Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/641

* MINSTREL. 571 MINT. HiKjlish Poetry, vol. i. (New York, 1895). See Jlix.NE.si.NGEBS; Sk.ld; Tuolbadolks. MINSTREL BOY, The. A favorite song in Jloiii'f's Irisli Mrlddien. The music is that of "The -Moreen," an old Irish air. MINT (AS. mynct, mijitit, inynyt, from Lat. vwiutii, mint, epitliet of Juno, whose temple at Koine was the mint, from vioiiere, to warn). An estahlislinient for making coins or metallic money. See ilo.NEY. The earliest regulations regarding the English mint iK'long to Anglo-Saxon times. An officer called a reeve is referred to in the laws of Canute as having some jurisdiction over it, and certain names « liich. in addition to that of the sovereign, appear on the Anglo-Sa.on coins, seem to have been those of the moneyers, or principal officers of the mint. Besides the sovereign, barons,' bishops, and the greater monasteries had their respective mints, where they exercised the right of coinage, a privilege enjoyed hy the archbisliops of Canterbury as late as the reign of Henry Vlll., and by W'olsey as Bishop of Durham and Arch- bishop of York. After the Xornian Conquest the officers of the royal mint became to a certain extent subject to the authority of the excliequer. Both in Saxon and Xornian times there existed, under control of the principal mint in London, a num- ber of provincial mints in different towns of England : there were no fewer than thirty-eight in the time of Ethelred, and the last of them were only done away with in the reign of Wil- liam in. The oll'icers of the mint were formed infn a corporation by a charter of Edward II.; they consisted of the warden, master, comptroller, as>ay-niaster. workers, coiners, and subordinates. The seigniorage for coining at one time formed no inconsiderable item in the revenues of the Crown. It was a deduction made from the bullion coined, and comprehended both a charge, for defraying the expense of coinage and the sovereign's profit in virtue of his prerogative. In the reign of Henry VI. the seigniorage animinted to 6d. in the pound: in the reign of Edward I., Is. 2V_'d. The seigniorage on gold was abolished during the reign of Charles II. and has never since been exacted. The shere. or remedy, as it is now called, was an allowance for the unavoidable imperfection of the coin. A new mint was erected on Tower Hill in 1810. In 181.5 some alterations were made in the constitution of the mint, and in 18.51 a complete change was introduced in the whole system of administration. The control of the mint was vested in a master and a deputy master, and coni])t roller. The mastership, which had in the early ])art of the last century become a political appointment held by an adherent of the Govern- ment, was restored to fhi^ position of a perma- nent office, the master being the ostensible execu- tive head of the establishment. Further changes were made in the administration of the mint in ISfin. The mastership was added to the duties of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, without any additiim of salary, and the offices of deputy mas- ter and comptroller were amalgamated. A mint was established at Sydney in 1853 and at ^b'lhourne in 1869 to coin the gold so largely found in .ustralia. Tlie first mint in the United States was estab- lished at Philadelphia by the coinage act of Vol. XIII.— 37. April 2, 1792; the first production of the new mint was the copper cent of 1793. Silver dollars were first coined in 1794, and gold eagles in 1795. At the close of the nineteenth century there were four mints, located at I'liiladelphia, San Francisco, Xew Orleans, and Carson City, respectively. Assay offices are located at XeW York, Denver, Helena, Boise, Charlotte, Saint Louis, Deadwood, and Seattle. The act of April 1, 1873, put all the mints and assay oflices on the same footing as a bureau of the Trcasurj' Department, under the superintendence of the Director of tlie Jlint, who is appointed by the President for a term of five years and is sul)oi-diiiatc to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Philadeli]hia mint has an engraver who supervises the manufacture of the dies used in all the United States mints. PKOCES.SES OF CoixiNG. Down to the middle of the sixteenth century little or no improvement seems to have been made in the art of coining from the time of its invention. The metal was simply hammered into slips, which were after- wards cut up into squares of one size and then forged round. The required impression was given to these by ])lacing them in turn between two dies and striking them with a hammer. As it was not easy by this method to place the dies exactly above each other, or to apjily proper force, coins so made were always faulty and had the edges unfinished, which rendered them liable to be clipped. The first great step was the application of the screw, invented in 1553 by a French engraver of the name of Brucher. The plan was found expensive at first, and it was not till 1662 that it altogether superseded the ham- mer in the English mint. In 1882 the lever- press was introduced. The following description of the method of coining money is based on a pamphlet, "Mint Processes of "the United States," issued by the Treasury Department. The processes required for converting the crude metal into money are: (1) Assaying; (2) refining or parting, which reduces the material into ingots or bars of standard pu- rity; (3) reducing the bars to coinage ingots by mixing with them the proper amount of copper alloy; (4) coining, or transforming the coinage ingots into money. The gold and silver which is brought to the mint may be in a crude or manu- factured condition and is of every degree of fine- ness. The initial process, therefore, is to assay the metal, in order to determine both its value and the subsequent minting operations necessary to refine it. This process and the succeeding one of refining are described in the metallurgical articles on Gold and Stt.ver and under As.saying. The bullion thus purified is reduced to bars, a gold bar usually weighing 0000 ounces, worth about $8000. It is now ready to be used for industrial purposes, or for the next stage in the coinage process. The consumption of gold and silver in the arts and industries is very great. During the year ending .Tune 30. 1895. gold and silver bars for industrial use. in about equal ratio, were manu- factured in the Philadelphia mint and in the assay office at Xew Y'ork to the coinage value of $17,818,381. Private refineries furnished not less than $5,000,000 more. These bars are 0.999 fine. A depositor may bring crude bullion in any quan- tity, of $100 or more in value, and receive either fine gold bars or coin, at his option, a charge