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ascertained.

p. 100.

Payment in SEC. 3545. For the purpose of enabling the mints and the money to depositors when value assay-office in New York to make returns to depositors with Ibid.,s. 47, ante, as little delay as possible, it shall be the duty of the Secre tary of the Treasury to keep in such mints and assay-office, when the state of the Treasury will admit thereof, such an amount of public money, or bullion procured for the purpose, as he shall judge convenient and necessary, out of which those who bring bullion to the said mints and assayoffice may be paid the value thereof, in coin or bars, as soon as practicable after the value has been ascertained. On payment thereof being made, the bullion so deposited shall become the property of the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury may, however, at any time withdraw the fund, or any portion thereof.

Exchange of unparted bullion for fine bars.

Ibid., s. 46.

Appointment and meeting of

sioners.

p. 101.

SEC. 3546. Unparted bullion may be exchanged at any of the mints for fine bars, on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Director of the Mint, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury. The fineness, weight, and value of the bullion received and given in exchange shall in all cases be determined by the mint assay. The charge to the depositor for refining or parting shall not exceed that allowed and deducted for the same operation in the exchange of unrefined for refined bullion.

SEC. 3547. To secure a due conformity in the gold and assay-commis- silver coins to their respective standards of finenesss and Ibid.,s. 48, ante, Weight, the judge of the district court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the Comptroller of the Currency, the assayer of the assay-office at New York, and such other persons as the President shall, from time to time, designate, shall meet as assay-commissioners, at the Mint in Philadelphia, to examine and test, in the presence of the Director of the Mint, the fineness and weight of the coins reserved by the several mints for this purpose, on the second Wednesday in February, annually, and may continue their meeting by adjournment, if necessary. If a majority of the commissioners fail to attend at any time appointed for their meeting, the Director of the Mint shall call a meeting of the commissioners at such other time as he may deem convenient. If it appears by such examination and test that these coins do not differ from the standard fineness and weight by a greater quantity than is allowed by law, the trial shall be considered and reported as satisfactory. If, however, any greater deviation from the legal standard or weight appears, this fact shall be certified to the President; and if, on a view of the circumstances of the case, he shall so decide

the officers implicated in the error shall be thenceforward disqualified from holding their respective offices.

pound for the reg

age.

p. 101.

SEC. 3548. For the purpose of securing a due conformity Standard trov in weight of the coins of the United States to the provisions ulation of coin of this Title, the brass troy-pound weight procured by the Ibid.,s. 49, ante, minister of the United States at London, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, for the use of the Mint, and now in the custody of the Mint in Philadelphia, shall be the standard troy pound of the Mint of the United States, conformably to which the coinage thereof shall be regulated.

weights for mints

SEC. 3549. It shall be the duty of the Director of the Mint _ Standard to procure for each mint and assay-office, to be kept safely and assay-offices. thereat, a series of standard weights corresponding to the Ibid., s. 50. standard troy pound of the Mint of the United States, consisting of a one-pound weight and the requisite subdivisions and multiples thereof, from the hundredth part of a grain to twenty five pounds. The troy weights ordinarily employed in the transactions of such mints and assay-offices shall be regulated according to the above standards at least once in every year, under the inspection of the superintendent and assayer; and the accuracy of those used at the Mint at Philadelphia shall be tested annually, in the presence of the assay-commissioners, at the time of the annual examination and test of coins.

tion of obverse

SEC. 3550. The obverse working-dies at each mint shall, Yearly destrucat the end of each calendar year, be defaced and destroyed working-dies. by the coiner in the presence of the superintendent and p. 102.

assayer.

SEC. 3551. Dies of a national character may be executed by the engraver, and national and other medals struck by the coiner of the Mint at Philadelphia, under such regulations as the superintendent, with the approval of the Director of the Mint, may prescribe. Such work shall not, however, interfere with the regular coinage operations, and no private medal dies shall be prepared at any mint, or the machinery or apparatus thereof be used for that purpose.

