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REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINT.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

BUREAU OF THE MINT,

Washington, D. C., September 15, 1917.

SIR: In compliance with the provisions of section 345, Revised Statutes of the United States, I have the honor to submit herewith a report covering the operations of the mints and assay offices of the United States for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917, being the fortyfifth annual report of the Director of the Mint. There is also submitted for publication in connection therewith the annual report of this bureau upon the production and consumption of the precious metals in the United States for the calendar year 1916.

OPERATIONS OF THE MINTS AND ASSAY OFFICES.

A feature of the year was the unprecedented demand for coins of the smaller denominations. The coinage executed approached the half-billion mark in number of pieces, against approximately 155 million pieces in the previous year. This was the largest year's coinage in the history of the mint service. A large number of pieces, over 17 millions, were coined for foreign Governments.

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The value of gold acquired by the mint service during the fiscal year was nearly a billion dollars-almost double that of the prior year, and more than six times the amount received in 1915.

I beg to suggest the advisability of recommending to Congress that a permanent indefinite appropriation be made for the purpose of providing alloy metals for gold and silver coinage. Under present conditions payment is made from the appropriation for contingent (general) expenses of the respective coinage mints, and in submitting requests for appropriations it is impracticable to estimate with any degree of accuracy the amount that will be drawn from the contingent funds for the purchase of metal for alloy.

It is further recommended that the necessary steps be taken to bring about legislation to increase the minor coinage metal fund from $200,000 to $400,000. We are now considerably embarrassed by lack of funds to pay for sufficient copper and nickel to operate the mints to full capacity on minor coins.

The regulation in force for many years as to the gold content of acceptable deposits has recently been so modified as to permit the minor offices to receive bullion containing not less than one part of gold in one thousand. This amendment has the effect of attracting to the smaller offices large amounts of bullion previously deflected to outside institutions.

In this connection I would urge the desirability of appropriations sufficiently large to permit the utilization of the minor offices in han

dling a much larger volume of business. The activities of all of the assay offices should be increased. They can be made to serve a larger number of small producers of the precious metals and to be of much greater accommodation to the mining industry, and this at small expense to the Public Treasury. It is possible for the earnings of the smaller offices to be increased to the extent of making them largely self-supporting.

The most notable mechanical improvement in the service consisted of the installation of an electric furnace in the mint at Philadelphia to be used for the melting of minor-coinage metal. It is expected that an important saving of time and materials will result from this method of operating upon nickel and bronze.

The following mint service institutions were operated during the fiscal year 1917: Coinage mints at Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver; assay office at New York, which has a large trade in bars of fine gold and silver; mints at New Orleans and Carson City conducted as assay offices and assay offices at Seattle, Boise, Helena, Salt Lake City, and Deadwood, these being bullion-purchasing agencies for the large institutions. Refineries were operated at the New York, Denver, and San Francisco institutions.

The value of the gold acquired by the Government at the mints and assay offices during the fiscal year 1917 was $907,962,397.15, the large increase over last year being due principally to the heavy importations of foreign coin; United States gold coin received for recoinage was of the value of $1,906,125.44; transfers of gold between mint service offices totaled $13,832,622.21, making an aggregate of gold handled by the mint service during the fiscal year 1917 of $923,701,144.80.

Silver purchased during the fiscal year 1917 totaled 6,161,680.34 fine ounces, costing $4,513,215.19, at an average price of 731 cents per fine ounce; the silver received and repaid to the depositors thereof in bars bearing the Government stamp totaled 4,610,396.06 fine ounces; the silver deposited by foreign Governments to be worked into coin totaled 811,754.81 fine ounces; the United States silver coin received for recoinage totaled 6,241,055.78 fine ounces, with recoinage value of $8,627,946.34; the Philippine silver coins received for recoinage totaled 149,129.07 fine ounces; the transfers of silver between mint service offices totaled 1,231,661.15 fine ounces, making an aggregate quantity of silver handled by the mint service during the fiscal year 1917 of 19,205,677.21 fine ounces. The large increase over last year of silver handled was due principally to the extraordinary demand for subsidiary silver coin and to the placing in circulation of the new design subsidiary silver coins.

