Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

HOW MONEY IS COINED. 235 Fahr., and are then cooled in water, washed, and thrown into beechwood sawdust, which is supplied by the chairmakers at High Wycombe. The time has now arrived for the blank discs to be raised to the dignity of coins by being impressed with the portrait of the Sovereign, and with the other devices by which the coin is distinguished from all others of the same size, British or foreign, old or new. This part of the work is behind a glass partition, and there, taking up a handful of coins, allows them to fall individually upon a steel slab, and then, by the ring, detects any cracked or flawed coins. The most delicate operation of all has still to be performed. The coins pass into the weighing room. Here they are passed down a tube into an automatic weighing machine, so tender and sensitive that it has to be protected from the slightest draught of air THE COUNTING MACHINE. performed by twenty presses, worked by hydraulic power, and each attended by an alert operative, who feeds the discs into his machine at the rate of ten dozen per minute. This he does hour after hour for seven hours each day. Each press is able to stamp any coin, from a farthing to a £$ piece, with the exception of the crown, the peculiarity of which is that, instead of a “ milled ” edcfe, it is provided with an inscription round the rim. This is squeezed into the edge of the coin by means of a collar in three pieces, and for this purpose a special press, requir- ing the attention of two men, has to be used. The coins are now taken away to the “ ringer,” as the boy is termed. He sits by being placed under a glass case. A sovereign is allowed to vary from the standard weight by a difference of one- fifth of a grain more or less, and the result of passing it under the critical eye—or rather finger—of the automatic balance is to throw it into one of three boxes, according to whether it is “ good,” light, or heavy. It is found by experience that only 2 per cent, of the silver pieces are above or below the standard weight allowed, whereas gold pieces to the number of 12 in every 100 have to be re-melted and passed through all the pro- cesses of coining over again, o o The “ good ” money is taken out of the tills as fast as it is weighed. The gold coinage is now counted into ^100 bags, and