HOW MONEY IS MADE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3141, 30 October 1922, Page 2

HOW MONEY IS MADE.

(By B. E. Burdcr.) The suggestion to surrender the 3.000,000 golden sovereigns that arc beiii'g hoarded all over the country, so that the rate of exchange- with the United States may be benefited, ealln attention to the fact that about a month ago the bank gold reserve was reduced by £1.000,000, this amount being sent across to America. The United States gave an interesting comparison of the gold holding and note issues of herself and Great Britain in 1914 and the latter part of 1920. In 1914 the U.S.A. held gold to the amount of £204,600,000, and issued notes value £211.200.000, and in 1920 this increased to £423.200,000 gold and £923,000.000 notes. Great Britain m 1914 held gold to the value of £39,000.000. and the value of notes issued was £28,000,000. In 1920 the effect of the Avar is seen in Hie tremendous increase in the issue of paper money, which rose to £1.040,200,000, while the total sum* of gold held was £148.000,000. The depreciation of the world's coinage by wear exceeds one ton and a quarter- of gold and 88 tons of silver every ye;\r. so that the minting of new money •*» always necessary. The Royal Mint, where Britain's coins are made, was erected in 1810 on Tower-hill and from it hundreds of millions of coins. gold, silver, and bronze, have been continually passed out into circulation. The ingots of metal first oarss through the assay office, where their value is noted, and then into the smelting pans, which are placed in ovens heated by immense coal fires. When the metal becomes liquid the pans are carried by machinery and emptied into numerous iron moulds.. The bars thus cast are rolled until they measure the thickness of the coin required. The discs are next stamped out. and the rims raised all round the edges, so as to protect the designs. Next the discs are thoroughly cleaned by means of sulphuric acid, and polished on revolving drums containing beech-wood sawdust. They are now ready to pass through the stamping machine. Before the coins pass into circulation they must go through another room, where each is' tested by special machine. Gold is allowed only .15 of a grain mai'gin from the true weight, and silver .5" of a grain. Pennies are weighed in lots of forty-eight, halfpennies in lots of eighty, and farthings in double that quantity. In this way about 4,000,000 coins' a day pass through this final room.