Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 1.djvu/562

 which may hereafter be directed and established by the accounting officers of the treasury, and to reduce the same into bars or ingots fit for the rolling mills, and then to deliver them to the coiner or treasurer, as the director shall judge expedient; and to do and perform all other duties belonging to the office of a melter and refiner or which shall be ordered by the director of the mint.

. And be it further enacted, That the melter and refiner of the said mint shall, before he enters upon the execution of his said office, take an oath or affirmation before some judge of the United States, faithfully and diligently to perform the duties thereof. And also shall become bound to the United States of America, with one or more sureties to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in the sum of six thousand dollars, with condition for the faithful and diligent performance of the several duties of his office.

. And be it further enacted, That there shall be allowed and paid, to the said melter and refiner of the mint as a compensation for his services, the yearly salary of fifteen hundred dollars.

. And be it further enacted, That the director of the mint be, and hereby is authorized, with the approbation of the President of the United States, to employ such person as he may judge suitable to discharge the duties of the melter and refiner, until a melter and refiner shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice of the Senate.

. And be it further enacted, That the treasurer of the mint shall, and he is hereby directed, to retain two cents per ounce from every deposit of silver bullion below the standard of the United States, which hereafter shall be made for the purpose of refining and coining; and four cents per ounce from every deposit of gold bullion made as aforesaid, below the standard of the United States, unless the same shall be so far below the standard as to require the operation of the test, in which case, the treasurer shall retain six cents per ounce, which sum so retained shall be accounted for by the said treasurer with the treasury of the United States as a compensation for melting and refining the same.

. And be it further enacted, That the treasurer of the mint shall not be obliged to receive from any person, for the purpose of refining and coining, any deposit of silver bullion, below the standard of the United States, in a smaller quantity than two hundred ounces; nor a like deposit of gold bullion below the said standard, in a smaller quantity than twenty ounces.

. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passing of this act, it shall and may be lawful for the officers of the mint to give a preference to silver or gold bullion, deposited for coinage, which shall be of the standard of the United States, so far as respects the coining of the same, although bullion below the standard, and not yet refined, may have been deposited for coinage, previous thereto, any law to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That nothing herein shall justify the officers of the mint, or any one of them, in unnecessarily delaying the refining any silver or gold bullion below the standard, that may be deposited, as aforesaid.

. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized, whenever he shall think it for the benefit of the United States, to reduce the weight of the copper coin of the United States: Provided, such reduction shall not, in the whole, exceed two pennyweights in each cent, and in the like proportion in a half cent; of which he shall give notice by proclamation, and communicate the same to the then next session of Congress.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the treasurer of the United States, from time to time, as often as he shall receive copper cents and half cents from the treasurer of the mint, to