Brighton, Cal.
Is there any valley in the world larger than the Mississippi Valley?
C. C. Harris.
Answer.—The Valley of the Amazon is larger than that of the Mississippi, the former river draining 2,330,000 square miles, the latter 1,244,600 square miles. The Amazon drains a greater area than any other river on the globe.
UNITED STATES MINTS AND ASSAY OFFICES.
Farragut, Iowa.
How many mints are there in the United States, and where are they? What are assay offices, and where are they?
Ada A. Hall.
Answer.—This government has coinage mints in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Carson City, and a mint at Denver used at present merely as an assay office. This last and the assay offices at Boise City, I. T., Helena, M. T., and Charlotte, N. C., are limited by law to melting and assaying gold and silver bullion and paying for the same from Treasury funds. There is an assay office at New York for the testing of foreign coin or bullion bought by the government to be coined or recoined. All the precious metal purchased for mintage is computed at the value given it at these assay offices. The single letters, O., S., C., etc., stamped under the eagle on American coin indicate where the pieces were minted.