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Money arising

from charges and

deductions to be

covered into the

SEC. 3552. The moneys arising from all charges and de. ductions on and from gold and silver bullion and the manufacture of medals, and from all other sources, except as Treasury. provided by this Title, shall, from time to time, be covered Ibid., s. 53. into the Treasury, and no part of such deductions or medal charges, or profit on silver or minor coinage, shall be expended in salaries or wages. All expenditures of the mints and assay-offices, not herein otherwise provided for, shall be paid from appropriations made by law on estimates furnished by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Business of assay-office at New York.

Ibid.,s. 54, ante,

p 102.

Appointment of officers at New

York.

Ibid.

Duties, &c., of officers at New York.

SEC. 3553. The business of the United States assay-office at New York shall be in all respects similar to that of the mints, except that bars only, and not coin, shall be manufactured therein; and no metals shall be purchased for minor coinage. All bullion intended by the depositor to be converted into coins, of the United Stetes, and silver bullion purchased for coinage, when assayed, parted, and refined, and its net value certified, shall be transferred to the Mint at Philadelphia, under such directions as shall be made by the Secretary of the Treasury, at the expense of the contingent fund of the Mint, and shall be there coined, and the proceeds returned to the assay-office. And the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby anthorized to make the necessary arrangements for the adjustment of the accounts upon such transfers between the respective offices.

SEC. 3554. The officers of the assay-office at New York shall be a superintendent, an assayer, and a melter and refiner; each of whom shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

SEC. 3555. The duties of the superintendent, the assayer, and the melter and refiner of the assay-office at New York Ibid.,8. 55, ante, shall correspond to those of superintendents, assayers, and

p. 103.

Salaries of officers at New York. Ibid., s. 56.

Appointment

and salaries of as

melters and refiners of mints; and all the provisions of this Title relating to mints and their officers, the duties and responsibilities of such officers, and others employed therein, the oaths to be taken, and the bonds and sureties to be given by them, shall extend, as far as the same may be ap plicable, to the assay-office at New York, and to its officers, clerks, and employés.

SEC. 3556. The officers of the assay-office at New York shall be entitled to the following salaries:

First. The superintendent, to four thousand five hundred dollars a year.

Second. The assayer, to three thousand dollars a year. Third. The melter and refiner, to three thousand dollars. SEC. 3557. The appointment and compensation of assistsistants and em- ants, clerks, and workmen in the assay-office at New York ployés at New shall be regulated in the same manner as is prescribed in regard to miuts.

York.

Ibid.

at Denver and assay offices

Ibid., s. 57.

at

Business of mint SEC. 3558. The business of the mint of the United States at Denver, while conducted as an assay-office, that of the Boise City and Charlotte. United States assay-office at Boise City, and that of any other assay-offices hereafter established, shall be confined to the receipt of gold and silver bullion, for melting and assaying, to be returned to depositors of the same, in bars, with the weight and fineness stamped thereon.

of officers at Den

and Charlotte.

Ibid.,8. 57, ante,

SEC. 3559. The officers of the assay-offices embraced by Appointment the preceding section shall be, when their respective serv- ver, Boise City, ices are required, an assayer and a melter; each of whom shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Their salaries shall not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars a year each.

p. 103.

Powers and du

ties of assayers at

SEC. 3560. The assayer at each of the assay-offices embraced by section thirty-five hundred and fifty-eight, shall assay-offices. have general charge of the office; and may employ, under Ibid., ss. 57, 53. the direction of the Director of the Mint, such clerks, workmen, and laborers as may be authorized therefor by law; and shall discharge the duties of disbursing agent for the expenses of the office under his charge. The salaries paid Compensation to clerks shall not exceed one thousand eight hundred dollars a year each. Workmen and laborers shall receive such wages as are customary according to their respective stations and occupations.

of employés.

