MINT 



* and Tudor 



niijilos fftmuin at 

 Oxford and C,uiil>ridge. 



Mint (Mentha). Genus of peren- 

 nial herbs of the natural order 

 10, widely distributed out- 

 '.< tropics. They have 

 i^ rootstocks, square stems 

 and l>i\Mii-li'-i, piiiiL'ciit aromatic 

 and purplish flowers in 

 u IK i! Is. Ten species are recognized 

 vc.s of I'.ittain, (f which the 

 important are peppermint 

 (M. piperita), yielding the essen- 

 tial oil of the same name ('/.'.); 



Hint. Plants of water mint, showing 

 foliage and rounded flower-beads 



pennyroyal (M. pulegium); spear- 

 mint or lamb-mint (M. spicata), 

 grown in gardens for making mint- 

 sauce, and yielding oil of spear- 



5441 



mint. Menthol 

 is obtained from 

 M. arveiuia. A 

 supply of green 

 leaves may be ob- 

 tained through the 

 winter by growing 

 in a temperature 

 of 60. 



Mint (Lat. 7/wn- 

 ela). Government 

 office where mon- 

 ey is coined. The 

 British Mint dates 

 from Anglo-Saxon 

 times, when mints 

 were scattered all 

 over the country. 

 Gradually their 

 number was reduced, until early 

 in the 18th century all coins for the 

 three kingdoms were minted in Lon- 

 don. The present building, The Mint 

 on Tower Hill, was erected in 1810. 

 It is under a master who, since 

 1869, has been the chancellor of 

 the exchequer, but its real head is 

 the deputy master, a civil servant. 

 It has branches at Melbourne and 

 Perth in Australia, and at Ottawa. 

 The Sydney branch closed Jan., 

 1 924. Sir Isaac Newton was master 

 of the mint, and, like others in that 

 position, he made much money by 

 contracting for the supply of coins 



The method of manufacturing 

 gold and silver coin at the Royal 

 Mint, London, is approximately as 



MINT 



Minstrel's Gallery in the nave o! Exeter Cathedral, an 

 example ol 15th century work 



follows : The refined metal is 

 melted in plumbago crucibles and 

 poured into iron moulds. The bars 

 thus formed are passed between 

 cast-iron or steel rollers until they 

 are of the requisite thickness, 

 being kept soft during the process 

 by annealing. The weight of the 

 flattened bars called " fillets " is 

 tested on disks punched out of each 

 fillet by the " tryer," who decides 

 whether they are within the 

 " remedy," i.e, the small margin 

 within which coins in minting are 

 permitted to vary from the 

 standard weight. * 



After the trial disks have been 

 passed the fillet is put through the 

 cutting machine, in which two 



Mint. Processes of coining in the London Mint. 1. Rolling bars of metal to obtain proper thickness. 2. The metal 



strip is passed through a machine which cuts out disks. 3. Knocking up or raising the edges. 4. Stamping image on 



obverse side of. coins. 5. Coins being passed over perforated tray which sorts out those too small. 6. Weighing coins by 



machines which automatically reject those too heavy or too light 



