The United States Branch Mints [pp. 528-535]

UNITED STATES BRANCHI MINTS.
dime to the dollar. The mechanical principle brought into play is the
same as that in the ordinary printing press-the genicular or elbow
power, by which, with sustaining parts of sufficient strength, an almost
incalculable degree of pressure may be commanded. Each operating
press requires a man to watch it, to oil the joints occasionally and to keep
a vertical brass tube supplied with the blanks or planchets to be coined.
The untiring press goes on, siezing with iron fingers from the tube, a
planchet of its own accord, carefully adjusting it to the retracted dies,
squeezing it with a degree of force sublime to contemplate, and then qui.
etly and safely depositing it in the box placed to receive it. From eighty
to one hundred and fifty pieces, dependent upon the size, are thus coined in
one minute's time. The obverse, reverse, and indented work upon the
edge, are all completed at a single effort of the press. Travel the
world over, and you can scarcely meet with a more admirable piece of
massive mechanism, than the new press in the New Orleans Mint, for
the coinage of dollars.
Though stamped and perfectly finished, gold or silver does not legally
become money until the coiner has formally delivered it, by counting
and weighing, over to the treasurer. It must be seen that the pieces
possess the weight required by law. If any prove too light upon trial,
a circumstance that rarely happens, such are defaced and condemned
to be remelted.
All nations that aim to preserve what is called public faith, are reli giously scrupulous to maintain, as far as practicable, the weight and
quality of their national coins, in correspondence with the legal standards
which they fix upon. Acting with this view, our Government has established an annual trial before special commissioners, to test and verify
the standard value of the coins of the preceding year. This trial is held
at the parent Mint, in Philadelphia. Subservient thereto, it is the
treasurer's duty to select assay coins indiscriminately from every parcel
delivered by the coiner to the treasurer. The coins by him selected
are properly labelled and formally placed in a tin box, secured by
two locks, the key to one of which is kept by the assayer, the key to
the other by the treasurer. The contents of this box are transmitted
by the superintendent, through the Secretary of the Treasury, to the
director of the Mint at Philadelphia, for the annual trial. The coinage
of this Mint has thus far been approved, but it is worthy of remark that
the average finess of the gold coins issued is a trifle better than the mean
standard contemplated by law-the averrage value of a New Orleans
eagle being about three-fourths of a cent greater than similar coins
from the inints at Charlotte, Dahlonega, or Philadelphia.
634