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Second. The treasurer shall receive, and safely keep all mon- 1837. eys which shall be for the use and support of the mint; shall Treasurer. keep all the current accounts of the mint, and pay all moneys due by the mint, on warrants from the director. He shall receive all bullion brought to the mint for coinage; shall be the keeper of all bullion and coin in the mint, except while the same is legally placed in the hands of other officers, and shall, on warrants from the director, deliver all coins struck at the mint to the persons to whom they shall be legally payable. And he shall keep regular and faithful accounts of all the transactions of the mint, in bullion and coins, both with the officers of the mint and the depositors; and shall present, quarter-yearly, to the Treasury Department of the United States, according to such forms as shall be prescribed by that department, an account of the receipts and disbursements of the mint, for the purpose of being adjusted and settled.

Third. The assayer shall carefully assay all metals used in Assayer. coinage, whenever such assays are required in the operations of the mint; and he shall also make assays of coins whenever instructed to do so by the director.

Fourth. The melter and refiner shall execute all the opera- Melter and res tions which are necessary in order to form ingots of standard ner. silver or gold, suitable for the chief coiner, from the metals legally delivered to him for that purpose

Fifth. The chief coiner shall execute all the operations which Chief coiner. are necessary in order to form coins, conformable in all respects to the law, from the standard silver and gold ingots, and the copper planchets, legally delivered to him for this purpose.

Sixth. The engraver shall prepare and engrave, with the Engraver. legal devices and inscriptions, all the dies used in the coinage of the mint and its branches.

assistants and

SECTION 3. And be it further enacted, That the director Appointment of shall appoint, with the approbation of the President, assistants clerks. to the assayer, melter and refiner, chief coiner, and engraver, and clerks for the director and treasurer, whenever, on representation made by the director to the President, it shall be the opinion of the President that such assistants or clerks are necessary. And it shall be the duty of the assistants to aid their Their duties. principals in the execution of their respective offices, and of the clerks to perform such, duties as shall be prescribed for them by the director.

case of temporary absence,

SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That whenever any Vacancies in officer of the mint shall be temporarily absent, on account of sickness, or any other sufficient cause, it shall be lawful for the how filled. director, with the assent of said officer, to appoint some person attached to the mint, to act in the place of such officer during his absence, and that the director shall employ such workmen Employment of and servants in the mint as he shall from time find neces- servants. sary.

workmen and

SECTION 5. And be it further enacted, That every officer, Oath to be taken, assistant, and clerk of the mint, shall, before he enters upon the execution of his office take an oath or affirmation before some

1837. judge of the United States, or judge of the superior court or any court of record of any State, faithfully and diligently to perform the duties thereof.

Bonds required.

Salaries of officers, clerks,and assistants.

SECTION 6. And be it further enacted, That the following officers of the mint, before entering upon the execution of their respective offices, shall become bound to the United States, with one or more sureties, to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in the sums hereinafter mentioned, with condition for the faithful and diligent performance of the duties of their offices, viz: The treasurer in the sum of ten thousand dollars; the assayer in the sum of five thousand dollars; the melter and refiner in the sum of ten thousand dollars; the chief coiner in the sum of ten thousand dollars. And that similar bonds may also be required of the assistants and clerks, in such sums as the director shall determine, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Treasury.

SECTION 7. And be it further enacted, That there shall be allowed to the officers of the mint the following salaries per annum: To the director, for his services, including travelling expenses incurred in visiting the different branches, and all other charges whatever, three thousand five hundred dollars; to the treasurer, assayer, melter and refiner, chief coiner, and engraver, each, two thousand dollars; to the assistants and clerks, such annual salaries shall be allowed as the director may determine, with the approbation of the President: Provided, That an assistant shall not receive more than fifteen hundred dollars; and that a clerk shall not receive more than twelve hundred dollars; Wages of work to the workmen and servants shall be allowed such wages, to be determined by the director, as may be customary and reasonable, according to their respective stations and occupations; and that the salaries provided for in this section shall be payable in quarterly instalments.

Proviso.

men and servants.

Standard for gold

SECTION 8. And be it further enacted, That the standard for and silver coins. both gold and silver coins of the United States shall hereafter be such, that of one thousand parts by weight, nine hundred shall be of pure metal, and one hundred of alloy; and the alloy of the silver coins shall be of copper; and the alloy of the gold coins shall be of copper and silver, provided that the silver do not exceed one-half of the whole alloy.

Alloys.

Weight of silver coins.

