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ASSAY DEPARTMENT.

The assayer, with a chisel, chips off a corner from the bar, and the chip is melted and cast into a button, to give a round form, so that it may be easily rolled out. It is rolled into a ribbon and filed down until it weighs exactly ten grains, weighed by a scale which turns at the thousandth part of a grain. The ribbon is rolled up with sheet lead, placed in a cup called a cupel, made of calcined bone ashes, and placed in a heat sufficient to melt the gold, and the base metals, copper, tin, etc., are absorbed by the porous material of the cupel, or carried off in oxydation. The gold is then pure, except an admixture of silver, and perhaps a little iridium or platinum. The button is again rolled out into a ribbon about as thick as ordinary letter paper, and boiled in nitric acid, which dissolves the silver and leaves the gold pure, which is weighed, and the amount which it has lost gives an exact measure of the quantity of impurity in the original bar. Thus, if the piece assayed weighs nine grains, then ninetenths of the bar is pure gold; and the clerk of the deposit room can immediately give a certificate of the amount of coin due the depositor.

GRANULATING MELTING ROOM.

After the bars have been assayed they are, as a general rule, thrown in together indiscriminately as the property of the mint. The first process in the granulating room is to melt the gold with twice the weight of silver, and while melted it is poured into water mixed with a little nitric acid, and the metal falls to the bottom of the tub in fine grains. The granulated gold is taken out and cast into large stone or porcelain pots, holding about fifteen gallons of nitric acid. These pots sit in hot water heated by steam, and the boiling acid soon leaves the gold pure from all silver, copper, lead, tin, zinc, or other base metals.

It is taken out, filtered, washed, dried, and again taken to the melting room, where it is melted with one-ninth its weight of copper, which makes it the standard alloy of nine hundred thousandths fine. No silver is used in the alloy. The gold thus alloyed is run into bars a foot long, an inch thick, and of the proper width for coin, from an inch and a half for double-eagles down to half an inch for dollars. The bars are delivered over to the coiner.

DRAWING AND CUTTING ROOM.

The coiner's first process is to put the bars through the rolling-mill, which has two heavy rollers of cast-steel, ten inches long and eight inches in diameter, rolling together. The bars are thus rolled out a number of times, until they are nearly the proper thickness for the coin. The rolling-mill is made so that the bars can be rolled out to any thickness. The bars, when rolled out several times, become somewhat brittle, and are then taken to the

ANNEALING ROOM.

This room contains a furnace of brick work, with long chambers to receive the bars, which are placed in copper tubes, and heated to a cherry red. The gold is thus made softer and more ductile, and is again taken to the rolling mill and rolled sufficiently, and again annealed previous to being drawn. The bars cannot be rolled out to an exactly equal thickness, and to secure exactness in this respect the bar is drawn through an orifice in a piece of steel, and this orifice being somewhat smaller than the bar as rolled, reduces the whole to the same exact width and thickness. The bar, not quite so thick as the coin, is taken thence to the cutting machine, which, by a punch, cuts off from the bar round pieces, a little longer than the intended coin. These pieces are called blanks. The blanks are carried to the annealing room, and washed with soap and water. They are then taken to the

ADJUSTING ROOM.

Here each blank is weighed separately, and made the exact weight for the coin. If too heavy, the blank is filed down; if too light, it is thrown into a box to be remelted. The work in this room is done entirely by ladies.

COINING AND MILLING ROOM.

The adjusted blanks are run through the milling machine, which compresses the blank to the exact diameter of the coin, and raises the edge. The purpose of making the edge thicker is to make the coin pile neatly, to protect the figures, and to improve the general appearance. About two hundred and fifty blanks are milled in a minute. The milled blanks are carried back to the annealing room, placed in an air-tight cast-iron box, and placed in the furnace to be annealed, so that they may take the impression well. When they are at a cherry red they are taken out and poured immediately into water with a little sulphuric acid. This softens and cleans the gold. The blanks are taken out, washed with cold water, put into hot water again, taken out, mixed in with saw-dust, which is then sifted off, and the blanks are dried and perfectly clean.

They are again taken to the coining and milling room, and stamped. The coining machine is elegant and massive. The blanks are placed in a tube or pipe, and from this the machine takes them one by one, puts them between the dies, stamps them, throws them out of the die, and carries them down into a box, and they are then delivered to the Treasurer, and are ready for circulation.

