REPORT OF THE MINT.

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MESSAGE
from
The President of the United States,

Transmitting

The annual report of the Mint of the United States.

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February 2, 1854. - Ordered to be printed.

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To the Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I transmit, herewith, the annual report of the Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, showing the operation of the mint and branch mints for the year 1853.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

Washington, February 1, 1854.

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Mint of the United States,
Philadelphia, January 27, 1854.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report, in compliance with the act of Congress of the 18th of January, 1837:

The coinage, including gold bars, executed at the mint in Philadelphia in 1853, has amounted to $60,111,249 72; of which $36,365,621 were in gold coins, $15,835,997 94 were in refined gold bars, $7,852,571 were in silver coins, and $67,059 78 in copper coins. This coinage was comprised in 69,775,537 pieces, being more than twice the number of pieces ever before struck at the mint in a single year. The deposites received were $53,315,632 64 in gold, and $8,367,339 in silver, including silver purchases made pursuant to the act of March 3, 1853; making a total of $61,682,971 64.

The coinage at the branch mint at New Orleans amounted to $3,445,000; of which $2,220,000 were in gold coins, and $1,225,000 in silver. The number of pieces struck was 6,532,000. The deposites were $2,152,254 16 in gold, and $4,536,131 06 in silver, including silver purchases - total, $6,688,385 22.

The coinage of the branch mint at Charlotte, North Carolina, amounted to $339,370 in gold, comprised in 77,086 pieces. The deposites were $305,157 06, in gold.

The coinage at the branch mint at Dahlonega, Georgia, amounted to $462,918 in gold, comprised in 99,439 pieces. The deposites were $452,289 76, in gold.

The total coinage of the mint and its branches for the year 1853 was as follows: gold, $55,213,906 94; silver, $9,077,571; copper, $67,059 78; total, $64,358,537 72.

It may be interesting to state, that one million of dollars weighs, in gold, 3,685 5/7 pounds avoirdupois; and in silver, 54,857 pounds. If 2,000 pounds be taken as the ton, it will be seen that our coinage operations during the last year reach about one hundred and two tons of gold, and two hundred and forty-nine tons of silver.

The amount of gold of domestic productions deposited at the mint and its branches during the last year was $55,622,051, of which sum $55,113,487 was from California, and the balance from the Atlantic States, except a few deposites from Oregon of the value of $13,535. These were the first deposites from that Territory, and are characterized by having an appreciable per-centage of platinum sand.

The silver parted from the gold from California amounted to the sum of $407,133; in addition to which, there was received other silver of domestic production to the value of $10,146.

At the principal mint several deposites of Australian gold have been made during the past year, amounting to $195,000.

The entire coinage at the several mints, from the time they commenced operations, is as follows:

I annex to this report several tabular statements exhibiting the foregoing results somewhat in detail, and presenting some other statistics respecting the operations of the mint.

The diminution of the standard weight of the half dollar, and lower denominations of silver coins, authorized. by the act of March 3, 1853, has been attended with good results. Under its operations we have had a large supply of silver bullion; and the silver coinage of the new issue has reached the sum of $8,654,161, which is a larger amount than was struck during the five years preceding. Several millions of silver coins have thus been added to the currency; and if the circulation of small notes could be excluded, so as to render the supply necessary, in a short time the new coin would be in general use in every part of our country. The appreciation of silver rendered the alteration necessary. The silver coins of the former standard were issued at the rate of 116 4/11 cents per ounce. The average price of silver, of like fineness, at London and Paris, for several months past, has been 121 cents per ounce. It is very evident, therefore, that coin issued under the former standard would be withdrawn from circulation, and we would have had no silver currency except the old and much-worn Spanish fractions of a dollar, the value of which is diminished from 10 to 20 per cent. It is proper to remark, that some misapprehension has prevailed in regard to the alteration in the silver coin. The idea is erroneously entertained by many persons, that the fineness of the silver used in the new coin is below the former standard. The only change, however, is in the weight - the half dollar being now fourteen and a quarter grains below the former standard weight, and the smaller coins in the same proportion.

