The Birth of a Penny.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 26, Issue 64, 6 August 1915, Page 2

The Birth of a Penny.

Pew people realise the number of processes a penny passes through before it reaches their hands. In the first place the bars of bronze are weighed before being passed on to the rolling-room. The metal is then put in a crucible, which is like a copper. The crucible is then put in a closed furnace, where the heat melts the metal till it runs like water. The melting purities the metal and frees it from anything that may have got mixed with it ; the pure metal is then poured into thin moulds and allowed to cool. It comes out of these moulds in long, thin strips, which are pressed througli rollers and made the exact thickness of a penny. . The strips of metal then come to the machine called the "cutter,” which cuts them up into roind discs the exact shape of a penny. The cutter worts very rapidly and cuts out about 500 pennies in a minute. The metal strips, as they are cut Off, fall on to a tray beneath, and are taken buck to tlio furnace to be again melted down, so nothing is wasted. The pennies are now the proper shape and size, but they must pass through another w nder- j ful machine and be baked in an l oven before they look like the pennies in every-day circulation. The pennies now travel to a machine that raises their edges. The penny would near away much «t>ick,er if the edges were not ra.is*<f They are now put into iron b n »es on an endless chain and travel w-rmigh a furnace for two and a half hours.

After they have been well baked they are passed, on to,the stamping machine. They are here dropped into a sloping tube, at the bottom of which they are struck by two dies, coining out stamped on both sides. Every coin is then tested. They are put on to a moving belt, and as they pass slowly by the tester examines them to see if they are properly made. If badly made or a bad colour he immediately notices it and they, are thrown out, if good they are carried along by the bell and dropped into a tray at the end. They now come to the most, wonderful machine at the Mint, the counting machine; the pennies are emptied on a plate and this wonderful machine does the rest. It tests the coins once more, counts them, weighs them, and finally drops them into bags ready to he issued. Over 48,000,000 pennies Were made in a year.