authorized to receive and accept from said Clarke, Gruber and Company such relinquishments and conveyances of their right or claim to said lots and property as he, the said Secretary, shall deem sufficient for the extinguishment of any claim, right, or title which the said Clarke, Gruber and Company may or can have thereto. And said lots and property shall thereafter be reserved from public sale, preemption, or homestead settlement, and shall remain the property of the United States. Title was finally obtained to the property in April, 1863, and immediate steps were taken to equip the building, but the time required to prepare the building, and to have machinery, apparatus, etc., constructed in the East, transported to so distant a point, prevented the opening of the institution until the latter part of September, 1863. The operations of the mint were confined to the melting, refining, assaying, and stamping of the bullion, and the return of the same to the depositors in unparted bars, stamped with the weight and fineness. A superintendent, assayer, and coiner were appointed in November, 1862, and a melter and refiner in December, 1862. The institution continued on this basis until 1869, when Congress, on the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, provided that it should be conducted as an assay office, with an assayer in charge and a melter, the amount of bullion deposited not justifying its continuance as a branch mint with a full corps of officers. Operations were confined to the melting and assaying of bullion and its return to the depositors. An act was passed February 20, 1895, providing for the establishment of a mint at Denver, Colo., for the coinage of gold and silver. The bill making appropriations for legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year 1896, approved March 2, 1895, made provision for the purpose of a site and the commencement of a mint building at Denver, at a cost of $100,000, and authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to contract for the completing of a building at a cost, including site, heating, ventilating, fireproof vaults, etc., not exceeding $500,000. On April 22, 1896, a site was purchased at a cost of $60,261.71. The original appropriation for the construction of the building was not sufficient, and this was increased by additional appropriations to $800,228.01. This amount has been further increased by providing that the amount received for the sale of the old mint building, authorized by act of June 30, 1906, shall be applied to the finishing of the new building. The new building was occupied in 1904, but the coinage operations were not commenced until February, 1906. The amount appropriated for the equipment of the new building with machinery was $345,055, of which amount $327,258.50 have been expended. DEPOSITS OF GOLD BULLION, FISCAL YEAR 1906. The deposits of gold bullion at the mints and assay offices of the United States during the fiscal year 1906, exclusive of the redeposits, were of the value of $153,109,493.52, against $143,378,969.86 reported the previous year. Redeposits, which consist of bullion transferred from one office of the service to another or bars bearing the stamp of one of the offices of the service, amounted to $33,779,481.74. The aggregate of all deposits, including redeposits, is the total of H. Doc. 9, 59-2--16 metal operated upon in the year by the mint service. This total of gold bullion received in the fiscal year 1906 was 10,045,282.710 standard ounces, of the value of $186,888,975.26, against 9,454,866.186 standard ounces, of the value of $175,904,480.45, reported the previous year. The deposits of domestic bullion amounted to 5,581,307.090 standard ounces, of which 1,670,693.036 standard ounces were in a crude condition, direct from the miners operating in the different States; 863,354.120 standard ounces of refinery bars (less than 0.992 in fineness) and 3,047,259.934 standard ounces of refined bullion (0.992 in fineness and over) were received from private refineries, bromide, chlorination, and cyanide works. UNCURRENT DOMESTIC GOLD COIN FOR RECOINAGE. Uncurrent and mutilated domestic gold coin received for recoinage contained 81,393.153 standard ounces, of the coining value in new coin of $1,514,291.19. Of this amount 39,626.023 standard ounces were received over the counter, and 41,767.130 standard ounces were received on transfers from the Treasury. DEPOSITS OF FOREIGN GOLD BULLION. Foreign gold bullion containing 1,952,085.304 standard ounces, of the value of $36,317,864.38, was received, of which 784,451.271 standard ounces were unrefined and 1,167;634.034 standard ounces were refined previous to its receipt at the mint. DEPOSITS OF FOREIGN GOLD COIN. Foreign gold coin, containing 358,357.501 standard ounces, of the coining value in United States money of $6,648,511.63, was deposited. Jewelers' bars and old plate containing 257,492.523 standard ounces, of the value of $4,790,558.31 were deposited. REDEPOSITS OF GOLD BULLION. The redeposits contained 1,815,647.138 standard ounces of the value of $33,779,481.74, as shown by the following table: DEPOSITS AND PURCHASES OF SILVER. Silver is coined in the United States on Government account only. Deposits of silver bullion are received by the mints and assay offices to be returned to the depositors in fine or unparted bars with the weight and fineness stamped thereon. These deposits are confined almost exclusively to the assay office at New York, and the bars when returned to the depositors are sold for use in the arts or exported. The deposits and purchases of silver at the United States mints and assay offices during the fiscal year 1906 were as follows: Included in silver "for Philippine coinage" is 1,375,758.10 standard ounces uncurrent old Spanish coins received for recoinage. UNCURRENT DOMESTIC SILVER COINS FOR RECOINAGE. Uncurrent and mutilated domestic silver coins received for recoinage contained 1,063,228.05 standard ounces of the value of $1,322,834.27 in new subsidiary coin. In addition there were transferred from the Treasury 4,328.20 standard ounces of Hawaiian silver coin of the value in new subsidiary coin of $5,385. |