The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 13, March 28, 2004, Article 13

1850'S VIEW OF THE MINT

  Contemporary press accounts of mint operations are key
  historical records, often sources of information available no
  where else to later researchers.  Recently, I purchased a copy
  of an 1850s issue of Gleason's Pictorical Drawing Room
  Companion containing a one-page article about the second
  United States Mint in Philadelphia, accompanied by six
  engravings by Devereaux:

  Exterior View
  Adjusting Room
  Main Steam Engine
  Coin Press
  Pressing and Milling Room
  General Pressing and Cutting Room

  "We have more than ordinary satisfaction in presenting so
  fine a series of engravings as those we give of the U.S.
  Mint in the present number.  They are critically correct,
  and our readers may rely upon their truthfulness, as our
  artist, Mr. Devereaux, passed no inconsiderable period of
  time in making the necessary drawings for the series,
  within the walls of the Mint, assisted by the gentlemanly
  and urbane director and officers of that institution."

  "The rapidity with which the pieces are executed is
  surprising -- being at the rate of from seventy-five to
  two hundred per minute."

  The mint was turning out some three million coins per
  month at that point.  Today that many are produced
  in a day.  What would the mint employees of that day
  make of the "robots" manning today's mint facilities?

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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