Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-08-29
MAKING MONEY.
Ho,c the Greemback is Prepared for Circ"-
lattOn.
TSt. Louis Chronicle.

TSt. Louis Chronicle.
"All paper money" said treasury official
in conversation with Chronicle reporter 8
few days since, "both legal tenders and nation.
al securities are now engraved, printed and
finished in the bureau of engraving and print.
ing at Washington. Some years ago one-half
the note was finished in New York by the Col
umbia Bank Note company, but that has been
done away with for some time Under an act
| of Congress, a building has just been compile
ted for the sole use of the bureau. Before
moving into this they occupied q portion of
the treasury department"
! what about the process of making green
| backs?''
"The process of making the greenback
| and other government securities is this: The
| paper is first taken to the wetting division,
| There it is counted and dampened. 1t Is theh
delivered to the plate printers, each sheet Ne
| ing charged to them. They again count it in
| the presence of their assistant, who is lady,
and give receipt therefor. the assistant GER
tifying that she witnessed the count. The re-
ceipts are taken to the wetting division, where
they are compared with the books before work
is begun, and must agree. The paper is then
| given the first impression, which is on the
back. This is done with hand-press. At
tached to all these presses are registers, which
keep count of each sheet of paper
as it passes through, so it is impos-
sible for the printer to secrete any without
being detected. The note then passes into the
| examining division, where it is counted while
wet and then placed in drying box. When
perfectly dry it is taken out and again counted.
and the work examined by experts, all of
whom are ladies. The sheets found defective
in any way are Cancelled and the perfect ones
placed in hydraulic press, where an lmmen
= $Lnyy
are perfectly smooth. They are then sent back
to the wetting division, where they are again
dampened."
.'What is the next step in their manutac-
ture?''
swell, they are taken to the printing divi-
sion, where they receive the second impression,
which is the black part of the face, after which
they are taken to the examining division, the
dry box, the hydraulic press, and back again to
the wetting division, the same as at first. They
are taken from here the third time to the State
printing division, where the third impression
is received, which is the large red seal on the
face. After this they are taken to the examin.
ing room, dried, pressed, counted, and examin-
ed, the same as on both previous occasions.
From here they are sent to the numbering
division, where they receive the numbers
that are seen on the upper right corner
and left center. Both legal tender and
national bank notes are printed on sheets.
and there are always four notes on each. After
being numbered, the legal tender notes are
taken to another room, where the margin is
trimmed from the paper and the notes separ-
ated. This is all done by machinery. After
being separated they are again counted and
placed in packages of 200 notes each. This
is also done by ladies, who are experts. One
lady, a Mrs. Silver. will count 1000 notes in
five minutes. This is the final count. They
are then ready for delivery to the parties au-
thorized to receive them. The national bank
notes are not separated, but are sent to the
banks that issue them in sheets of four each,
SO that they may be the more readily signed.
The rules governing the bureau Of engraving
and printing are very strict. In fact, during
working hours the employees are treated more
like prisoners than they are like ladies or
gentlemen. From 1000 to 1900 persons are
employed there, the ladies outnumbering the
gentlemen considerably"