MINT, a government establishment for the coining of lawful metallic money. The United States mint was established in 1791, and re mained an independent department of the Federal government until 1873, when it became subordinate to the Treasury Department under the title of 'The Bureau of the Mint?' This bureau is controlled by the Director of the Mint, who has general supervision of all the mint and assay offices in the country. He is the active manager, and formulates the rules of operation under which the bureau is run, but these rules require the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury before they become effective. Besides making the coined money of the country the United States mint makes metallic money for foreign nations, and also does considerable business in the line of sup plying fine gold and silver in bars for indus trial uses, and in making assays of bullion and ores of the precious metals for private owners.
During the fiscal year ended 30 June 1916, coining operations were carried on at the mints of Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver. The mints at New Orleans and Carson City and the assay office in New York were oper ated as assay offices. The assay offices at Seattle, Boise, Helena, Salt Lake City and Deadwood were operated only as purchasing agencies for the active institutions. Refining was carried on at New York, Denver and San Francisco. The value of the gold acquired by the United States government at the mints and assay offices during the year cited was $50:3, 083,262.92. The value of the silver purchased was $6,545,161.96 fine ounces, costing $3,348, 642.49.
The United States coinage for the year amounted to $37,209,062.83, of which $31,077,409 was gold; $3,3213,882.50 silver; $1,790,468.15 nickel; and $1,012,303.17 bronze. These figures include the 19,534 one dollar gold pieces coined for the Panama-Pacific International Exposi tion. There were also coined for foreign na tions, at the Philadelphia mint: For Cuba, 3,092,890 gold pieces; 11,574,450 silver pieces and 25,912,150 nickel pieces; for Colombia. 852,663 silver pieces; for Ecuador, 1,000,000 silver pieces; for Salvador, 1,003,000 nickel pieces; for Venezuela, 2,000,000 nickel pieces; and for Peru, 100,000 gold planchets and 500,829 silver planchets. The mint at San Francisco coined for the Philippines 1,435,000 silver pieces and 5,500,000 bronze pieces. No other minting institution in the world turns out annually so large a number of pieces of money nor an amount of money of so great a value as the United States mint.
The seigniorage for the year cited amounted to $4,046,74026; the profits in the handling of old metal amounted to $280,259.72, and other profits amounted to $658,174.91, making the total receipts, $4,985,174.89. The operating ex penses were $1,228,029.06. The net profits to the government from the mint were, there fore, $3,757,145.83.
The total value of money coined by the United States mint since 1793, the first year of its active operation, has been $4,494,094,087.68. Of this, $3,422,949,938.50 has been in gold; $995,956,436.30 in silver; and $75,187,712.87 in minor coins.
The process of manufacturing coins com prises several distinct operations: (1) melting the metal bullion and casting it into bars; (2) rolling the bars into strips or ribbons; (3) cut the round discs or planchets; (4) ad justing the weight of the individual planchets; (5) rolling the rim of the planchet; (6) anneal ing and cleaning the planchets with acid; (7) striking the impressions on the planchets; (8) weighing each finished coin. In the rolling machines the rollers are adjustable and the space between them is governed by the opet ator. About 200 ingots are run through per hour on each pair of rollers. When the rolling is completed •the strip is about six feet long. As iris impossible to roll perfectly true it is necessary to these strips, after being softened by annealing. The drawing benches resemble long tables, with a bench on either side, at one end of which is an iron box se cured to the table. In this are fastened two perpendicular steel cylinders. These are the same distance apart that the thickness of the strip is required to be. It is drawn between the cylinders, which reduces the whole to an equal thickness. These strips are now taken to the cutting machines, each of which will cut 225 planchets per minute. The press now used consists of a vertical steel punch. From a strip worth $1,100 about $800 of planchets will be cut. These are then removed to the adjusting room, where they are adjusted. After inspec tion 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 fil ing, it is thrown aside with the light ones to be remelted. The planchets, after being ad justed, are taken to the coining and milling rooms, and are passed through the milling machine. The planchets are fed to this ma• chine through an upright tube, and as they descend are caught on the edge of a revolving wheel and carried about a quarter of a revolu tion, during which the edge is compressed and forced up. By this apparatus 560 half-dimes can be milled in a minute; for large pieces the average is 120. The massive but delicate coin ing presses coin from 80 to 100 pieces a minute. These presses are attended by women. After being stamped the coins are taken to the coin er's room. The light and heavy coins are kept separate in coining, and when delivered to the treasurer they are mixed 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 penny weights in 1,000 double eagles. See COINAGE.