In England, since 1816, a silver currency has been maintained by similar means. There the depreciation of silver below gold, at the prices which ruled when the standards were adjusted by law, may be at 11 per cent. Our depreciation below the former standard, as compared with gold, is nearly 7 per cent. The profit to the British mint, when dollar silver is sold at five shillings per ounce in the London market, (which is an average price,) is 7 per cent. If we bought silver at the same rate, our profit would be not quite 3 per cent.; but as our price of silver is 121 cents per ounce of standard fineness, there is an advance of but 3 3/10 per cent. - the new coin being issued at the rate of 125 cents per ounce. The apparent profit to the government is, therefore, 4 cents per ounce; but from this must be deducted certain expenses and wastage,.

As soon as the wastage of the last year is determined, a report on the subject will be presented to the Treasury Department.

A charge of the half of one per cent. on the gold coinage is authorized to be made from and after the 1st of April last. The amounts of these charges at the mint and branches are as follows: At the

These sums will be transferred to the treasury of the United States, pursuant to the 6th section of the act of Congress before referred to.

The three-dollar gold coin, authorized by the last Congress, will be issued as soon as the dies, now in progress, are completed. From the close approximation in weight and value which the coin will bear to the quarter eagle, it has been deemed expedient to make the devices upon it different from any coin heretofore issued. The device adopted for the obverse is an ideal head, emblematic of America, enclosed within the national legend. The reverse will present a wreath, indicating the most prominent productions of our soil, and enclosing the denomination and date of the coin.

The branch mint at San Francisco, California, it is expected, will be ready to receive deposites and commence operations about the 1st of March next. In consequence of a change in the grade of the street on which the building is being erected, more time will he consumed in its completion than was anticipated. The machinery, which was constructed in Philadelphia, arrived there in good condition on the 12th of December last; but a portion of the fixtures and apparatus had not arrived on the 30th of December, the date of my last advices, the vessel containing them having then been out one hundred and forty-five days. These circumstances will probably delay the commencement of coining operations until the time above stated. The coins to be issued by this branch of the mint will be designated by the letter S on the reverse. It is proper to remark, that the coins of the other branches axe designated as follows: New Orleans by the letter O; Dahlonega, D; Charlotte, C. The coins of the principal mint are not marked by any letter.

The building which is designed for the assay office at New York, will be erected and completed in April next. The machinery, apparatus, and implements, will be ready for use as soon as the building is prepared to receive them. We may, therefore, expect operations to commence on the last of April or in the early part of May next.

The result of the overtures recently made to artists and other persons of taste to present designs for the silver coinage, has not been satisfactory. Many designs, and some medallions, were presented, some of them of considerable merit, but their general deficiency consisted in a want of adaptation to the object in view. In making any important change in the designs of the coinage, it seems proper that those which are to be substituted should be of decided and incontestable superiority. The result of the effort has thus produced a conviction favorable to the designs heretofore adopted and in use; our attention will therefore be turned to their artistic improvement, without materially changing their national or emblematic character.

The disturbance of the relative values of gold and, silver, and the consequent effects upon national and international currencies upon coinage, and upon pecuniary contracts, is a very large inquiry frequently under discussion in commercial circles, in the public prints, and in halls of legislation. I barely allude to the subject, without entering upon it, further than to offer one or two practical suggestions. According to well considered estimates, the production of the gold and silver mines of the world at the commencement of the present century - not taking into account those countries of Asia which were nearly shut out from the intercourse of nations - was in the proportion of one ounce of gold to forty-six ounces of silver. Immediately before the opening of California, it had probably changed to one ounce of gold against seventeen ounces of silver. An average of the productions of the years 1852 and 1853, upon the same broad scale, appears to give a result of one ounce of gold to less than four ounces of silver. And yet, from the first of these periods to the last, there has been no great divergence in the bullion market from the relative proportion of one ounce of gold to sixteen ounces of silver. Surely this striking fact ought to allay the feeling of alarm so often experienced as to the abundant production of one metal and the diminished supply of the other. There is, in fact, a happy accommodation in the commercial world to these varying relations. When gold was scarce, silver was the great metallic basis, and the former metal was rather used as an adjuvant, specially adapted to some of the wants of trade. But since gold has become plenty, and silver comparatively scarce, the wealthier nations of the world have taken gold as their prevailing currency, making silver only a subsidiary one, just as copper is to silver. Now, as the purpose of "making change" does not require a very large stock of metal, in comparison with the larger purposes of money, it follows that silver is by no means as much needed as formerly; and here we have the very remarkable, almost enigmatical sequence, that silver is valued less because it is less produced. The very general adoption of small gold coins, and even the half of that, if it were practicable, would still further throw silver out of use, and consequently keep down its value. Large quantities of it will always be needed for plate and for ornamental work; but even in this, the growing use of electroplated ware, in England and in our own country, is sure to have a counteracting effect. And here it will be interesting to state, that the greatly diminished cost of mercury, which is an indispensable agent in the production of silver, is certain to have a large effect in increasing that production. The monopoly of mercury, by which its price has advanced one hundred per cent., and consequently the mining of silver greatly impeded, has been dispelled by the opening of the rich cinnabar mines of California, and the price has receded to the old quotation. Silver mines that have been abandoned can, from this cause, be re-opened, and a greater activity may be expected in those which have been kept constantly in operation. But while the commercial or social accommodation before spoken of, and the probable increase in the production of silver just noticed, may be relied upon to prevent any such violent irregularities as would be denoted by balancing seventeen ounces of silver at one time, and at another time only four ounces, against one ounce of gold, yet there will constantly be a varying per-centage of fluctuation, and this will sometimes be so great as to compel a legal modification of standards, and a consequent re-coinage at the mint. And although our own standard of silver has so lately been changed to suit the market, there is reason to fear that the reduction of weight was not sufficient, and that another re-coinage, at no distant day, may become necessary. This, however, is a part of the use for which a national mint is maintained, and for which it should always be in readiness.

