tions of the old mint is that to the general reader the 

 advances from the old hand to steam coinage and 

 their importance and value may be understood. [23] 



When the present U.S. Mint in Philadelphia ■'- was 

 built it was furnished throughout with entirely new 

 machinery that the old mint might be kept in full 

 operation during its construction. The new machin- 



Figure 34. — Steam engine designed by Franklin Peale, at the U.S. Mint. 

 Philadelphia. This engine drove the new toggle-joint coining press shown in 

 fig. 35. The governor is shown below engine at left. Plates from Paul R. 

 Hodge, The Steam Engine (New York, 1840), in which this observation appears 

 (p. 206): "The close attention that has been paid to the order of architecture 

 selected is very obvious in the entablature, the capitals of the columns, the 

 ornamental tripod stand of the governor, the etruscan vase for the starting 

 handle, and the fret work of the eccentric lever . . . ." 



ery did not differ in any essential points from the well 

 tried [machinery] of long service in the old, onlv 

 differing as to amount to meet the requirements in 

 increased coinage. With this new machinery we had 

 nothing to do. I felt great interest in the building as 

 it progressed, inasmuch as it was under the charge of 

 my friend. J. C. Trautwine, then a pupil of William 

 Strickland, its architect. After the new mint went 

 into operation the machinery of the old mint was 

 sold under the auctioneer's hammer, mostly by 

 weight as old metal. We became the purchasers of 

 the rolling mill department with its shafting and con- 

 nected machinery. The housings, rolls, etc.. did not 

 go into the melting furnace, but were relitted as a 



The planchets were shipped in casks, each weighing about 

 375 pounds. A shipment of 20 tons departed from Liverpool 

 about a month before the start of the War of 1812; another 

 shipment was ordered before word reached Philadelphia 

 of war's end. The balance due Boulton and Watt in 1812. 

 £74: 6: 11. had grown through the war to £87: 8: 10 in 

 181=;. (Boulton to Samuel Bayard. February 2-,. 1701.: 

 Boulton to Boudinot. April 2. 1799, 60 casks, nearly io tons; 



invoice, Liverpool. February 11, 181 2; Boulton to Patterson, 

 May 1, 1 8 1 5 ; all in Philadelphia Mint papers, f S. National 

 Archives.) 



'■'- The Philadelphia Mint, now located on Spring Garden 

 Street at 16th, where stood originally the Rush and Muhlenberg 

 Hush Ilill Winks, was built in the early years of this century, 

 after Sellers';, death. 'I he "present" mint described here was 

 new in 1833, as noted m the introduction to this chapter. 



67 



