MINT.

Communicated to Congress, January 21, 1801.

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

I have received from Elias Boudinot, Esq., Director of the Mint of the United Mates, a report, of the second of January instant, representing the state of it, together with an abstract of the coins struck at the mint, from the first of January to the thirty-first of December, 1800; an abstract of the expenditures of the mint, from the first of January to the thirty-first of December, 1800, inclusive; a statement of gain on copper coined at the mint from the first of January to the thirty-first of December, 1800, inclusive; and a certificate from Joseph Richardson, assayer of the mint, ascertaining the value of Spanish milled doubloons, in proportion to the gold coins of the United States, to be no more than 84 cents and 424/500 parts of a cent, for one pennyweight or 28 grains and 24256/84848 parts of a grain to one dollar. These papers I transmit to Congress for their consideration.

JOHN ADAMS.

United States, January 17th, 1801.

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To the President of the United States.

Mint of the United States, January 2, 1801.

The Director of the Mint respectfully informs the President that the enclosed abstract of the coin issued from the mint of the United States, and struck since the 31st of December last, shows the amount to be three hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars, in gold coins; two hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars, in silver coins; and twenty-nine thousand two hundred and seventy-nine dollars and forty cents, in copper cents and half cents; making up, in the whole, the quantity of five hundred and seventy-one thousand three hundred and thirty-five dollars and forty cents.

For the information of Government, the Director thinks it expedient to enclose a statement of the expenses and profits of the mint for the year past, which, from a number of concurring circumstances, has been full as expensive as may hereafter be expected, extraordinary supplies or repairs excepted.

The Director has a peculiar satisfaction in informing the President that there has been received from the test bottoms and ashes, accumulated before his administration of the mint, four hundred and twenty-eight dollars and forty-seven cents; which repays so much of the nine hundred and seventy-four dollars, heretofore allowed by Congress, as a deficiency in the former account of bullion, and that there is still a quantity of ashes remaining to be cleansed and refined.

The cents issued from the mint, amounting, now, to the sum of seventy-nine thousand three hundred and ninety dollars and eighty-two cents, the proclamation required by law ought to be issued, by which all other copper coin will be put out of circulation.

The late act of Congress, directing the mint to remain at Philadelphia, will expire in March next; some further legal provision will be necessary for its continuance here, or removal to the seat of Government. At all events, it will be necessary to provide some other mode of assaying the reserved pieces, set apart by direction of the act of Congress of the 2d of April, 1792, and required by that act to be done once in every year, under the inspection of the Chief Justice the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury, Secretary for the Department of State, and the Attorney General, who are required to attend at the mint, for that purpose. As it will be impracticable for those officers to leave the seat of Government, to comply with this part of the law, and the year will expire on the second Monday in February next, the Director respectfully submits to the President the propriety of recommending to Congress the necessity of a previous provision by law, to prevent a non-compliance with a positive injunction of an act of Congress.

The great rise in the price of copper, in Great Britain, has prevented so large an importation, and of course so large an issue of cents from the mint, as would, otherwise, have been done, the public being now tolerably well supplied with that species of small change.

The Director thinks it his duty to inform the President that having had occasion, during the past year, to have accurate assays made of Spanish milled doubloons, it was found that their real value, compared with the standard of the United States, was rather less than eighty-five cents the pennyweight; whereas, by the act of Congress, of the 9th of February, 1793, they are made a legal tender, at about eighty-seven cents the pennyweight, or, in the language of the act, “at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains and two-fifths of a grain, of the actual weight thereof,” which creates a loss, on the part of the citizens of the United States, of twenty-seven dollars and forty-two cents on one thousand pennyweight. The official certificate of the assayer is enclosed with this report.

All which is respectfully submitted to the President.

ELIAS BOUDINOT, Director.

The President of the United States.

. . . . . . . .

An abstract of the coins struck at the Mint of the United States, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1800.

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Statement of the gain on Copper, coined at the Mint of the United States, from the 1st January, to the 31st December, 1800, inclusive.

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Mint of the United States, 5th of 1st month, 1801.

At the request of the Director of the Mint, I do hereby certify, that, on carefully assaying a number of Spanish milled doubloons, of different dates and complexions, I found their degree of fineness corresponded with each other, to great exactness; but that their real value, in proportion to gold coins of the standard of the United States, was no more than 84 cents and 424/500 parts of a cent for one pennyweight, or 28 grains and 24256/84848 parts of grain to one dollar.

JOSEPH RICHARDSON,
Assayer to the Mint of the United States.

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An abstract of the expenditures of the Mint of the United States, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1800, inclusive.