1939: Mints And Coinage

The Mint establishment of the United States is administered as a division of the United States Treasury Department, with the Director of the Mint as the chief executive officer, having headquarters in Washington. The institutions of the Mint Service are as follows: Coinage mints located in Philadelphia, Pa., San Francisco, Calif., and Denver, Colo.; an assay office in New York City, which institution handles much of the gold and silver imported into and exported from the United States; and assay offices at Seattle, Wash., and New Orleans, La., the principal activities of which consist of the purchase from the public of gold and silver. All of the above mentioned institutions likewise purchase gold and silver from the public, and the institutions in New York, San Francisco, and Denver operate refineries for separation of the metals and for eliminating foreign matter therefrom. A bullion depository for storage of gold is located at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and a silver depository for storage of silver bullion is located at West Point, New York. The coinage mints and the assay office at New York likewise are storehouses for considerable quantities of bullion.

Gold and silver are received in the form of refined bars of both domestic and foreign newly mined and old metals, bars of mixed or partially refined metals, old jewelry, dental scrap, and in other forms, but not in the form of ores.

The several institutions of the Mint establishment operated during 1939 at a high degree of activity. The acquisitions of gold were larger than during any other like interval, amounting to approximately $3,132,000,000. Silver acquisitions in 1939 amounted to approximately 343,620,000 fine ounces.

The domestic coinage executed during the calendar year 1939 amounted to 674,089,105 pieces, having a face value of $38,389,169.80.

Coinage by the United States Mints for foreign governments amounted to 15,725,000 pieces, these having been executed for Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Honduras.

The year 1939 was one of the several years during which it has been necessary to operate the Mints for extended periods in excess of the single shift basis — not infrequently over the entire 24-hour day for weeks at a time — in order to supply the public with coin required for conduct of its business.