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at the mint of the U. S. and its branches, to the close of 1853. STATES, PHILADELPHIA.

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at the mint and branches, to the close of 1853.

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$73,647,589 90 $1,513,517 17 454,854,315 $322,228,868 01 14,391,800 00

51,077,145 50,497,665 00

914,874

3,790,038 50

1,193,124

5,280,727 50

88,039,389 90 1,513,517 17 508,039,458 381,797,299 01

Report of the Director of the Mint respecting the Quality and Ialue of Foreign Gold and Silver Coin.

MINT OF THE UNITED STATES,

Philadelphia, January 28, 1853. SIR: I submit the following report of the fineness and value of certain foreign gold and silver coin, as required by the acts of Congress of January 25, 1834, and March 3, 1843; said coins being therein made a legal tender upon certain conditions, which are contingent upon this report.

GOLD COINS.

The law provides that "gold coins from Great Britain, not less. than 915 thousandths fine, shall be received at 94 6-10 cents per pennyweight." In a long series of years, and operating at times upon large quantities of such coin, we have not been able to find. a higher average result than 915, and it was upon this basis that the enactment was framed. But under the present management of the British mint, and of its assay department, beginning fairly with the year 1852, there is an upward tendency more strictly conforming with the legal standard of 9163. The assay of a few pieces of 1852 and 1853 [the course of trade preventing the receipt of large quantities here] gives an average of 916, and the consequent rate would be 94 7-10 cents per pennyweight. But it will evidently require a large emission at this rate to make a perceptible improvement in any promiscuous parcel; and some years must elapse before the rate fixed by Congress can be elevated.

The gold coins of France are made current at 92 9-10 cents per pennyweight, provided their fineness be not less than 899 thousandths. Their legal standard is 900; but the actual fineness, down to 1852 inclusive, cannot be rated higher than 899.

Gold coins of Spain, Mexico, and Colombia, "of the fineness of 20 carats, 3 7-16 carat grains," equal to 869 14-100 thousandths, are receivable at 89 9-10 cents per pennyweight. While occasionally parcels have been found to be of this fineness, or slightly above it, they are frequently not higher than 866, and would, therefore, appear to be thrown out by the terms of the law. Moreover, the gold coins of New Grenada, which is a part of Colombia, have been minted since 1849 at the new legal rate of 900 thousandths, and, upon repeated trials, are found to average 891. But it is very rare to find any longer in circulation a gold coin of Spain, Mexico, or Colombia.

The gold coins of Porhtugal and Brazil, made current upon condition of being not less than 22 carats [9163 thousandths] fine, are really not higher than 914 thousandths; they are now only known amongst us as curiosities, and it is believed are scarce even in their own country.

SILVER COINS.

The Spanish pillar dollars, and the dollars of Mexico, Peru,

and Bolivia, of not less than 897 thousandths fine, and 415 grains in weight, and the dollars of Chili and Central America, and those restamped in Brazil, of not less fineness than "ten ounces fifteen pennyweights in the pound," [895 8-10 thousandths,] and 415 grains in weight, are receivable at one hundred cents each. The present average fineness and value of these coins, as appearing in our circulation, may be stated as in the ensuing table, with some doubt as to the item of Central America, whose coinage is very irregular.

Weight. Fineness Value in cents.

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The five-franc pieces of France, if not less than 900 thousandths fine, and 384 grains in weight, are made current at 93 cents. They continue to maintain this average to the year 1852, which is the latest date assayed here.

It is to be noted that the foregoing valuations of silver coin are based upon the legal rate of the United States, as fixed by the act of 1837. Under the act of March, 1853, the mint has been and is now paying a premium upon these rates to procure silver for coinage; consequently, the laws making them current may be cORsidered nugatory and obsolete. The same remark, for other but obvious reasons, may be applied to all the gold coins mentioned in this report, except those of Great Britain and France.