The United States coinage for the fiscal year 1917 amounted to $25,445,148.68, of which $1,230,040 was gold, $18,263,600 was silver, $3,816,496.70 was nickel, and $2,135,011.98 was bronze. This amount includes $30,040 in $1 gold pieces struck at the Philadelphia Mint for the McKinley Memorial Association, and represents a total of 406,500,972 pieces.

There were also coined at the Philadelphia Mint 5,000 gold pieces for Costa Rica; 589,661 silver pieces for Colombia; 2,000,000 silver and 2,800,000 nickel pieces for Ecuador; 2,500,000 nickel pieces for Salvador; 100,000 silver and 800,000 nickel pieces for Panama;

1,170,000 bronze pieces for Nicaragua; 510,000 gold planchets and 600,449 silver planchets for Peru. The mint at San Francisco coined for the Philippine Islands 1,594,203 silver, 1,600,000 nickel, and 4,500,000 bronze pieces, a total of 18,769,313 pieces.

The seigniorage on United States coinage executed totaled $10,478,643.24, of which $5,406,158.51 was on subsidiary silver coins and $5,072,484.73 was on minor coins.

STOCK OF COIN AND BULLION IN THE UNITED STATES.

On June 30, 1917, the estimated stock of domestic coin in the United States was $2,308,584,535, of which $1,541,481,585 was gold, $568,270,061 was silver dollars, and $198,832,889 was subsidiary silver

coin.

The stock of gold bullion in the mints and assay offices on the same date was valued at $1,550,357,982.76, an increase over last year of $745,891,805.06, and the stock of silver bullion was 10,054,416.81 fine ounces, a decrease over last year of 780,757.07 fine ounces.

PRODUCTION OF GOLD AND SILVER.

The production of the precious metals in the United States during the calendar year 1916 was as follows: Gold, $92,590,300, and silver, 74,414,802 fine ounces.

INDUSTRIAL ARTS.

The amount of gold consumed in the industrial arts during the calendar year 1916 was $51,061,187, of which $41,120,149 was new material. Silver consumed amounted to 32,103,507 fine ounces, of which 22,204,261 fine ounces was new material.

EXPORT OF GOLD COIN.

The net export of United States gold coin for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917, was $124,413,527.

ESTIMATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1919.

The total of estimates for the mint service for the fiscal year 1919, including the office of the Director in Washington, is $1,663,340, which compares with estimates of $1,261,240 for the fiscal year 1918 and appropriations for the latter year of $1,215,080.

APPROPRIATIONS, EXPENSES, AND INCOME.

The appropriated amounts available for the mint service use during the fiscal year 1917 totaled $1,514,586.88, reimbursements to appropriations for services rendered amounted to $82,054.39, making an available total of $1,596,641.27.

The expenses chargeable to appropriations were $1,547,344.85; those chargeable to income $29,802.65; total, $1,577,147.50.

The income realized by the Treasury from the mint service totaled $11,439,873.37, of which $10,478,643.24 was seigniorage.

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9,862, 725.87

Total expenses..

Net income of the Government from the mint service......

Total.

11, 439, 873. 37

DEPOSITS, INCOME, EXPENSES, AND EMPLOYEES BY INSTITUTIONS.

The number and value of deposits, the income (including seigniorage), and the expenses, of the fiscal year 1917, and the number of employees on June 30, 1917, at each institution, are given below:

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1 Includes transportation of bullion and coin between mints and assay offices.

COINAGE DURING THE FISCAL YEAR.

The amount of domestic coin produced during the fiscal year 1917 was 406,500,972 pieces of the face value of $25,445,148.68.

The gold coinage was $1,230,040, which includes $30,040 in McKinley gold dollars authorized under the act of Congress of February 23, 1916. The silver coinage consisted of 116,399,800 pieces of the face value of $18,263,600, which includes $13,750,400 in value of silver coins of the new design. The minor coinage executed totaled 289,831,132 pieces of nickel and bronze of the face value of $5,951,508.68.

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