Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-07-23
The Sub-TrGaSUTy,
Big Counting in the Vaults OF the InstI.
tutiOn--The Sum of SEOg, ara, cas- ~
Counted Dollar by Dollar.

Wall street has had in its day some
pretty big feats Of counting, short as well
as long, but the retirement from Office Of
ub-Trcasurcr Van Dyck was the occasion
a day Or two ago of the grandest task
IN the arithmetical way that the 'strcrt
had ever heard tell OF before. When Mr.
Van Dyck was informed officially that his
valuable services i'll the Sub-TreaSury were
no longer required and that General But
terfield would take HE place, these two
gentlemen expressed wish that the assets
of the Sub-Treasury should be counted. --
The wish was gratitied, and up to Satur-
day last nimble fingers were busily at work
In the vaults of the institution, oVerhaulng
immense quantities of bank notes ana
| ponderous bags of gold coin, while the
hundreds Of bondholders stood in line in
the street awaiting their turn to get their
July coupons and have their gold Celtit
Gates cashed, III utter ignorance OF the
grand time that was going on in the vaults
beneath them.
About week ago all the preliminary al
engagements had been made for the Official
count, and Secretary Boutwell, dispatched
the following gentlemen from Washington
as counters :-MessrS. Guthrie, Moore
Baker and True. They were selected from
among oil the TrcaSurcr's corps Of assist
ants at Washington as especially adapted
for the work. Furthermore, Mr.. T. {,
| Calhoun, President Of tho Fourth Nationa!
Bank, was selected and requested by
Treasurer Boutwell, to represent him in
the matter. Mr.. E. uaight, the President
of the Bank of the Commonwealth, repro
sented ex-Treasurer Van Dyck and Prcsi-
| dent White of the National Currency
Bank, General Buttorfeld. Besides these
| Al -. q.
were selected by ". II. Camp, manager oil
the Clearing House, to which number were
added the staff Of clerks Of the Sub Treas,
ury and nine gentlemen famous as accouu
tants, by the appOintee. The work q
counting began on the afternoon of Fri
day, June 80, and the currency was the
first object Of the solicitudo Of the count
ers. The counting was continued till sun
rise the following morning, tho YariOus
bank presidents being present meanwhn,
supervising, or rather watching, the linn.
BILE operations. Over $50, 900, 900 were
thus counted and the figures were found
to tally exactly with those Of the cx-TIeos
nrer.
The magnitude of the work can DO uu
derstood better when it is taken into con
sideration that overy dollar of the stacks oi
currency was counted first by the eX-TrCa
surer's counters and then by General But
terfield's, thus q sum of over $50, OOOOOn
being counted dollar by dollar The spt.
Gle was next taken hold of, and every da5,
from nine in the morning until late in the
afternoon, the great work was continued
and on Saturday night all the gold had
been overhauled, every piece not only hay
ing been counted twice by the two corps
of counters, but also weighed and record
of the contents of each bag taken. Alto
gether, $500, 900 in silver and $40, OOO,O0o
in gold were overhauled. The counting ''
the coined specie, however, did mol ,n1
the task, for over 5000, 900 in gold bars
were wei ghed, counted and recorded on
the books of the Treasury before the tAsh
was at an end. When every cent had been
accounted for it was found that the Crane
total footed up $102, 1871 G48 -. wan
street certainly never had such big time
"below stairs" before, and it may be
long time to come before the herculean task
inaugurated by the present Sub Treasurer
and his assistant will again be repeated