I embrace this opportunity to suggest that there is no longer any propriety or necessity for legalizing the circulation of the coins of other countries. In no other nation, except in the case of some colonies, is this mixture of currencies admitted by law, either on the score of courtesy or convenience. When these laws as to foreign coins were passed our coinage was inconsiderable, but during the last few years the pieces struck, in number and value, it is believed, is scarcely inferior to that of any other country. The last year more than seventy-six millions of pieces were struck, of the value of upwards of sixty-four millions of dollars. If this suggestion is approved, and the laws which legalize foreign coins be repealed, it would be proper, by a standing regulation of the Treasury Department, or by legislative enactment, to require an annual assay report upon the dyeight and fineness of such for

eign coins as frequently reach our shores, with a view to settle and determine their marketable value. Such a report would be a judicious substitute for the one now presented.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your faithful servant, JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN,

Hon. JAMES GUTHRIE,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Director.

ARTICLE IV.

Col. Fremont's Exploration of the Central Railroad Route to the Pacific.

To the Editors of the National Intelligencer :

GENTLEMEN: While the proceedings in Congress are occupying public attention more particularly with the subject of the Pacific Railway, I desire to offer to your paper for publication some general results of a recent winter expedition across the Rocky Mountains, confining myself to mere results, in anticipation of a fuller report, with maps and illustrations, which will necessarily take some months to prepare.

tance

The country examined was for about three-fourths of the disfrom the Missouri frontier, at the mouth of the Kansas River, to the Valley of Parowan, at the foot of the Wahsatch Mountains within the rim of the Great Basin, at its south-eastern bend-along and between the 38th and 39th parallels of latitude; and the whole line divides itself naturally into three sections, which may be conveniently followed in description.

The first or eastern section consists of the great prairie slope, spreading from the base of the Sierra Blanca to the Missouri frontier, about 700 miles; the second or middle section comprehends the various Rocky Mountain ranges and interlying valleys between the termination of the great plains at the foot of the Sierra Blanca and the Great Basin of the Parowan Valley and Wahsatch Mountains where the first Mormon settlement is found, about 450 miles; the third or western section comprehends the mountainous plateau lying betwen the Wahsatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, a distance of about 400 miles.

The country examined was upon a very direct line-the traveled route being about 1,550 miles over an air-line distance of about 1,300 miles.

The First Section. Four separate expeditions across this section, made before the present one, and which carried me over

various lines at different seasons of the year, enable me to speak of it with the confidence of intimate knowledge. It is a plain of

easy inclination, sweeping directly up to the foot of the mountains which denominate it as highlands to the ocean. Its character is open prairie, over which summer traveling is made in every direction.

For a railway or winter traveling road, the route would be, in consideration of wood, coal, building stone, water and fertile land, about two hundred miles up the immediate valley of the Kansas, [which might be made one rich, continuous cornfield,] and afterward along the immediate valley of the Upper Arkansas, of which about two hundred miles, as you approach the mountains, is continuously well adapted to settlements, as well as to roads. Numerous well-watered and fertile valleys-broad and level-open up among the mountains, which present themselves in detached blocks -outliers-gradually closing in around the heads of the streams, but leaving open approaches to the central ridges. The whole of the inter-mountain region is abundant in grasses, wood, coal and fertile soil. The Pueblos above Bent's Fort prove it to be well adapted to the grains and vegetables common to the latitude, including Indian corn, which ripens well, and to the support of healthy stock, which increase well and take care of themselves summer and winter.

The climate is mild and the winters short; the autumn usually having its full length of bright, open weather, without snow, which in winter falls rarely and passes off quickly. In this belt of country lying along the mountains the snow falls more early and much more thinly than in the open plains to the eastward; the storms congregate about the high mountains and leave the valleys free. In the beginning of December we found yet no snow on the Huerfano River, and were informed by an old resident, then engaged in establishing a farm at the mouth of this stream, that snow seldom or never fell there, and that cattle were left in the range all the winter through.

This character of country continued to the foot of the dividing crest, and to this point our journey resulted in showing a very easy grade for a road, over a country unobstructed either by snow or other impediments, and having all the elements necessary to the prosperity of an agricultural population, in fertility of soil, abundance of food for stock, wood and coal for fuel, and timber for necessary constructions.

Our examinations around the southern headwaters of the Arkansas have made us acquainted with many passes, grouped together in a small space of country, conducting by short and practicable valleys from the waters of the Arkansas just described, to the valleys of the Del Norte and East Colorado. The Sierra Blanca, through which these passes lie, is high and rugged, presenting a very broken appearance, but rise abruptly from the open

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