayer of the Royal Mint, London, who is a descendant of the great Protector. Below the cast of Cromwell is a case showing progressive “alloys of gold.” The plates comprise gold alloyed with copper, gold alloyed with silver, and gold fine.

In the eastern section are the Standard Test Scales, used to test the weights sent to all the mints and assay offices in the United States, and are so delicate as to weigh the _twenty-thousandth_ part of an ounce. These scales were manufactured by employees of the Mint, and have been in use more than a quarter of a century. The beam is hollow, and filled with Spanish cedar to guard against the effect of dampness; the bearings are edges of knife-blades, which impinge on a surface of agate plate. These scales are tested by the Annual Assay Committee, which meets on the second Tuesday in February of every year.

CURIOSITIES AND MINERALS.

The most interesting objects of this curious display are three golden images from graves in the Island of Chiriqui, off Central America. They were dug up in 1858, and sent to the Mint as bullion, to be melted. They are of pure gold, but the workmanship is very crude. The images are in the forms of a reptile, a bird, and a man with symbols of power in his hands, not unlike those designating Jupiter. There are also, in the first section, two large cases with choice selections of mineral specimens, carefully classified and labeled. These are from well selected results of years of patient collecting, and are deserving of more study than can be devoted to them by casual visitors. They are chiefly from different parts of the United States, and are an “index book” to the vast mineral wealth of the nation.

Near the exit door of the Cabinet, in a large glass case, is a magnificent American eagle, which is worthy of the visitor’s attention. It is superbly mounted, with grand breadth of wing and wondrous piercing eyes. The portrait of this “pet” can be recognized on Reverse of the “Pattern” Silver Dollars of 1836, 1838, and 1839, and on the Obverse of the first nickel cent pieces coined in 1856.

“PETER,”

the name which the noble bird recognized, was an inhabitant of the Mint six years. He would fly about the city, but no one interfered with the going or coming of the “Mint bird,” and he never failed to return from his daily exercise before the time for closing the building. In an evil hour he unfortunately perched upon a large fly wheel, and getting caught in the machinery, received a fatal injury to his wing, and this ended rather an unusual career for an eagle.

EASTERN CORRIDOR.

Opening into the eastern corridor are the rooms of the Superintendent, the Chief Clerk, and the library of Historical and Scientific Works, including many valuable books upon the art of coinage. Passing out upon the gallery, we enter the Machinists’ and Engravers’ rooms. Here are engraved and finished the dies used in this Mint and in all the branch mints. Visitors are not ordinarily allowed access to these rooms, or to the assay office, or to the cellar. (In the latter are a number of immense vaults, and in the main cellar are engines, which supply the power and light used throughout the building.) Here are also blacksmith, carpenter, and paint shops; and in the rear, west side, is the medal-striking room, where medals are struck by a screw press, worked by hand. The cellar also contains the “sweep” grinding rooms. Near this room are the wells, which are receptacles for the water used in washing the precious metals. These wells are cleaned out every few years and the deposit is then treated in the same way as the sweepings.

The little wooden building in the court was formerly the cent-room, where copper cents were exchanged for nickels;[10] it is now the office of the agent of the Adams Express Company, who brings to the Philadelphia Mint millions of dollars worth of precious metals in the shape of bullion from the far west, to be converted into American Coin, when it is again transported by the same company to various points to be put into circulation.

COINS.

The ancient coins are chiefly arranged in upright cases against the walls in the doorways and the middle section of the saloon. The modern coins are placed in nearly level cases at either end of the room and in the circular or central cases. Of antique coins the portion labeled Cabinet Nos. 97, 98, 99, “Massilia,” are interesting as belonging to a Greek colony which settled about six hundred years before Christ upon the coast of Gaul, on the spot now known as Marseilles. This little colony fled their native country and the rule of a governor placed over it by a Persian monarch. They were distinguished for their civilization, and the work upon these small coins is the most palpable witness of that fact in existence to-day.

GREEK COINS.

