At present all gold bullion brought to the Mint is weighed and portions are cut off for assay.
The receipt of bullion and the delivery of coin from the Mint is under the charge of the chief clerk, the manufacture of coin is in the hands of the superintendent of the operative department, and the valuation of the bullion by assay, and matters relating to the fineness of the coin are entrusted to the chemist and assayer.
Considerable quantities of foreign ores and base bullion are also refined in the United States.
The leading products of the blast-furnace are argentiferous lead (base bullion), matte, slag and flue-dust (fine particles of charge and volatilized metal carried out of the furnace by the ascending gas current).
When the vast field of the East was opened to Hellenic enterprise and the bullion of its treasuries flung abroad, fortunes were made on a scale before unparalleled.