When manufacturing coins, details are important 0

[RWB]

The following letter helps illustrate how important attention to detail was when making US gold coins. Here, an excess of condemned planchets was traced to the adjusters being given files that were too coarse. critical but easily overlooked detail.

 

[numisport]

I didn't realize that those planchets were adjusted that way even into the twentieth century !

[DWLange]

I believe it was done for gold coins alone right up to the very end. Silver coins, being already worth less than their bullion value, were simply mixed in a combination of normal, light and heavy so that the completed bag was within tolerance.

[RWB]

All silver blanks or planchets were put through automatic sorting (the mints called these "assorting") and shaving machines. Silver dollars were among the first to have this routinely applied - largely because the volume of pieces would have overwhelmed Adjusters. All gold was checked by Adjusters in planchet form and again after striking, but before counting.

The Royal Mint used automatic sorting and shaving machines much earlier - but they had only two weights of gold coins and no "bag tolerance" like the US Mint.

[physics-fan3.14]

Ugh, the typos in this letter make me cringe. 

And why are the first paragraphs double-spaced, but the last paragraph is single spaced? 

Seriously, did these folks not have an administrative assistant to make sure their letters didn't look like ? 

[bsshog40]

I wonder if the TPG's use this method to get the gold coins to fit in slabs. 

[RWB]

9 hours ago, physics-fan3.14 said:

Ugh, the typos in this letter make me cringe. 

And why are the first paragraphs double-spaced, but the last paragraph is single spaced? 

Seriously, did these folks not have an administrative assistant to make sure their letters didn't look like ? 

Much of the mint's internal correspondence was quick and casual - much like email today. There were basic standards of structure, but content was often dictated, quickly typed and presented for signature with an emphasis on getting across the ideas rather than perfect form. The Mint Bureau's tight control of certain administrative functions forced officers to write through the chain of command, and to make written notices of trivial actions - such as purchasing metal files for the Adjusters.

[kbbpll]

I always enjoy the self-deprecating language in these old letters. "I beg to enclose", "very respectfully", "your humble servant" type stuff. If only Twitter were like that today...