SEC. 3561. Each officer and clerk appointed at either of Bond and oath of officer, and the assay-officers embraced by section thirty-five hundred clerk. and fifty-eight shall, before entering upon the duties of his

office, take an oath pursuant to the provisions of Title XIX,

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Ibid., s. 58.

[Amended by

acts Feb. 27, 1877,

· PROVISIONS APPLYING [APPLICABLE] TO SEVERAL and Feb. 18, 1875.] CLASSES OF OFFICERS," and shall give a bond to the United States, with one or more sureties, satisfactory to the Director of the Mint or to one of the judges of the supreme court of the State or Territory in which the office to which he is appointed is located, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties. [See § § 1756, 1757.]

to mintsextended

SEC. 3562. All provisions of law for the regulation of Laws relating mints, the government of officers and persons employed to assay-offices. therein, and for the punishment of all offen es connected p. Ibid., s. 60, ante, with mints or coinage, shall extend to all assay-offices as far as applicable.

104.

[See R. S., s. 5460, post, p. 140.]

Decimal system

established.

2 April, 1792, c.

SEC. 3563. The money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dimes or tenths, cents, or hundredths, and mills or thousandths, a dime being the 16, s. 20, ante, p. 7. tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundreth part of a dollar, a mill the thousandth part of a dollar; and all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation.

coins, how ascer

tained.

3 Mar., 1873, c.

SEC. 3564. The value of foreign coin as expressed in the Value of foreign money of account of the United States shall be that of the pure metal of such coin of standard value; and the values 268, §. 1. of the standard coins in circulation of the various nations of the world shall be estimated annually by the Director of the Mint, and be proclaimed on the first day of January by the Secretary of the Treasury.

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Spanish and Mexican coins.

21 Feb., 1857, c.

SEC. 3565. In all payments by or to the Treasury, whether made here or in foreign countries, where it becomes necessary to compute the value of the sovereign or pound sterling, it shall be deemed equal to four dollars eighty-six cents and six and one-half mills, and the same rule shall be applied in appraising merchandise imported where the value is, by the invoice, in sovereigns or pounds sterling, and in the construction of contracts payable in sovereigns or pounds sterling; and this valuation shall be the par of exchange between Great Britain and the United States; and all contracts made after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, based on an assumed par of exchange with Great Britain of fifty-four pence to the dollar, or four dollars forty-four and four-ninths cents to the sovereign or pound sterling, shall be null and void.

SEC. 3566. All foreign gold and silver coins received in payment for moneys due to the United States shall, before being issued in circulation, be coined anew.

SEC. 3567. The pieces commonly known as the quarter, eighth, and sixteenth of the Spanish pillar dollar, and of the 56, s. 1, ante, p. 24. Mexican dollar, shall be receivable at the Treasury of the United States, and its several offices, and at the several postoffices and land-offices, at the rates of valuation following: the fourth of a dollar, or piece of two reals, at twenty cents; the eighth of a dollar, or piece of one real, at ten cents; and the sixteenth of a dollar, or half-real, at five cents.

Their transmission for recoinage.

Amended by

v. 19, p. 249.

SEC. 3568. The Director of the Mint, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may prescribe such regula21 Feb., 1857. c. tions as are necessary and proper, to secure the transmission 56, s. 2, ante, p. 24. of the coins mentioned in the preceding section to the Mint act Feb. 27, 1877, for recoinage, and the *[re]turn or distribution of the proceeds thereof, when deemed expedient, and may prescribe such forms of account as are appropriate and applicable to the circumstances. The expenses incident to such transmission or distribution, and of recoinage, shall be charged against the account of silver profit and loss, and the net profits, if any, shall be paid, from time to time, into the Treasury.

Use of the met

ric system authorized.

301, s. 1.

SEC. 3569. It shall be lawful throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of the met28 July, 1866, c. ric system; and no contract or dealing, or pleading in any court, shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection because the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures of the metric system.

* See act February 21, 1857, ch. 56. sec. 2 ante, p. 24.

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