Such are the main features of the process. The treatment of silver is, of course somewhat different. The difference between the United States coin and the California coin is, that the latter is alloyed with silver, the former with copper. The California gold contains a good deal of silver, and it is troublesome and expensive to separate it from the gold; besides, it is more difficult to make a copper than a silver alloy. The California coin being one-tenth silver, is worth more than the United States coin, and a premium is paid for it at the United States mints. There are about seventy-five cents worth of silver in a hundred dollars of California coin. The copper is a much better alloy, being harder, more durable, and more beautiful.

All the machinery is of the best quality, having been manufactured under the supervision of George Eckfelt, of the Philadelphia Mint. It has been put up under the direction of John M. Eckfelt. The officers of the mint are Dr. Birdsal, Superintendent; John R. Snyder, Treasurer; Col. Harazthy, Assayer; John Heuston, Melter and Refiner; and John M. Eckfelt, Coiner. About thirty men will be constantly employed.

THE FREE AND CHARTERED SYSTEMS OF BANKING COMPARED.
BY J. THOMPSON, BANKER, OF NEW YORK.

We commence by defining the two systems:

Free Banking-Full permission for any individual or association to bank, by complying with general laws; those general laws requiring ample security deposited with the State authorities for all issues of currency. Engraving and printing only on order from the State officer; circulating notes received through the State authorities, secured, registered, and countersigned; periodical reports of condition; specie payments, or liquidation by the State officer.

Chartered Banking.—Special privileges granted to certain individuals, with power to make a currency without security, and in many of the States without limit; and generally speaking, the stockholders and officers of these close corporations are exempt from any liability on their corporate indebtedness.

The practical working of the two systems is illustrated by recent failures, as follows:

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We have not included broken banks in the Southern States, partly because the chartered banks that have failed there were of the most extreme wild-cat character, and partly because no Southern free bank has failed. Thus, we clearly prove that the free banking system is decidedly the least likely to throw a loss on the public. We will now look at the feasibility or adaptation of the two systems of banking to the wants of the community.

In the State of New York both systems are in active operation. The Bank of Commerce, Republic, Metropolitan, &c., were organized under the free banking law. The Bank of New York, Phenix, Mechanics', &c., reorganized under the free law when their charters expired. The Manhattan, Merchants', &c., are close corporations, their charters not having expired. The same parallels may be drawn between the State banks-a portion of the best are under each system.

Had we space, we would take up the bank reports, and show that the banks under the two systems are equally liberal in accon modations to the public.

In the State of New York, the free banking system being engrafted in the constitution, must root out the corporation system as fast as their charters expire. In Connecticut and New Jersey the friends of close corporations have secured majorities in the legislatures, and by giving charters to the free banks, have virtually repealed the free banking law. In lilinois and Wisconsin the free is the only banking law. In Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee, both systems prevail; and in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Carolinas, and Georgia, the close charter system prevails.

The three States that have the greatest interest in fostering the free banking system are Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Missouri. The first has a debt of forty millions, one-half of which would be held by her own citizens if it were made the basis of her currency. The benefit of paying interest on State debts to its own citizens, instead of drawing off the amount every six months into the pockets of foreigners, must be the subject of another article. Virginia needs some machinery that will place and sustain her stocks at par, in order to finish her programme of internal improvements; the adoption of the free banking system is the only thing she can do to accomplish this. The same may be said of Missouri.

In re chartering the Bank of England, the British government engrafted the free bank feature, by requiring the issue department to hold consols or bullion to the

amount of circulation outstanding. This was a measure of consummate policy. The people look upon consols as better than any other paper security, because the bank holds millions on millions of them.

The fact that two-thirds of the entire debt of the State of New York is held by the Bank Department for account of banks, in which the wealth, talent, interest, and pride of the entire State is involved, places her credit on a par with the best on earth. Foreigners often say, “No danger when so many of your own citizens are interested."

In Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, the banks are owned and used by a few who are already rich and selfish. The public works of these States are the desire and pride of the whole population. The banks never assist in prosecuting those works. There is wisdom, then-there is a necessity in shaping the banking laws for the benefit, as well as for the safety of the people at large. Not one in a hundred of the people of any State has an interest in the banks, except to know the notes (money) which they hold, and on which the bank gets interest, are good. Every person who puts a bank-note into his pocket helps the bank. Let the laws, then, be so made as to compel the banks to do something beneficial to the State.

THE MINT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SILVER FOR COINAGE PAID FOR IN SILVER COINS ONLY AT THE MINT.

PHILADELPHIA, July 23, 1855.

