7th Congress.
No. 191
2d Session.

MINT.

Communicated to Congress, January 11, 1803.

Gentlemen of the Senate
     and of the House of Representatives:

I transmit you a report, received from the Director of the Mint, on the subject of that institution.

TH: JEFFERSON.

January 11, 1803.

. . . . . . . .

Mint of the United States, 1st January, 1803.   

The Director of the Mint of the United States begs leave respectfully to make his annual report on the issues and state of the mint.

He is happy to inform the President that the bullion, deposited in the mint during the past year, has far exceeded what was expected at the beginning of it, notwithstanding the considerable check given to deposites, for sometime, by frequent reports from the seat of Government, during the last session of Congress, that the mint be abolished.

Since the 1st day of January, 1802, there has been issued from the mint a sum, amounting, in the whole, to five hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred and fifteen dollars and eighty-threee cents, as will appear in detail by schedule No. 1, hereunto annexed, which have been added to the current coin of the Union. Of this sum, one hundred and twenty nine thousand seven hundred and thirty dollars and ninety one cents, in value, in gold, have been coined from bullion and gold dust imported into the United States, and collected to the mint, as a centre, from the different parts of the Union. The balance of the gold coinage has been coined from clipped, plugged, and otherwise spoiled foreign coins, which have been sent to the mint as bullion. Had not this whole sum been coined in the United States, it must have been remitted to the European markets, in which case the freight, insurance, and commissions, with the profits on the cents, would have amounted to a sum nearly equal to the current expenditures of the mint.

All these deposites were private property, the certificates for which were sold, generally, as soon as given, to the banks in this city, at a fourth and a half per cent. discount for the delay of coinage. The banks are fond of keeping the coin in their vaults, as part of their capitals, on account of the ease with which they are counted, without the trouble of weighing. The Bank of the United States, indeed, having a considerable part of their specie in this coin, have been enabled, for some time past, to cancel their five dollar notes, and to substitute the payment of half eagles, by which our coins begin to be more generally dispersed among the people.

There have never been any of the precious metals coined on account of the Government of the United States.

Comparative issues from the mint, for the past year, have amounted to seventeen thousand four hundred and sixty-two dollars and sixty-five cents, as will appear from schedule No. 3, from which the profits on the copper coinage, amounting to $5,644 33 should be deducted. Besides the cents on hand, we have near twenty-four tons of copper planchettes ready for striking; the coinage of which are in daily operation, at the rate of fifteen thousand cents a day.

It is a duty incumbent upon the Director of the Mint respectfully to call the President's attention to the expiration of the law of the United States, for continuing the mint at Philadelphia, on the 4th of March next, by its own limitation. It, therefore, becomes absolutely necessary that the subject should be brought before Congress, so early, that provision may be made for the contingency. If Congress should rise without doing any thing therein, the mint could not be continued in Philadelphia, with propriety; neither could it be removed to the seat of Government, for want of a law to authorize it.

It is but doing justice to merit to say, that the officers of the mint, concerned in the coinage, and the workmen, have greatly increased in their professional knowledge, and have acquitted themselves with strict integrity, and particular attention to their several departments, for many years past; so that not a dollar has been lost, except in one solitary instance, when the culprit was detected by their assiduity and care, prosecuted and punished, and it was by their exertions that the mint was kept open during the late distress of the city, by the fever of last summer.

If the mint should remain in its present situation, there will be a necessity of, at least, two additional horses, and some repairs to the machinery - part of it having been repaired, the past year, from necessity. At least five hundred dollars will be necessary, in that case, to be added to the usual estimate, to be appropriated for the purchase of horses, and further repairs to the present machinery.

All which is respectfully submitted to the President, by his very obedient and humble servant,

ELIAS BOUDINOT, Director.

To the President of the United States.


An abstract of the Coins struck at the Mint of the United States, from 1st January to 31st December, 1802.

GOLD COINS.
Eagles Half
Eagles.
Quarter
Eagles.
Dollars. Totals.
Quarter ending 31st March, 1802 4,416 10,076 - 94,540
Do 30th June, do - 42,748 - 213,740
Do 30th September, do 6,789 352 1,654 73,785
Do 31st December, do 3,885 - 958 41,285
15,090 53,176 2,612
Total amount of Gold Coins, 423,350  00
 
SILVER COINS.
Dollars Half
Dollars.
Dimes Half
Dimes
Dollars. Cts.
Quarter ending 31st March, 1802 9,841 7,910 - 2,550 13,923  50
Do 30th June, do 957 - 10,975 10,460 2,577  50
Do 30th September, do 8,710 - - - 8,710  00
Do 31st December, do 22,142 21,980 - - 33,132  00
41,650 29,890 10,975 13,010
Total amount of Silver Coins, 58,343  00
 
COPPER COINS.
Cents Half
Cents.
Dollars. Cts.
Quarter ending 31st March, 1802 976,600 - 9,766  00
Do 30th June, do 1,004,000 - 10,040  00
Do 30th September, do 861,000 8,200 8,651  00
Do 31st December, do 593,500 6,166 5,965  83
3,435,100 14,366
Total amount of Copper Coins, 34,422  83
Total amount of Coins issued by the mint, from 1st January, to 31st December, 1802, inclusive, $516,115  83

Mint of the United States, Treasurer's Office, Philadelphia, 31st December, 1802.