SECTION 9. And be it further enacted, That of the silver coins, the dollar shall be of the weight of four hundred and twelve and one-half grains; the half dollar of the weight of two hundred and six and one-fourth grains; the quarter dollar of the weight of one hundred and three and one-eighth grains; the dime, or tenth part of a dollar, of the weight of forty-one and a quarter grains; and the half dime, or twentieth part of a dollar, of the weight of twenty grains, and five-eighths of a grain. Dollars &c. shall And that dollars, half dollars, and quarter dollars, dimes, and half he legal tenders, dimes, shall be legal tenders of payment, according to their nominal value, for any sums whatever.

&c.

Weight of gold coins.

SECTION 10. And be it further enacted, That of the gold coins, the weight of the eagle shall be two hundred and fifty

be a legal tend

er, &c.

eight grains; that of the half-eagle one hundred and twenty-nine 1837. grains; and that of the quarter eagle sixty-four and one-half Eagles, &c. shan grains. And that for all sums whatever, the eagle shall be a legal tender of payment for ten dollars; the half-eagle for five dollars; and the quarter eagle for two and a half dollars. SECTION 11. And be it further enacted, That the silver coins Silver coine heretofore issued at the mint of the United States, and the gold ed, and gold coins issued since the thirty-first day of July, one thousand eight since 31st July, hundred and thirty-four, shall continue to be legal tenders of 1834, shall con payment for their nominal values, on the same terms as if they tenders. were of the coinage provided for by this act.

heretofore issu

coins issued

tinue to be legal

per coins.

SECTION 12. And be it further enacted, That of the copper Weight of cop coins, the weight of the cent shall be one hundred and sixtyeight grains, and the weight of the half-cent eighty-four grains. And the cent shall be considered of the value of one hundredth part of a dollar, and the half cent of the value of one two-hun- Proportional vat dredth part of a dollar.

ue of to dollar.

SECTION 13. And be it further enacted, That upon the coins Devices and to struck at the mint there shall be the following devices and le- gends of coins gends: upon one side of each of said coins there shall be an impression emblematic of liberty, with an inscription of the word LIBERTY, and the year of the coinage; and upon the reverse of each of the gold and silver coins, there shall be the figure or representation of an eagle, with the inscription United States of America, and a designation of the value of the coin; but on the reverse of the dime and half dime, cent and half cent, the figure of the eagle shall be omitted.

bullion brought

be received and

SECTION 14. And be it further enacted, That gold and silver Gold and silver bullion brought to the mint for coinage, shall be received and for coinage shall coined, by the proper officers, for the benefit of the depositor: coined Provided, That it shall be lawful to refuse, at the mint, any de- Proviso. posite of less value than one hundred dollars, and any bullion so base as to be unsuitable for the operations of the mint; And Further proviso. provided also, That when gold and silver are combined, if either of these metals be in such small proportion that it cannot be separated advantageously, no allowance shall be made to the depositor for the value of such metal.

SECTION 15. And be it further enacted, That when bullion Receipt to be giv is brought to the mint for coinage, it shall be weighed by the en for bullion. treasurer, in the presence of the depositor, when practicable, and

a receipt given which shall state the description and weight of the
bullion: Provided, That when the bullion is in such a state as Proviso.
to require melting before its value can be ascertained, the weight
after melting shall be considered as the true weight of the bullion
deposited.

to be assayed.

SECTION 16. And be it further enacted, That from every Bullion depositparcel of bullion deposited for coinage, the treasurer shall delivered for coinage to the assayer a sufficient portion for the purpose of being assayed; but all such bullion remaining from the operations of the assay shall be returned to the treasurer by the assayer.

SECTION 17. And be it further enacted, That the assayer Assayer to reshall report to the treasurer the quality or standard of the bul- port the quality

&c.

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1837. lion assayed by him; and he shall also communicate to the treasurer such information as will enable him to estimate the amount of the charges hereinafter provided for, to be made to the depositor, for the expenses of converting the bullion into standard metal fit for coinage.

Charges to which the depositor is. subjected.

SECTION 18. And be it further enacted, That the only subjects of charge by the mint to the depositor shall be the following: For refining when the bullion is below standard; for toughening when metals are contained in it which render it unfit for coinage; for copper used for alloy when the bullion is above standard; for silver introduced into the alloy of gold; and for separating the gold and silver when these metals exist together in the bulRate of, how fix-lion: and that the rate of these charges shall be fixed, from time to time, by the director, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, so as not to exceed, in their judgment, the actual expense to the mint of the materials and labor employed in each of the cases aforementioned; and that the amount received from these charges shall be accounted for, and appropriated for defraying the contingent expenses of the mint.

ed.

Disposition of amount received.

Value of depos ite, &c. how essimated.

