Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — GOLD BULLION. [ARTICLE]

GOLD BULLION.

The Interesting Process by Which It Is Refined aud Made Into Coin. Though the show of gold at the Treasury in Washington in not impressive at the first glance, one has more respect for it when the contents of the bags are enumerated. Stacked in heaps around the compartment referred to are ninetyeight sacks, each containing 1,000 yellow double eagles. Poured out on the floor they would make a very decent pile of glittering metal, representing altogether $1,900,000. Besides these there arc 409 bags, each holding 2,500 shining eagles, or $2,945,000 in all. Then there are 198 sacks,each containing 1.000 iive-dollar pieces, of a total of $5,990,000. Lastly, there are fifteen sacks, each filled to bursting with 1,000 of those anuoying two-dollar and-a half pieces, which are so easily mistaken for cents that no more of them are to be coined by the mints. One of the most interesting sights in the world is the refining of the raw gold bullion at the United States Assay Office on Wall street. Arriving there from the mines it is first melted, to free it from all earthy matter and other foreign substances. Then a certain quantity of silver is added to it, and the mixture is immersed in a bath of nitric acid. The acid has no effect on the gold, but it dissolves the silver into a liquid which looks just like pure water. This limpid liquid is drawn off, leaving the gold al the bottom of the tub. The precious metal thus purified looks like so much tine red gravel. To get rid of all moisture it is subjected to pressure. On coming«out of the squeezing machine it appears in the shape of big cakes, resembling angel food cakes in form. These cakes are worth about $25,000 each, and one could afford to pay $2,000 for a slice of very moderate size. Th ; s is the material out of which the gold coins are made. The gold is melted in a crucible, from which it is dipped out with a ladle and poured into iron molds. When cooled the molds are unlocked and taken apart, the precious metal then appearing in the shape of what are termed “ingots.” For the coinage one-tenth part of copper is mixed with the gold, but the Government also makes a business Of manufacturing “merchants’ bars” for the use of jewelers, gold leaf makers and dentists, who require the virgin metal in their trades. Such bars are as near to perfect purity as can be, being 999 fine out of a possible 1,000. The Government, while it makes a big profit by coining silver, gains nothing by minting gold pieces, the intrinsic value of which is equal to their face. There is always some loss by wasting, too. The sweepings of the Philadelphia Mint alone sell for $23,000 annually.—[New York Commercial Advertiser.