Mysteries of the Mint

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 July 1912, Page 4

Mysteries of the Mint

THE WOIIJLDVb RlCJilifcJi' W'OJRKSHOi,. The Tout'i , itself was the Mint's iirtil home. From Roman times until 1811, when a spu<®U building won erected for the purpose, Uritain's money was made in London's palaco fortress j crudely at lirstj now, in tliese times of magic invention, to (scientifically that, in the making of 10 scovercigus, less than a pennyworth of metal is wanted. i This is how your coin of tho realm comes into being. ingots como in vans—treasure passing unsuspected through London's streets twice or thrice a week. Kour hundred ounces of gold go to the i"got ; and sometimes the Mint has ;J0 tons of it packed away. Silver ingots weigh 1001b each, and the Mint at times stores 20 touts of these. Copper ingots are not much seen nowadays—discs eo in i> instead fnom Birmingham, blank ami ready to bo stamped. To 'begin with the gold. With its proportion of one-twelfth alloy, it is handed to the superintendent, and melted in a crucible. A beautiful li(|iiid. it is poured into moulds, to bo shapen into barn. Silver, and its three-fortieth alloys, ''s molted down in a larger crucible, oOOOoz. at a time--a- crucible that takes a era no to niovo it. The bars are rolled thinner and thinner; 30 times they pass beneath heavy rollers, until they arc even and of the right thickness. Then, at the rate of 150 a minute, they are punched by the cutting press, which chops out circular discs ready to bo milled in a separate machine. Annealing i, s the next process through which the future coin has to go. It is raised to a 'bright red heat, thon cooled in water, washed, and plunged, soft enough to boar it.s mark of rank, into beachwood sawdust. Its final stamp is put upon it by one of tho hydraulic presses, which make thousands of coins an hour. These wonderful machines will make you anything from a farthing to a £.'•" piece at will. Though now each disc is a coin, it must l)o proved before it passes into the world. It is rung, and then its weight is taken by a sensitive machine beneath a glass ease. One-fifth of a grain too ],oavy or tfio light, and a sovereign is cast hack to the furnace. No wonder, when such pains are taken in its making, that the British sovereign is the trustworthy pattern coin all over the earth.

They do Tint much at the They issued £30.0-11.328 worth (if rrohl coins la.st year. £2..'lßl.2Bfi worth of silver. and.£Mo',W "■° rt,l " f '"-"iizo: and the loss in melting and othrr ])rocf\ssps on each '•""Minn pounds' worth of g O W was only CIOO.