It is now due to us as the great gold-producing nation that our currency should be purged from all bank notes below the denomination of the double eagle. Such a remedy, by increasing the uses of gold, would doubtless mitigate any inconvenience arising from the large production of that metal, and aid us in arriving at the just conclusion that all fears of excessive returns from California and Australia may be put to rest. If the notes under twenty dollars were withdrawn, their places would be supplied by specie, and thus the currency would further approximate to the wholesome standard contemplated by the framers of the Constitution of the United States, and also tend to release the trade and commerce of the country from the adverse influence of banks of issue. As these institutions are created by the authority of the States, perhaps the only remedy in the power of Congress to apply, is that suggested by Mr. Gallatin, who, in view of the right of taxation, says that "Congress may, if it deems proper, lay a stamp duty on small notes, which will put an end to their circulation."

It seems appropriate to my official position that I should take this opportunity to join in the urgent demand, from various quarters, for a simple, intelligible, and well-founded system of weights and measures. The mint has done as much as it can (and in this step it has been followed by the bank and mint of England) in repudiating pennyweights and grains in the mode of weighing and keeping accounts, using only the troy ounce and its decimal fractions. The sanction of law had previously been obtained for doing away with carats and carat-grains, in the expression of fineness of gold, and of an equally cumbrous notation for the fineness of silver, substituting the simple millesimal form introduced by French assayers, and becoming general in Europe. But we are still annoyed with another standard of weight - the avoirdupois pound, with its tedious and arbitrary divisions. The establishment of a simple and uniform system, applicable to every kind of weight and measurement, is greatly to be desired, and is well worthy the attention of Congress.

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

JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN,    
Director.

A.

Statement of deposites and coinage at the Mint of the United States and its Branches in the year 1853.

B.

Coinage of the Mint and Branch Mints from their organization to the close of the year 1853.

MINT OF THE UNITED STATES AT PHILADELPHIA.

MINT OF THE UNITED STATES AT PHILADELPHIA - Continued.

BRANCH MINT AT NEW ORLEANS.

BRANCH MINT, NEW ORLEANS - Continued.

BRANCH MINT, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA.

BRANCH MINT, DAHLONEGA, GEORGIA.

Summary exhibit of the coinage of the Mints to the close of the year 1853.

C.

Statement of the amount of gold of domestic production deposited at the Mint of the United States and its Branches to the close of 1853.

MINT OF THE UNITED STATES, PHILADELPHIA.

BRANCH MINT AT NEW ORLEANS.

BRANCH MINT AT CHARLOTTE, N. C.

BRANCH MINT AT DAHLONEGA, GA.

Summary exhibit of the entire deposites of domestic gold at the Mint and Branches to the close of 1853.

D.

Statement of silver of domestic production deposited at the Mint of the United States and its branches from January 1, 1841, to December 31, 1853.