boiled up to get any little particles of gold that are lying about, and
a large amount of money is saved in this way. The men who work in each
room are responsible for the gold in it; the gold is weighed on coming
in and on going out, and any weight lacking has to be made up by the men
out of their wages.

Now we have got the little round sovereigns, which are cleaned and
polished and put into another machine; this machine has what is called a
die in it--that is, a stamping instrument with the King's head on it
ready to print on the coin. The little sovereign is put on to a tiny
round place, with a little collar of metal all round, and this collar is
rough, like the edge of a shilling or a sovereign. Down comes the die
with enormous force, and stamps on the coin King George's head; the
force is so great that the coin is a little flattened out and pressed
against the rough collar, so the edges become rough, too. Thus are both
sides done, and the sovereign is now a real sovereign, and could be used
to buy things at a shop.

There are rows of these machines all hard at work, and we feel we are in
a fairy tale when we see the little round clean bits of gold drop, drop,
drop without stopping on to the tiny round table with the collar; and
the machine goes up and down, up and down, never stopping, and every
time it does its work, and a new sovereign drops away into a box below.
Drip, drip, drip, sovereigns are raining down, dozens every minute, all
newly made; it seems as if we could easily get rich if we were allowed
to make money like this. But the sovereigns are not finished yet; they
must go to be weighed, and all those that are not exactly the right
weight, but either too heavy or too light, go back to the melting-pot to
be made all over again; and only those that are exactly right are passed
out new-minted to the Bank, from whence they go to all the people in
Great Britain and Ireland. It is reckoned that so many as one in every
three has to go back to the melting-pot, and be boiled and hammered and
squeezed all over again; so it is a good thing gold cannot feel.

On other days silver and copper are made in the same way, but gold is
much the most impressive to see.

After leaving the Mint we might pay a visit to the Bank, which stands at
the meeting of many streets in the very midst of the City. It is a
strong place built round a courtyard, with all the windows inward so
that burglars cannot get in. In the vaults b