Report of the Director of the Mint (Abridged)
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Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINT (ABRIDGED) TREASURY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF THE MINT, Washington, D. C, September 20, 1930. SIR: In compliance with the provisions of section 345, Revised Statutes of the United States, I have the honor to submit herewith a report covering the operations of the mints and assay offices of the United States for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1930, being the fifty-eighth annual report of the Director of the Mint. There is also submitted for publication in connection therewith the annual report of this bureau upon the production and consumption of the precious metals in the United States for the calendar year 1929. Institutions of the Mint Service During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1930, 10 mint-service insti tutions were in operation; coinage mints at Philadelphia, San Fran cisco, and: Denver; assay ofiice at New York, which makes large sales of fine gold bars; mints at New Orleans and Carson City con ducted as assay ofiices; and assay offices at Boise, Helena, Seattle, and Salt Lake City. The six last-named institutions are, in effect, bullion-purchasing agencies for the large institutions and also serve the public by making assays of ores and bullion. Electrolytic refineries are operated at the New York, Denver, and San Francisco institutions. Coinage Continued large demand for 1-cent and 5-cent coins, with the usual output of silver coins below the dollar, featured the fiscal year ended June 30, 1930. Overtime operation was required at the Philadelphia mint to meet this demand, but of shorter duration than during the prior fiscal year because of improvements made in operating processes. The only gold coinage was made at Philadelphia and consisted of $1,330,000 in quarter eagles ($2.50 pieces) to meet the usual Christ mas demand. Most of these small gold coins quickly return to vaults after Christmas. Their undesirability for circulation purposes, demonstrated through a series of years, resulted in legislation (act of April 11, 1930), discontinuing both the coinage and issue by the Treasury of quarter eagles after the date of the act. The domestic coinage of the fiscal year totaled 399,467,200 pieces, foreign coins manufa;ctured totaled 3,485,000 pieces, giving a grand total of 402,- 952,200 pieces as compared with a grand total of the prior year of 408,301,350 pieces, consisting of 361,650,350 domestic and 46,651,000 foreign pieces. The face value of the domestic coinage totaled $16,278,180, of which $1,330,000 was gold, $9,177,500 silver coins, below the dollar, $2,864,450 nickels, and $2,906,230 cents. 707 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930 708 REPORT ON THE FINANCES All of the coins made for foreign governments were executed at the Philadelphia Mint. For Nicaragua 210,000 silver pieces, 100,000 nickel pieces, and 750,000 bronze pieces were made; for Venezuela 425,000 silver pieces; and for Costa Rica 2,000,000 bronze pieces; total 3,485,000 pieces. Gold Operations Gold acquired by the Government at the several mint-service institutions during the fiscal year 1930 totaled $315,607,366.83; United States gold coin received by the mints for recoinage amounted to $1,663,787.66; transfers of gold between mint offices totaled $139,774,408.13; the aggregate amount of gold received by the several mint-service institutions during the fiscal year 1930 was $457,045,562.62, which compares with $503,702,578.14 during the prior year. Silver Operations Receipts of purchased silver during the fiscal year 1930 totaled 4,491,615.09 fine ounces, the average cost of which was 46.69+ cents per ounce, total cost being $2,097,304.94. Of this amount 4,491,- 615.09 fine ounces, a total of 1,483,691.88 was silver contained in gold deposits. Silver received in exchange for bars bearing the Gov ernment stamp totaled 1,763,551.62 fine ounces; United States silver coin received for recoinage totaled 2,853,484;77 fine ounces, the recoinage value being $3,944,682.59; silver deposited in trust by other governments totaled 136,624.29 fine ounces; and transfers between mint-service offices totaled 790,506.20 fine ounces, making the aggregate quantity of silver received by the several mint-service offices during the fiscal year 10,035,781.97 fine ounces, as compared with 9,465,390.36 ounces during the prior year. The New York market price of silver during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1930, averaged $0.46291; the lowest price was $0.33250, on June 21, 1930, the lowest ever recorded, and