Their surfaces, of gold, silver, and bronze, bristle with lance and spear, helmet and shield. On one of these coins Jove is seated and bearing an eagle, defying Alexander of Macedon, while on the obverse the same mighty conqueror impersonates Hercules. The oldest coin here is supposed to date back to 550 B.C. It is well to mention the fact that coins were never dated until the fifteenth century; and previous to that time the ages of coins can only be determined by the legends upon them, as answering to the page of corroborative history and the art era to which they belonged. No. 9 bears on the obverse the Macedonian horse, a favorite animal, which the then war-loving Greeks are said to have deified. At this period the haughty royal families began to chronicle in coin their line of descent. The kings of Macedon claimed Hercules for an ancestor, and in proof thereof the lion’s skin was a royal insignia. An old historian says, “The kings of Macedon, instead of the crown, the diadem, the purple, bear upon their effigy the skin of a lion.” Several pieces of money in this case, upon which are heads of Alexander, have rings in them, and were worn by gracious dames as ornaments. The value of this series of coins is priceless, as furnishing portraits of the heroes of that period which can be received without question as accurate, for the art patronage of the kingdom was regulated by the strictest laws. Alexander was especially jealous of how the future nations should regard his physique, allowing only three artists, during his reign, the privilege of drawing, painting, or modeling his head.[11] To such royal guardianship may be attributed the perfection to which Greek art attained; and it may well be a matter of regret that the same firmness in this regard was not universal. The last coin of this series is a small bronze coin, and was issued by Perseus, the last king of Macedon.

PERSIAN.

In this case is a collection of Persian coins, very choice, and of no mean workmanship, and, of course, portraying the faith and rites of the fire-worshippers. One era is distinctly Greek in style, and marks the period of Greek supremacy. The oldest gold coin known to the collector is the gold Daric of King Darius, with the head of the king in bold relief; and all Persian coins are so called in remembrance of this monarch. Their money was very fine, so the word _Daric_ has become incorporated into numismatic terminology to designate any pure gold coin. Nos. 58 to 67, inclusive, of this series, are silver coins of the Sassanian kings.

EGYPT

is also represented in this case, as is proper, for that nation had no coinage until it was taught the art when conquered by Alexander. Here are some very attractive data of Egyptian history, and from these coins are obtained the only portraits of Arsinoe, Cleopatra, and others.

THE SYRIAN COINS

are embraced in the division called “Greek monarchies,” and in them are found many coins not only important in history, but of the very finest Greek art, from the third to the first century B.C. In this period the Syriac and Hebrew coins become intermingled, a fact abundantly sustained by the Jewish shekel of Simon Maccabees. The legend of this interesting relic is in the language of Samaria; on one side the budding rod of Aaron, legend, “Jerusalem the Holy;” on the other, a cup of incense or pot of manna, and the inscription, “Shekel of Israel.” This shekel is well preserved, and is one of the most prized coins known. (See Plate and Case XV., marked “_Selections_.”) In this collection are some coins from Bactria, considered priceless by savans. These are trophies of recent British explorations, and are judged to be of sufficient importance to call forth from an English professor an extended treatise on the “Antiquities and Coins of Afghanistan.” They are exceedingly rude in workmanship, and nearly all of baser metal, the most important being a small, square, brass coin, in the case marked “_Selections_.”

ROMAN COINS.

The collection of Roman coins in this Cabinet numbers nearly one thousand, and an acquaintance with it is invaluable for object teaching, as in it is the condensed history, not only of the glory of Rome, “Mistress of the World,” but of her customs, faith, conquests, wealth, culture, divisions, and _downfall_. Through this entire section of time—one-third of the known history of the world—Roman art, though high, never reached the exalted purity of Greek lines. In their finest coins we see no Phidias, no Myron, no Praxiteles, but they deteriorate and fluctuate visibly when in or out of contact with the influence of the Grecian mind.

GREEK REPUBLIC

will be first in interest, both historic and artistic. It is conceded that to the Greeks the world owes the introduction of the art of coinage, and though centuries numbered by tens have passed, some of the old Greek coins equal many modern productions in purity of lines, and surpass nearly all in poetic sentiment. On the first coins no earthly potentate was allowed to be pictured, no deed of heroism portrayed. The glory of the gods was considered the only appropriate theme for impressions on the surface of bronze, silver, and gold. The coins of the republic embrace a large variety, as nearly a thousand towns were allowed the privilege of coinage. Upon this varied issue are preserved nearly all the legends of Greek mythology. Upon the coins are the heads of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Bacchus, Apollo, and Diana, with many sacred animals, and the work is to-day the standard of artistic perfection. Of course, the collection of this ancient period cannot be extensive. In this case there are, however, more than one hundred and fifty specimens, and these present a study so attractive and so intense that it is almost impossible to imagine what classic poetry would be without it.

