Report of the Director of the Mint

Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1915 EEPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINT. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF THE MINT, Washington, D. 0., Novemher 1, 1915. 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, 1915, being the forty- third annual report of the Director of the Mint. There is also sub mitted 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 1914. OPERATIONS OF THE MINTS AND ASSAY OFFICES. In many ways the fiscal year 1915 was the most eventful in the history of the mmt service; certainly it was as regards the New York assay office and the San Francisco Mint. The movement of gold from the United States in the first three months and the movement of this metal to our shores in the last three months were on such a tremendous scale that the patience, skill, and capacity of the officials and employees at these institutions w^ere sorely taxed. Since July 1, 1915, the volume of business has increased so steadily and so rapidly that the records show the total value of the deposits at the New York assay office for the first four months of the fiscal year 1916 to be $126,224,600 or nearly that of the deposits for the whole of 1908—$131,X92',227—which has heretofore been this office's banner fiscal year. The mint at San Francisco received between April 1 and November 1, 1915, more than $50,000,000 in foreign gold coin and bullion from Australia, Japan,, and China, as compared with $4,346,000 during the entire calendar year 1914. Very little, comparatively speaking, of the foreign gold received has been in fine bars. Much the m°ajor portion has been in coin, chiefly British sovereigns and Japariese yen, and the prompt melting and storing of it have presented problems calling for extraordinary energy and some ingenuity. In order that no injustice might be worked to depositors of foreign coin because of the delay incident to the melting and refining of it, the regulations governing the handling of precious metals were so modified, with your approval, as to permit the payment of 99 per cent of the value of said deposits, ascertained upon their being weighed immediately after receipt, when presented in sums of 400 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1915 DIRECTOR OF THE MINT. 401 $1,000,000 and over. Of course such deposits come only from bank ing houses of recognized standing, and when advantage is taken of this regulation the depositor is required to give a guaranty in writing of the integrity of the coin or bars involved. The former regulation permitted advance payment of only 90 per cent of the value ascertained when the deposit was weighed, 8 per cent more after the trial assay, and the remaining 2 per cent fol lowing the final assay. It can readily be seen how that regulation would have operated against the depositor in the loss of interest when several miUions of dollars were involved in one transaction as has so frequently been the case.^ Another important change which you authorized in the regulations is the reporting by the assayer, on deposits of fine gold bars or coin, in deposits of not less than 5,000 ounces, to one-tenth of one-thou sandth instead of one-quarter of one-thousandth. I found that the loss to the depositor on large deposits was frequently considerable, so I had the honor to recommend to you what has proved to be a most equitable arrangement. A new regulation of importance to miners and prospectors is that which you recently issued, upon my recommendation, reducing the charge for ore assays at the minor assay offices and the Philadelphia Mint from $3 for gold and silver to $1 for these metals and $1 for each of the following metals determined: Copper, tin, zinc, iron, lead, and tungsten. This has already resulted in a material increase of business at the several institutions, has made the mint service more responsive to pubhc requirements, and has been generaUy commended by those whose needs it is intended to meet. The'minor assay offices should be so operated as to make them as serviceable to the miner and pros pector as the Department of Agriculture is to the farmer, or they should be abolished. Receiving, melting, assaying, and forwarding bullion deposits only do not justify the expenditure of the money necessary to their maintenance. It is an interesting fact that in the past fiscal year coinage was exe cuted for more foreign countries at the Philadelphia Mint than in any previous 12 months of that institution's history. These countries were Cuba, Costa Rica, Salvador, and Ecuador. Some of the in creased business may have been due to the unsettled conditions in Europe, whose mints a number of the Latin-American countries have long patronized, but all of it is business which promises to continue. Furthermore, it is evidence of an increasing friendly feehng toward the United States on the part of our neighbors to the south. Every possible courtesy in the way of facilitating shipments and simplifying methods of payment was extended to the representatives of these countries. Although a considerable amount of silver was purchased by my predecessor in the faU of 1914, the stock on hand of this precious metal was so low in July, 1915, that I found it necessary to purchase, with your approval, 4,375,000 ounces in order to be prepared for what was clearly to be^and in due time proved to be—an unprece dented demand for subsidiary coins. The highest price paid was $0.4963 an ounce, or 2.005 cents above the minimum paid. The average price paid was $0.48724 an ounce. The entire amount was 7424°—FI 1915 ^26 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1915 402 REPORT ON THE FINANCES. bought between August 3 and September 17, and constituted the largest purchase of silver made in a similar period since the repeal, November 1, 1893, of the purchase clause of the act approved July 14, 1890. This transaction resulted in a goodly advance in the price of the white metal, and so stimulated the market, whose unsteadi ness had threatened a partial paralysis of the silver-mining indus try aU over the world, tnat production of silver has contiriued prac ticaUy without abatement. It also had the effect of aiding the production of gold, inasmuch as aU silver buUion carries a certain amount of gold. In commenting on this purchase the Boston News Bureau said: These prices are rauch. below those of a year ago, when the Director of the Mint bought at a corresponding part of the year 1,774,000 fine ounces. For 200,000 ounces of this, bought on July 31, a price of 10.5175 was paid; 200,000 ounces cost 10.5150 on August 7; 1,174,000 ounces were bought at $0.52 on August 11; and 200,000 ounces at $0.55 on August 28, 1914. A distinct achievement of the mint service in the fiscal year 1915 was the melting and spinning of platinum for use in the many Gov ernment laboratories. This metal is recovered in the electrolytic refineries only from the various kinds of buUion deposited. The quantities contained in individual deposits are very small; in practically every instance it is too small to be detected in assaying, and we could not, therefore, compensate the depositor for it, even if the law permitted payment for other than the gold and silver contents of bullion. Furthermore, as bullion of all classes is massed and melted before it passes through the refinery, it would be impossible to determine wiiat particular class carries this metal. In rare cases, where it is evident that a deposit contains platinum the depositor is so advised and is at liberty to withdraw his deposit. It has been the policy of the Government to sell this rare metal from time to time to the highest bidder, but owing to the fact that Russia, the largest producer of platinum, has curtailed its exporta tion and thereby caused a marked advance in the price, I have decided to hold so much of the metal recovered as shall be needed for use in the laboratories of the several departments of the Govern ment. During the past few months equipment has been placed in the New York assay office for melting this metal and the mint at Phila delphia has perfected machinery for spinning it and manufacturing it into utensils used in the laboratories of the Government institutions. I beg further to inform you that the work of this bureau has been considerably simplified by the elimination of several forms calling for reports that were found to be unnecessary or which duplicated information contained in other reports; also that the cost report system which has been in operation in the mints and in the assay office at New Yprk for several years has been so modified as to remove aU cumbersome features and yet be productive of aU infor mation necessary to economical and efficient administration.

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