The Mint’s tight controls on wasted silver and gold -1891.
RogerB
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The coinage Act of 1873 and Mint Regulations established legal limits for the inevitable wastage of gold and silver encountered during melting and coining operations. But internally, the Mint Directors consistently demanded much tighter controls than the law. In this instance the coiner of the New Orleans Mint lost only one-fifth (20%) of the legal limit, but the Director called this “excessive and unusual” and ordered an investigation.
In other letters, both earlier and later eras, it is clear that anything approaching the legal limits of loss would cause investigation by the Secret Service, and probably loss of employment by responsible persons.
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Comments
Thank You Roger.
I enjoy these historical posts.
Roger,
Thanks for sharing. I always marvel at how writers could fill an entire page without making a single error.
And the topic reminds me of when I was making auto catalyst. The accountants wanted me to account for precious metals to the penny each day. Didn't matter whether the metal was solid or in solution.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
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This letter is a copy made by a clerk from the original. Some copies have erasures or paste-overs and others have red overwriting stating they were copied by mistake.
Many eyes were on the mint.
@RogerB, I would have guessed that typewriters and carbon paper would have shown up at the mint by 1891. When do they make their first appearances?
These are fun. Thanks Roger.
Thanks for another interesting letter Roger.... the accounting of precious metals is a topic I dealt with personally for many years in business. We had gold plating operations and there were always those individuals trying to pirate the metal. Some were amazingly devious. I do have some stories to tell in that area. Cheers, RickO
I've seen typed US Mint letters and requisitions for typewriters in from the mid-1880's but did not pay attention to the dates. Side Note: People who added columns of numbers were called "computers." People who typed letters were called "typewriters."
Very interesting
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