Nos. 4, 5, and 6, are silver coins of Ægina, which have on the obverse, for a device, the tortoise, emblematic of the security of the island amid the waves, and the protection of the gods of the sea. On the reverse are the marks of the punches only, probably denoting the value of the coins. These are claimed to belong to an era seven hundred years before Christ. No. 28 is a silver coin of Athens, with a head of Minerva splendidly drawn upon the obverse, while the reverse presents a large owl, the bird sacred to the goddess of Wisdom. The devices upon this coin indicate its age to be from twenty-one to twenty-three centuries. The Greek proverb of “taking owls to Athens” referred to this coin, which was necessarily of great importance to the tradespeople of that city.

FAMILY COINS.

These comprise about one hundred and seventy-five, of which one hundred and twenty-six are in the collection. They were struck to record the heroic deeds which first introduced any notable ancestor to fame, and hence are to-day family charts of respectability for many of the patricians of Rome, albeit some of them have plebeian roots. Be that as it may, they are as much the trusted patents of aristocracy as is the “Book of the Peerage” of England. Here are found the same distinctions between patrician and plebeian which mark all countries, the patricians being always designated by a symbol of warfare, while the plebeians were indicated by the tools and instruments of common trade. The more noticeable of the coins are as follows: No. 16, Acilia; the reverse a female leaning against a pillar, with a serpent clutched in her right hand, indicating the wisdom or courage of some ancestor. No. 20, Æmilia; on the obverse of this curious coin is a figure kneeling by the side of a camel, presenting an olive branch, from which depends a fillet or ancient diadem; on the reverse, a figure guiding a triumphal chariot, a scorpion in the field. Josephus tells us of an invasion of Arabia, and that Aretus, the king of the country, purchased peace of the Romans for five hundred talents. The diadem hanging from the olive branch chronicles the entire humiliation of Aretus, and the scorpion doubtless indicates the month of the Roman triumph. No. 30, Aquillia, a small silver coin; the reverse shows a woman kneeling before a soldier. The motto below the figures (or in the _exergue_ of the coin, as is the art term) is “_Sicil_.” This commemorates the suppression of a revolt of slaves in Sicily, which was achieved by Manlius Aquillia. No. 41, Calpurnia, the family of Cæsar’s noble wife; reverse, a horseman riding at full speed, a head of wheat above him; legend, L. Piso-Trugi. The coin recalls the fact that in the year 507 B.C. there was a famine in Rome, and Calpurnius Piso was dispatched to Africa to buy corn. This seemingly small service is magnified upon a large number of coins. Nos. 95 and 96, Hostilia, a coin with a sacrifice to _Pallor_ and _Pavor_ (fear and trembling), offered by Tullus Hostilius in some great emergency. No. 97, Julia; obverse, a helmeted head; legend, Cæsar; reverse, a warrior in a chariot drawn by two horses.

No. 98, Junia; obverse, head of Liberty; reverse, Junius Brutus guarded by lictors, and preceded by a herald, showing that an ancestor of Junius Brutus was the first consul of Rome. Nos. 181, 182, Tituria. The reverse shows two soldiers throwing their shields upon a prostrate female, illustrating the famous story of the “Tarpeian Rock.” Reverse represents the Romans carrying off Sabine women—a witness in coin of the fact that the family of Tituria trace their ancestry from the Sabines. To do justice to this case is impossible, for here are coins relating to the ancestors of Antonia, Aurelia, Cornelia, Fulvia, Horatio, Lucretia, Lucilla, Sempronia, Titia Valeria, and many others familiar to the readers of history.

This era of coins terminated about the time of the birth of Christ, when the

IMPERIAL COINS

were introduced. In noticing these, little save the labels on the case can be given.

_Division II._