346 



MINT 



perforated with round holes, and are now called scisscl (from the Latin scindo, to cut). 

 These are taken at intervals, and bound up by strips of the same into bundles of 180 

 ounces in the case of silver 360 ounces ready for re-melting. The cutting-out 

 press is set at liberty to start by the workman pressing his foot on a lever in connection 

 with the line and spring ; and so long as he keeps this lever down, the press is worked 

 continuously, but when he releases it the spring catches the extreme end of D at G, 

 and motion is arrested. The blanks which accumulate in the box are collected at 

 freqiient intervals and examined, to see that their edges are smooth ; if they be ragged, 

 as may happen from the wear or fracture of the edge of either the cutter or bolster, 

 a loss of weight would be entailed subsequently which would cause the coin to be outside 

 the prescribed limit, and to pass at an illegal weight into circulation, as the rough 

 edges would be removed after the coining of the blanks had been effected. Accord- 

 ing to the quality of the work the character of the gold under operation, the tryer 

 tests more or less frequently the variations of weight in a given number of blanks. 

 This process is called pounding, and is, next to the trying, the most important of his 



1537 



duties ; if such an expression can bo admitted, he has, by trying, fired his shot, and 

 here determines if he has hit the bull's-eye, all depending on his own unaided judg- 

 ment. The gauge, Jig. 1528, is found of great service in detecting irregularities as to 

 diameter and thickness, which would not be, and are not, detected by weight, for the 

 weight may remain equal, although both diameter and thickness may vary. All these 

 points require considerable care on the part of those whose duty it is to attend to 

 them ; for the quality of a coinage is determined in this room : blanks which once 

 leave it cannot be afterwards altered. The subsequent operations, being purely me- 

 chanical, would bo quite as well performed by automaton machines. 



The completing processes form undoubtedly the prettiest and most interesting part 

 of the operation of coining ; nevertheless the processes already described constitute its 

 most essential features. The blanks are weighed from this room in drafts of about 



