"Sweating" gold coins
Hussulo
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I was looking through an auction catalogue and noticed one of the gold coins had been described as being sweated.
This was a new terminology to me, so I looked it up and found this in the New York Times for anyone that's interested:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980DE6D71539E433A25754C1A9629C946196D6CF
Just wondering has anyone ever come across a gold coin with an L stamped on it?
This was a new terminology to me, so I looked it up and found this in the New York Times for anyone that's interested:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980DE6D71539E433A25754C1A9629C946196D6CF
Just wondering has anyone ever come across a gold coin with an L stamped on it?
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“Sweating” is confined to placing the coin in acid and removing only a tiny amount of the silver or gold. By running many coins though the acid, considerable metal could be extracted with little or no obvious change to the coins.
The first method mentioned in the article is called “electrolysis” and works much as described, but was fairly easy to detect.
“Metal replacement” is removal of metal inside the coin and replacement with a lower value metal. Tungsten works well, but in the 19th century it cost more than gold. Most replacement was done with platinum.
The last technique is “abrasive debasement” where gold coins were jiggled together to knock off tiny bits of gold. Coins treated this way looked like circulated coins, but with bright nicks and scrapes. Swiss bankers were masters of this.
Even though the article is about US coins, the coins that got me researching this are darkside but if anyone wants to see them:
http://www.dnw.co.uk/coins/auctions/rostrumauctions/auctioncatalogue/lotdetail.lasso?auction=Coins%2017%20Mar%2010&id=142&lot=143
http://www.dnw.co.uk/coins/auctions/rostrumauctions/auctioncatalogue/lotdetail.lasso?auction=Coins%2017%20Mar%2010&id=175&lot=840
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Nope. The information comes from a discourse prepared during the late 1850s. Parts will be published in an article I am slowly finishing.
The last technique is “abrasive debasement” where gold coins were jiggled together to knock off tiny bits of gold. Coins treated this way looked like circulated coins, but with bright nicks and scrapes. Swiss bankers were masters of this.
I can't recall where I read it right now, but the article/book talked about transporting large amounts of gold and burning the bags to recover the trace amounts of gold left behind.
Sugar magnolia blossoms blooming, heads all empty and I don't care ...
<< <i>“Metal replacement” is removal of metal inside the coin and replacement with a lower value metal. Tungsten works well, but in the 19th century it cost more than gold. Most replacement was done with platinum.
>>
It would be nice to find those pieces plugged with platinum.
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Maybe that's the origin of the phrase "Don't sweat the small stuff."
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
<< <i>Any idea how much profit this yielded? For example, if a banker "sweated" $10,000 in gold, what would be his yield? >>
I suspect if they were shaved down to MS 50, they hit the motherlode.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
I once read an article or book that said the New York Custom House stamped a light weight coin with a "cross" and handed it back.
It also said no such coins were known to have survived. I have often wondered of the "cross" was an "X" rather than a "+".
From the article "The profit from this treatment is small. The question arises if the ingenuity and labor thus expended would not bring a larger return if devoted to some legitimate work."
The last technique is “abrasive debasement” where gold coins were jiggled together to knock off tiny bits of gold. Coins treated this way looked like circulated coins, but with bright nicks and scrapes. Swiss bankers were masters of this.
I've heard of this, one story I heard of was people putting gold coins in a bag then hanging the bag behind a door, each time the door was opened and closed small bits of gold dust would accumulate.
For anyone wanting to see a counterfiet gold coin in platinum below is a link of that type of Sovereign:
http://gkcoins.com/1586/coin.aspx
Another thing that was mentioned in the article was if someone handed an underweight gold coin to the bank or to be assayed, It would either get kept or handed back to the owner but in each instance an L (guessing it means low weight) was stamped onto the coin.
Has anyone seen any of these coins?
“Sweating” gold was very profitable. An ounce or more per day could be extracted from a thousand double eagles. The difficult part was getting enough new gold coin to process without raising suspicions of bankers.
During the circulating gold era a coin could be refused if the recipient thought there was a problem with it. The mint had an active program of recoinage so that gold coins would not be worn too much. In commerce, all exports of gold were measured on fine gold weight. If a merchant paid $10,000 face for worn gold coins, he might have gotten only $9,850 in gold value.
As to how much rubs off, the Fort Knox Bullion Depository recovered approx 400 oz from the sweeps after gold bars were moved to the new facility. Moving gold from place to place caused loss due to wear and shipment expense.
Normally, banks did not countermark light weight coins, but assayers sometimes did.
<< <i>Some random thoughts:
“Sweating” gold was very profitable. An ounce or more per day could be extracted from a thousand double eagles. The difficult part was getting enough new gold coin to process without raising suspicions of bankers.
During the circulating gold era a coin could be refused if the recipient thought there was a problem with it. The mint had an active program of recoinage so that gold coins would not be worn too much. In commerce, all exports of gold were measured on fine gold weight. If a merchant paid $10,000 face for worn gold coins, he might have gotten only $9,850 in gold value.
As to how much rubs off, the Fort Knox Bullion Depository recovered approx 400 oz from the sweeps after gold bars were moved to the new facility. Moving gold from place to place caused loss due to wear and shipment expense.
Normally, banks did not countermark light weight coins, but assayers sometimes did. >>
Pushing a broom for The Man would be a lucrative job.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
<< <i>As to how much rubs off, the Fort Knox Bullion Depository recovered approx 400 oz from the sweeps after gold bars were moved to the new facility. Moving gold from place to place caused loss due to wear and shipment expense. >>
Some facilities that handled bullion lose more metal than others. Congress established a law that put a maximum limit on the losses allowed by the refining/minting process. I read that some mints such as the Carson City mint, tended to lose very little metal, which was a little unusual compared with other facilities that handled gold.
I would imagine that with such a law in place, and with humans being what they are, that one could essentially expect metal loss up to but not quite exceeding what the law precribes.
After 1933 sweeps were processed by the Denver Mint until all major gold movement had been concluded. Thereafter, it went out on bid, again.