MINT.

Communicated to the Congress, January 31, 1799.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I have received a report from the Director of the Mint, on the state of the business committed to his superintendence, and a statement of the coinage of the mint of the United States, for the year 1798, which it is proper to lay before Congress.

JOHN ADAMS.

January 31, 1799.

. . . . . . . .

To the President of the United States.

The Director of the Mint thinks it his duty to review his annual report on the state of the business committed to his superintendence, for the information of Government.

With pleasure he refers the President to the enclosed returns of issues of the several species of coin from the mint, since the first of January, 1798; during which time, the coinage has been stopped near three months, occasioned by the late calamitous fever, and the decay of some of the machinery. Yet, by these returns, it will appear that the coinage of gold amounts, in value, to 205,610 dollars; that of silver, to 330,291 dollars; and that of copper, to 9,797 dollars; in the whole, amounting to 545,698 dollars; exceeding, in value, nearly double what has ever been coined at the mint in any one preceding year, and increases the whole amount of the coinage, since the commencement of the business, in October, 1794, to 483,245 dollars, in gold; 792,643 dollars, 75 cents, in silver; and 41,004 dollars, 74 cents, in copper; amounting, in the whole, to 1,316,893 dollars 49 cents.

From information the Director has received, he has no doubt but there will be a full supply of silver bullion for the ensuing year, at the present establishment of the mint; and the frequent deposites of gold, give him encouragement to suppose a proportionate supply of that precious metal will be kept up. The present arrangement, with regard to copper coin, will enable the Director, during the course of the next summer, to supply any demand that is likely to be made for cents, and at present there are a considerable number on hand.

The Director cannot, with propriety, close this report, without mentioning, that, during the last summer, a scheme was discovered for robbing the mint, by persons out of it, in concert with one person employed in the mint; and although the offenders have been detected, prosecuted and punished, yet it fully justifies the observations heretofore offered to the President, on the unprotected state of the mint, to which the Director begs leave to refer.

All which is respectfully submitted to the President.

ELIAS BOUDINOT, Director.

Mint of the United States, Jan. 3, 1799.

. . . . . . . .

Statement of the coinage at the mint of the United States, for the year 1798.

Mint of the United States, Treasurer’s Office, Jan. 3, 1799.

BENJAMIN RUSH.