For    BENJAMIN RUSH.
G. EHRENZELLER.

Comparative statement of the coins issued by the Mint of the United States, from the year 1798 to 1802, inclusive, viz.

Dollars. Gold. Silver Copper. Totals.
1798 7,794 eagles, 79,740
24,867 half eagles, 124,355
614 quarter eagles, 1,535
205,610
327,536 dollars, 327,536
27,550 dimes, 2,755
330,291
979,700 cents, 9,797     545,698  00
 
1799 17,483 eagles, 174,830
7,451 half eagles, 37,255
480 quarter eagles, 1,200
213,285
423,515 dollars, 423,515
904,585 cents,
12,167 half cents, 9,106  68 645,906  68
 
1800 25,965 eagles,
11,622 half eagles, 317,760
220,920 dollars,
21,760 dimes,
11,622 half dimes, 224,296
2,822,175 cents,
211,530 half cents, 29,279  40 571,335  40
 
1801 29,254 eagles,
26,006 half eagles, 422,570
54,454 dollars,
30,289 half dollars,
34,640 dimes,
33,910 half dimes, 74,758
1,362,837 cents, 13,628  37 510,956  37
 
1802 15,090 eagles,
53,176 half eagles,
2,612 quarter eagles, 423,350
41,650 dollars,
29,890 half dollars,
10,975 dimes,
13,010 half dimes, 58,343
3,435,100 cents,
14,366 half cents, 34,422  83 516,115  83
- - - - - - - -
  1,582,575   1,111,203   96,234  28   2,790,012  28

Mint of the United States, Treasurer's Office, Philadelphia, 31st December, 1802.

For    BENJAMIN RUSH.
G. EHRENZELLER.

An Abstract of the Expenditures of the Mint of the United States, from 1st January to 31st December, 1802, inclusive.

Salaries. Wages. Incidental. Totals.
Quarter ending March, 1802, $2,650   $1,460  27 $141  42 $4,251  69
June, 2,650 1,434  23 192  41 4,276  64
September, 2,650 1,508  28 225  97 4,384  25
December, 2,660 1,436  67 463  40 4,550  07
Dollars,   10,600 5,839  45   1,023  20
Total amount of the expenditures of the mint, during the year 1802,   $17,462  65

Mint of the United States, Treasurer's Office, Philadelphia, 31st December, 1802.

For    BENJAMIN RUSH.
G. EHRENZELLER.

A Statement of the gain on Copper coined at the Mint of the United States, from 1st January to 31st December, 1802.

5,101  13 Balance remaining in the coiner's hands, uncoined, on the 31st December, 1801, being part of the invoice entered 18th September, 1801 amounting to 18,741  17  
On which there was a profit of $1,918  38. This sum will bear the proportion of said profit, of 522  16
454  03   Gained in the weight of above copper, per entry of 16th February, 1802, 454  03  
Deduct, for an error in invoice, as entered 18th September, 1801, 11  67
38  16   Deduct, for returned by chief coiner, in spoiled planchettes and clippings, which will be used for alloying, per entry 14th August, 38  16
415  87 -----   ----- 49  83  
------   404  20
23,350  41.5 Amount of invoice entered 22d December, 1801, and delivered to chief coiner on the 20th February, 1802, on which there was a profit, 3,676  07.5
Deduct allowed 4th October, to coiner for loss in weight. 107  91.5
Do. returned 17th November, by do. in copper clippings. 36  67  
------  
144  58.5 144  58.5 144  58.5
23,205  83 -----   -----   3,531  49
10,998  75   Amount of invoice entered 18th October, 1802, on which there was a profit of 2,289  43  
5,298  75   Deduct, so much remaining yet inthe hands of the chief coiner, uncoined, will take a proportion of the above profit, 1,102  96  
5,700  00 -----   -----   1,186  47
-------
34,422  83 Amount of copper coined in the year 1802.
Amount of profit on coining the above quantity. $5,644  32

Mint of the United States, Treasurer's Office, Philadelphia, 31st December, 1802.

For    BENJAMIN RUSH.
G. EHRENZELLER.