Assay Office and Sub Treasury

Sub Treasury, circa 1910

UNCLE SAM'S COIN 
EXPERTS BUSY

Checking and Sorting the Im- ports 
from Europe.

GOLD CHIPS FOR WEIGHT

How the Gold Arrives - Handled 
Expeditiously - Bags of 500 Ounces

One of the busiest places in New York at the present time is the coin room of the Sub-Treasury in Wall Street. This particular room is located at the corner of Pine and Nassau Streets, and the casual visitor will be likely to inquire about it if only to find out what is the cause of the racket and din going on in there. If he were to go inside the door he would find it extremely difficult to keep up the conversation in the ordinary tone, and it would remind him strongly of the condition in a Subway express train going at full speed. Millions of dollars in gold coin are handled daily by the experts of the Government, and it is one of the most interesting departments of the Sub-Treasury at the present time. The noise made by the opening and sorting of bags of coin, the weighing and refilling of bags, recalls the Celtic definition of sound money which was given in the free silver campaign of 1896.

Every one is more or less interested in gold imports [during November, 1907], and the backing up of a truck at the Assay Office with gold bars or at the Pine Street entrance of the Sub-Treasury with boxes of coin always attracts a crowd. The Sub-Treasury in the present instance is doing everything possible to expedite the getting of the gold coin, which is imported, into the banks and through them into circulation. Practically all the gold coin which has been received [contemporaneously - 1907], came from England. It comes in ordinary boxes carefully sealed. In each of these wooden boxes there are from three to five bags containing coin, that is, gold coin of the United States. Gold coin of any other country is not handled at the Sub-Treasury. It is transferred to the Assay Office just the same as gold bars are. Each bag of coin in one of the wooden boxes contains exactly 500 ounces, and the value of each bag is approximately $9,805. When the boxes are taken into the coin room they are broken open and the bags taken out and checked. Immediately after these bags are checked the Sub-Treasury advances to the banks to which the coin is consigned $9,300, and the balance is paid on the final inspection of the sorting force of the Sub-Treasury.

It is then that the interesting part of the business begins. Every man who handles coin in that department of the Sub-Treasury is an expert in his line, whose eye is so sure that at a glance in running over the coins he can determine whether one of them is light or not. As a matter of fact, some of the men are so adept that they can tell practically by the touch whether the coin is below what is called the limit of legal tolerance. The bags of [imported] coin are of mixed denominations, that is, $20, $10, and $5 gold pieces, with occasionally a $2.50 gold piece. But the thing that strikes the novice as queerest when he sees a bag of coin opened is the presence of numerous chips of gold which, on examination, prove to be nothing more or less than parts of our gold coins, which has [sic] been chopped up into very little bits. Naturally, he looks for an explanation. Each bag, as already stated, must weigh exactly 500 ounces, and the importers bring the gold in by weight and not by denomination of the coins contained in the bag. A certain number of gold $20 pieces or $10 pieces should make up the required 500 ounces, but in the event of the coins being light, naturally there will be a small difference to be made up. Sometimes this difference in weight can be made up by the addition of a $5 gold piece and one chip of gold. Where it is less than a $5 gold piece in weight several chips of gold are added to make the proper weight, and to put the proposition generally the difference in weight on account of worn coins is made up in one way or another either by a small piece or by the chips of gold until the bag is absolutely and accurately 500 ounces in weight in gold. Banks do not receive the exact gold coin which they import. When the boxes arrive and the bags are checked, the banks receive bags of gold from the vault of the Sub-Treasury, each containing $5,000 [emphasis supplied]. The sorter in the coin room goes over the imported coin very carefully and picks out any coin that he thinks is light in weight. He weighs that particular coin, and if it is below the limit of legal tolerance, which is 1/2 of 1%, it is sent to the Assay Office and stamped with the letter L which means that it is light in weight and must be withdrawn from circulation. The bank importing the coin simply regards that coin as old gold which goes to the melting pot. But the bank is not out anything on that account, inasmuch as it bought its gold by weight.

Assuming that a bag of coin requires several chips of gold in order to make it weigh exactly 500 ounces, there is a possibility of profit in it aside from the ordinary profit on the importation for the importing bank. There may be a dozen or two dozen coins, which is not likely, however, which are light, but still within the limit of legal tolerance. The bank has received gold coins from the Sub-Treasury vaults and the coins in its import, although light, are still received at their face value. Consequently, the chips of gold are pure profit to the importing bank. Sometimes bags of coin arrive which are without chips, but they are the exception.

Weighing the gold is an interesting part of the process. The Government makes up its bags of coin in five-thousand-dollar lots [emphasis supplied]. The weigher takes a scoopful of coin and puts it in the scales, which contain on the other side the necessary weight for $5,000 in gold. The weight of $5,000 is approximately 52.66 [hundred?¹] pennyweight, but it fluctuates between that figure and 52.70 [hundred] pennyweight. If it should go below the latter figure it means that coins showing abrasion or wear are in the lot. This coin is then poured through a funnel into a white canvas bag, tied up, sealed, and labeled. Occasionally, in order to make sure of the weight, the coin is split and one-half $5,000 in five-dollar gold pieces is being weighed against the other.²

For example, weighed, and the weigher is not quite certain concerning the exact weight. He takes out the weights and puts one-half of the coin into the weight side of the scale - that is, he picks up the coin by the handful and transfers it from one side to the other until the difference between the two sides is less than the weight of a five-dollar gold piece. The scales are extremely accurate and show to the practiced eye of the weigher just how much more one-half of the coin weighs than the other, which is a test in itself as to the extent of the lightness of the coin on one side or the other.

Gold coin exported from the United States goes by dollars - that is, when $100,000 is sent it means that much face value in our coin. Imported coin comes back by weight. Gold coin from Germany or France - that is, our coin coming back - comes back by dollars [weight?]. Naturally, extreme care is taken in the handling of the coins, and the visitor who gets into the coin room is accompanied by some officer of the Treasury.

New York Times, November 18, 07, 12:3 
[This article is closely related to the 
New York Times article of November 9, 07, 2:3, 
which appears under "Security Measures" next in this chapter.]