The Director of the Mint gives notice, in pursuance of an authorization from the Secretary of the Treasury, and in consequence of the present accumulation of silver coin at the Mint, that from and after the first day of August next, and until further notice, the purchases of silver for coinage will be paid for in silver coins only, and not in gold.

The silver offered for purchase will be weighed, melted, and assayed, as usual, and the standard weight determined therefrom, in ounces troy, to the hundredth part of the ounce, and will be paid for (as at present) at the rate of $1 224 per standard ounce. The receipt given at the first weighing must be presented by the seller or his order, and usually payment may be expected on the day following the date of receipt, or the second day following.

For the information of bullion dealers, country banks, &c., it may be stated that, according to the above rate of purchase, the yield of various classes of coin or bullion will be about as follows:

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Old Spanish dollars......

$0.99

1061 1 05

Revolutionary or "hammered" dollars, (often mistaken for the true Spanish dollar)....

Half-dollar of the United States, coined before 1837...

The same since 1837, to the last change of standard in 1853

1 01

0521 052

Quarter-dollars are proportionally less productive of premium, while dimes and half-dimes, coined before 1837, have lost rather inore by wear than the premium would make up; those coined since 1837, to 1853, will average a premium of 31 per cent on their nominal value.

German, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian crowns, each

Old French crowns

German florins.....

Prussian and Hanoverian thalers..

American plate, best manufacture, $1 20 to $1 22 per ounce.
Genuine British plate, $1 25 per ounce.

$1 11

1 14

0 414

0.72

358

Journal of Banking, Currency, and Finance.

These regulations will take effect at the branch of the mint at New Orleans when the purchase of silver is resumed at that institution, of which notice will be given by the Superintendent.

At San Francisco the purchases may be paid for in gold or silver, at the option of the Superintendent thereat, until a sufficient supply of silver bullion is received to meet the public demand for silver coin at that institution.

JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, Director United States Mint.

TAXATION OF INCORPORATED COMPANIES IN NEW YORK.

There is a law of the State of New York for remission and commutation of taxes of incorporated companies. It is under the provisions of title 4, chap. 13, part 1, of the Revised Statutes, as amended July 21, 1853.

The act of July, 1853, provides "that moneyed or stock corporations authorized to make dividends on their capital, and not in the receipt, during the preceding year, of net profits or clear income equal to 5 per cent on such capital, after deducting the assessed value of their real estate, shall be allowed to commute by paying dividends directly to the treasurer of the county a sum equal to 5 per cent on their actual net profits or clear income."

To entitle corporations, however, to this privilege of commutation, the necessary proof must be submitted to the satisfaction of the Board of Supervisors.

It appears from this that the Committee on Annual Taxes-John Kelly and Henry Hoffmire-made a report to the Board of Supervisors, July 13, 1855, growing out of applications under the law for relief, which report was published in some of the papers, in which they state as follows:

"Since the operation of this law would virtually exempt a large amount of corporation capital hitherto subject to taxation, your committee concluded to consult with R. J. Dillon, Corporation Counsel, and submit the affidavits for his examination and report. The affidavits attached have been returned by the Corporation Counsel, as justifying the remission of the tax, or the commutation thereof. In all cases in which net profit or clear income has been received, that amount is made subject to commutation; but where no profits or income have been received, the assessment must be stricken from the assessment rolls."

Under this decision of the Corporation Counsel, the said committee submitted two resolutions-the first allowing the following named incorporations to commute by paying 5 per cent on their net annual profits or clear income during the preceding year, viz.:-The Sun Mutual Insurance Company, on $30,000; the Atlantic Bank, on $16,564; the New York India-Rubber Company, on $1,000; and the New York Balance Dock, on $5,000. The other resolution-that the following incorporations be struck from the assessment rolls, not having been in receipt, during the preceding year, of any net profits or clear income whatever, viz :-The Union, New York, Commercial, Astor, and Mercantile Insurance Companies, the Hamilton, St. Marks, and People's Fire Insurance Companies, the United States Mail Steamship Company, the Third and Sixth Avenue Railroads, the South-street, Dry Dock, Grand, Bowery, and South Ferry Stage Companies, the Blank Book Ruling and Paging Company, Gas Regulator Company, Knickerbocker Life Insurance Company, Knickerbocker Ice Company, East River Bank, and St. Nicholas Insurance Company.

THE BANK OF CHARLESTON.

The annual report of this institution has been published, from which it appears that the net profits of the bank for the year, deducting current expenses, amount to $256,132; dividends declared, $252,864; surplus, 12,068.

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