Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

236 BRITAIN taken to its stronghold, there to await its removal to the Bank of England for circulation all over the world. The silver and bronze coinage is counted by machinery. The coins are brought in bags to be taken up to the centre of the machine, and there received by the two men at the top, who empty the bags on to a sloping slab, the coins falling into a single channel or funnel, and there by their own weight revolve an interchangeable cog-wheel, which is inserted to suit the value of the coins to be counted. This wheel revolves so many times, accord- ing to the value of the coin, and when a hundred pounds’ worth of silver has passed the wheel stops. When the man below has collected the coins in bags he releases the machine, and the operation is repeated. One link in the chain still calls for a final AT WORK. word. The patterns which are stamped upon the two faces of a coin are produced by means of dies. These are made from the original matrix engraved by the artist to whom this responsible task is entrusted, and only one matrix exists for each design. From this a punch is produced by enormous pressure in a die press, and the punch in its turn is used for the manufacture of the dies, each of which is not able to stamp more than 70,000 pieces. This, then, is a brief outline of the processes through which the many millions of coins minted every year on Tower Hill have to pass, and it is not to be wondered at that in every part of the world the British sovereign is accepted as a symbol of sterling value, of unimpeachable integrity, and of artistic excellence. E. G. Harmer. [The illustrations accompanying this article are from photographs specially taken for the purpose, and are the copyright of Cassell and Co., Ltd.} THE WEIGHING ROOM.