Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/114



Watching Uncle Sam make the money that we use in the United States is like living inside a story from the Arabian Nights.

It starts in the deep cavern of some dark mine where miners, wearing lamps in their caps, and working long hours with picks and shovels dig up the precious gold and silver that make our coins.

The ore is then sent to the United States mint which is nearest the part of the country where it was mined. The mints are at Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, and Carson City. The mints at Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver really coin money. The others prepare the gold and silver for coinage.

Every boy and girl has read and been thrilled at some time by the old fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin. He was an ugly little dwarf who kept a beautiful princess imprisoned in a room full of straw and chaff until she was able to separate the straw from the chaff and spin it into gold. Something like this fairy tale happens in the mints, although there is no dwarf as the task master. Rh