Transfers of bul

lion by treasu-
rer to
and refiner.

SECTION 19. And be it further enacted, That from the report of the assayer, and the weight of the bullion, the treasurer shall estimate the whole value of each deposite, and also the amount of the charges or deductions if any; of all which he shall give a detailed memorandum to the depositor; and he shall also give, at the same time, under his hand, a certificate of the nett amount of the deposite, to be paid in coins of the same species of bullion as that deposited.

SECTION 20. And be it further enacted, That parcels of bulmelter lion shall be, from time to time, transferred by the treasurer to the melter and refiner; that a careful record of these transfers, noting the weight and character of the bullion, shall be kept; and that the bullion thus placed in the hands of the melter and refiner shall be subjected to the several processes which may be necessary to form it into ingots of the legal standard, and of a quality suitable for coinage.

logots to be assayed, &c.

Deviation from

allowed in in

SECTION 21. And be it further enacted, That the ingots thus prepared shall be assayed by the assayer, and if they prove to be within the limits allowed for deviation from the standard, they shall be transferred by the melter and refiner to the treasurer, accompanied by the assayer's certificate of their fineness; and that a careful record of the transfer shall be kept by the treasurer.

SECTION 22. And be it further enacted, That no ingots of legal standard gold shall be used for coinage of which the quality differs more gots of gold and than two thousandths from the legal standard; and that no ingots silver. of silver shall be used for coinage of which the quality differs more than three thousandths from the legal standard.

Treasurer's ac count with me!

SECTION 23. And be it further enacted, That in the treasurer's ter and refiner account with the melter and refiner, the melter and refiner shall be debited with the standard weight of all the bullion placed in his hands, that is to say, with the weight of metal of legal standard fineness which it will make; and that he shall be credited by the standard weight of all the ingots delivered by him

for

to the treasurer; and that once at least in every year, at such 1837. time as the director shall appoint, the melter and refiner shall deliver up to the treasurer all the bullion in his possession, in order that his accounts may be settled up to that time; and, in this settlement, he shall be entitled to a credit for the difference Allowance between the whole amount of bullion delivered to him and necessary waste received from him, since the last settlement, as an allowance for necessary waste: Provided, That this allowance shall not exceed Proviso. two thousandths of the whole amount of gold and silver bullion, respectively, that had been delivered to him by the treasurer.

age.

SECTION 24. And be it further enacted, That the treasurer Ingots for coin. shall, from time to time, deliver over to the chief coiner, ingots for the purpose of coinage; that he shall keep a faithful record of these transfers, noting the weight and description of the ingots; and that the ingots thus placed in the hands of the chief coiner shall be passed through the several processes necessary to make from them coins, in all respects conformable to law.

standard

ber together.

SECTION 25. And be it further enacted, That in adjusting Deviation from the weights of the coins, the following deviations from the stand-allowed in the ard weight shall not be exceeded in any of the single pieces: In weights of coins In single pieces. the dollar and half dollar, one grain and a half; in the quarter dollar, one grain; in the dime and half dime, half a grain; in the gold coins, one-quarter of a grain; in the copper coins, one grain in the pennyweight; and that in weighing a large number In a large num of pieces together, when delivered from the chief coiner to the treasurer, and from the treasurer to the depositors, the deviations from the standard weight shall not exceed the following limits: Four pennyweights in one thousand dollars; three pennyweights in one thousand half dollars; two pennyweights in one thousand quarter dollars; one pennyweight in one thousand dimes; one pennyweight in one thousand half dimes; two pennyweights in one thousand eagles; one and a half pennyweight in one thousand half eagles; one pennyweight in one thousand quarter eagles.

weighed.

SECTION 26. And be it further enacted, That the chief coiner Coins shall, from time to time, as the coins are prepared, deliver them over to the treasurer, who shall keep a careful record of their kind, number, and weight; and that, in receiving the coins, it shall be the duty of the treasurer to see whether the coins of that delivery are within the legal limits of the standard weight; and if his trials for this purpose shall not prove satisfactory, he shall cause all the coins of this delivery to be weighed separately, and such as are not of legal weight shall be delivered to the melter and refiner, as standard bullion, to be again formed into ingots and recoined.

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served for the annual trial.

SECTION 27. And be it further enacted, That at every de- Coins to be prelivery of coins made by the chief coiner to the treasurer, it shall be the duty of the treasurer, in the presence of the assayer, to take indiscriminately, a certain number of pieces of each variety for the annual trial of coins, (the number being prescribed by the director,) which shall be carefully labelled, and deposited in a chest appropriated for the purpose, kept under the joint care

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