had been melted into bars previously.
10.
In the ordinary cause of Minting business—according to which the melting and coining should be going on simultaneously—the mint has never proved its capacity to coin for ten days consecutively anything like $10,000 per day—and I submit that we must test the mint's capacity by results obtained in the ordinary routine of its regular work and not by results cooked up by irregular and deceptive mode of operation.
I do not believe, and I think Mr. Kinder is of the same opinion, that with the present machinery and staff we could count upon, under the most favorable circumstances, a better monthly average than $10,000 to $12,000 Dollars per day. This showing that as far as the Colony is concerned—and that is what the Executive of the Colony is bound to consider primarily—we have entered into what never can be otherwise than a losing speculation.
Freely admitting that if bullion were supplied to us, we might procure additional Machinery and increase the staff—our outlay would be enlarged and annual expenses increased—and it would require probably the coinage of some $40,000 a month to pay expenses, a result which even now hardly appears possible to be achieved.
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