Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-08-10
LOOK TO YOUR COIN.
Great Number Of Clipped and
Mutilated Pieces In CircuIs.
ton.

~ 800 40 eAASNN ANC anu Tell CeIL
pieces are concerned, it is hardly worth
while for people to bother themselves
about the weight or condition of the
coin, for they are used merely as
small circulating mediums for the
triAing transactions Of the daily mar.
ket, but when quarters, half dollars
and dollars, come now a days they
must be scanned.
This remark is not intended to apply
for sake of the base limitations known
as counterfeits, but to the real, genuine
coin, since the clipper" and punch
err has made his handiwork manifest,
and appears to be extending his sneak.
ing domain and reaping surrepti-
tious crop.
People who are careful enough TO
inspect the rolls Of coin doDa m in
five, ten and twenty dollar packages
discovered that a large portion of the
coin In each package is clipped or
punched, that is, ,s.eces are found
with small sections either fled or cut
OF, or have pretty siZable holes drilled
through near the edge. The last
named mutilation passes for an inuo-
cent attempt of boy for
the purpose of stringing the
coin as an ornament, and some of it
is, no doubt, done for that purpose,
but more knowledgeable people dis
cover a purpose to filch from the legal
coin of the nation certain quantity
of its weight and value, which the
rogue apprOpriates to himself, as the
jeweler keeps and utilities his gold
and silver filings. A package contain
ing twenty dollars so mutilated has
been found to fall short of stand ard
weight as much as one dollar, Sc, that
it will really pay to be on tie alert
and reject clipped and punchs, d pieces.
They are becoming too Common for
patient endurance. A dollar or a
half, or quarter, once in a while is
nothing, but when it comes to doing
them up wholesale ap d passing" them
for a specified standard value, and
expecting receipt in full, it won't do.
A great many people give and take
rolls OF coin representing five, ten and
twenty dollsrs, without opening the
packages at all; but both parties es-
pecially those who take them, do so at
their proper risk. Such deficient coin
will not be received at the postofice,
nor for customs, nor bsrdly at the
banks; so that it has really become a
matter of some concern to every
business man to examine more closely
the coin offered in packages.
Gold coins Of the United States are
received f0r duties at their nominal
value in unlimited sums, provided the
loss of weight by abrasion or ordinary
wear does not exceed one half of Ole
per cent In twenty years, or in tlnat
proportion for shorter period of cir
culation; but coins of less thaya the
least current weight shall be received
at their valuation in proportion TO
their actual weight.
Troy weight is used for weighing
gold coin. Silver coin is not weiehed'
All double eagles, or $50 pieces which
have not been artifcially reduced in
weight will be found within the limit
OF natural abrasion allowed by law.
The same rule will apply generally to
eagles, or $40 pieces coined since 1845.
Half eagles, or s. pieces, coined since
1855; quarter eagles, OF 81 so pieces
since 1860.
The double eagle should qoatinue,
current for fifty years from the date
OF coinage; the eagle for thirty-five
years; the half eagle for twenty years.
the, three dollar piece and the quarter
eagle each fifteen years.
The deviation from standard weight
one-quarter of a grain, allowed by law,
in coinage Of the gold dollar. exceeds
the legal limit ofwear by nearly the
eighth Of a grain. All pieces Of this
denomination coined since 1850 viii
be found within the legal tolerance If
not fraudulently reduced In weight