the highest price $0,535, on July 19, 1929. Rejineries The mint-service refineries that are operated at New York, Denver, and San Francisco produced 2,755,400 fine ounces (94.47 tons) of electrolytically refined gold during the past fiscal year, which com pares with 98.37 tons in the prior year; and 3,156,096 fine ounces (108.2 tons) of electrolytically refined silver, which compares with 113.5 tons during the prior year. The stock of gold and silver in unrefined bullion on hand was increased during the past year by about 28 tons, to 440 tons, as com pared with the prior year's reduction of about 19 tons. The Denver refinery operated only during the last half of the fiscal year, as during the prior year. Additions and improvements The following new and improved machinery and devices, and improved operating methods, were introduced in the mint institu tions during the fiscal year under review: New and improved molds for minor coinage ingots were adopted in the melting and refining department of the mint at Philadelphia. The lock on these molds has a two-bearing surface, which permits Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930 MEDAL AWARDED COL. CHARLES A. LINDBERGH BY THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930 DIRECTOR OF THE MINT 709 of the mold being tightly locked and eliminates, to a great extent, fins on the ingots. The shape of the molds has been changed. The long tapering point has been reduced to a taper of one-half inch instead of the wedge shape. The device permits an increase of about 2 pounds in the weight of the ingot and effects a material saving in scrap. While the crucibles now being purchased are superior in quality to those available in recent years, experiments made to test the life of the crucibles resulted in obtaining 25 per cent greater service than heretofore. It has also been demonstrated that the use of powdered coke instead of charcoal on nickel melts prevents oxidation, stays on the melt better, and in general is more satisfactory than charcoal. The grinding device, built in the Philadelphia mint shops, for grinding rather than filing the. edges of silver ingots, has proved to be so satisfactory that hand filing has been discontinued. This im proved method has been used for grinding minor coinage ingots for some years past, but many changes had to be made in the method before applying it to silver to safeguard the silver filings. This has been accomplished by covering the wheel with a hood and placing a receptacle under the grinding wheel. In the mint at Denver the structural steel hood erected over the melting furnaces of the refinery melting room in connection with improvements in flues and. dust-settling devices has proved efficient in saving metallic values. The new type of melting furnaces installed, using natural gas, insulation against radiation of heat, and preheating of air from waste heat, has resulted in economy in the use of f ael in the increased pro duction of ingots. The melting time has been reduced and the service life of furnace linings has been increased. Rectangular precipitating and washing tanks have been replaced with round tanks of Oregon cedar, impregnated with paraffin, which prevents leakage and improves service conditions. Chrome-nickel alloys are now used in the cast-iron ingot molds, producing fine-grain castings, free from blow holes. An improved reviewing belt, designed and constructed in the machinery department of the Denver mint, has been installed in the coin press room of that institution. Lindbergh Medal By act approved May 24, 1928, Congress authorized the presenta tion of a gold medal to Col. Charles A. Lindbergh to commemorate his fiight in the Spirit oJ St. Louis from New York to Paris May 20-21, 1927. The obverse of the medal shows the head of Colonel Lindbergh wearing the helmet of an aviator. The reverse shows a fiying eagle, typifying the airplane; the sun and stars symbolize the fiight through day and night; The medal was designed by Mrs. Laura Gardin Fraser, sculptress, New York City. Stock oJ Coin and Monetary Bullion in the United States On June 30, 1930, the estimated stock of domestic coin in the United States was $2,473,244,452, of which $1,496,305,505 was gold, $539,- 959,520 standard silver dollars, $310,978,375 subsidiary silver coin, and|;$126,001,052 minor coin. Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930 710 REPORT ON THE FINANCES The stock of gold bullion in the mints, assay offices, and Federal reserve banks on the same date was valued at $3,038,560,201, an increase during the year of $122,098,265; the stock of silver bullion was 11,129,557.07 fine ounces, an increase of 697,727.14 fine ounces.