70 United States Coinage. [August, 



then slowly cooled, when by the aid of steam powder it is rolled 

 into long, thin strips. This process is completed by drawing the 

 plate in a sort of graduated steel machine which hxes the exact 

 thickness of the plate to the coin which it is intended should be 

 struck. The pieces, or as they are called, planchets, are then cut 

 out in discs of the size of the coin. The circular punch which 

 performs this work cuts at the rate of one hundred and sixty per 

 minute. The planchets are then milled, a process which consists 

 in raising an edge, the use of which is to protect the faces of the 

 coin from wear. This process, too, is performed with great ra- 

 pidity, five hundred and sixty half dimes being milled in one 

 minute. After this, the gold pieces are adjusted in their weight, 

 cleaned and whitened, piece by piece. Stamping the pieces with 

 their proper devices is the next step. They are placed in a tube 

 from which the planchets slide one by one to a steel collar and 

 between the coining dies, where they are powerfully compressed, 

 when they receive the design in relief upon their discs. This 

 completes the process of coining, from which brief description it 

 will be seen that the processes themselves, being systematic, per- 

 fect and rapid, through the aid of machinery, are a great hindrance 

 to the designs of counterfeiters, inasmuch as they cannot afford a 

 workmanship as perfect in any of its parts, but must necessarily 

 produce an inferior article. It is true, however, that in some 

 instances base coins exhibit a tolerable degree of perfection; yet 

 in general it is not difficult to see by comparison that they are 

 rather poor imitations of genuine coin. 



2. Character of spurious or counterfeit coins, and the means hy 

 which they may be detected. — A counterfeit coin is an imitation of 

 one which is genuine, and which has been issued according to law. 

 As the object in making counterfeit coins is gain, it is necessary 

 that they should be composed of materials of an inferior value. 

 So, too, it is probable that their workmanship will be such as will 

 give them a currency; though it can hardly be expected that it 

 will equal that of genuine coin, as the hopes of great gain would 

 thereby be greatly diminished. It has happened, however, that 

 our inferior coins, both in composition and workmanship, have 

 been put in circulation under the sanction of law. Thus the 

 smaller pieces of money which usually remain in the country, and 

 are designed as the circulating medium of trade and traffic in the 

 common affairs of life, have been made of inferior metal by 

 government itself. This attempt to defraud the people under the 

 authority and sanction of law, has generally defeated itself; for 

 the base coin will be easily imitated by rogues in the adjacent 

 districts; and the profits, which were designed only for the 

 government, have been divided, and soon the speculation has 

 come to an end by the reduction of the coin to its true value. 



