NNP

File marks, inflicted on a planchet before striking, to reduce weight to mint standard; they do not constitute impairment to the coin. In the Philadelphia Mint, gold or silver blanks were weighed after being cut from strip; lightweight ones were melted, normal ones cleaned and upset before going to press, heavy ones went to the adjusters (women with files and leather aprons). Weighing and adjusting sometimes had to be repeated. Every few hours, the contents of the leather aprons went back to the melting pots. In the 1850s, the 50-odd female adjusters worked in a room called the "Canary Cage." Adjusting was done only on edges after the early 1800s.