Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/115

Rh The first step in making a five dollar gold piece or a silver dollar is to purify the bullion, as the metal is called. It has lead and other foreign substances mixed with it as it comes from the mines, which must be melted out.

After this the gold is hardened by being mixed with other ores. Pure gold would scratch and bend so that a coin made of it would soon wear out. So Uncle Sam combines one-ninth of the gold’s weight with silver and copper, and then it is shaped into huge bars, ready to go to one of the United States mints where coins are made.

There are great metal rollers in these mints between which the melted bars of gold are run until they are pressed flat to the proper thickness for making a coin. This rolling process hardens the gold so that it must be heated again to bring it to the proper point for smoothing and cutting.

The little gold coins are cut next in something the same way that your mother cuts out biscuits for supper. A round cutter is forced down on the rolled-out sheets of gold, and cuts them out. The gold that is left is heated and rolled out all over again, and the coins are weighed very carefully. Every bit of Uncle Sam’s money must be of a certain standard weight, without the least variation.