The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-05-11
IN THE M~ACERATOR'S JAWS
WHAT THE UNITED STATES DOES
WITH WORKOUT MONEY.

Ground 10 futn ana y Dlu 10 pnppr MAX Cra.s
An Average of S2,OOO.O0 n Year Never
Presented for Redemption.
A Washington letter-writer has had
an interview with the United States
treasurer in regard to the final dis
position of wornout notes sent to the
treasury department for redemption.
The correspondent asked:
"What is done with this worn and
mutilated money when it is presented
for exchangeY"
"It is sent to the 'macerator,' a big
iron machine in the basement of this
building, where it is ground to pulp,
and the pulp soil to paper makers,
who get the color out of it and make
it into paper again"
"You used to burn it, did you not?'
"Yes, but the present system was
found preferable, as it destroys the
money more effectually, and the sale
of the pulp brings something into the
treasury"
care the worn greenbacks redeemed
with other and new g%reenbacks of the
same denomination?
mot necessarily. Most of them
are redeemed with new ~greenbacks,
except where gold, silver or New York
exchange is asked for; but as to de-
nominations, we usually give whatever
is asked for
OF greenbacks and gold and silver
notes there had been redeemed this
year up to date SOS, 000, 1000, of ma
tional bank notes, $72,000,000 had been
sent in for redemption, and ~$10,0OO,O0O
of the lot had been decided eft" for
circulation and sent out again.
OF the currency thus redeemed. one
dollar notes form a very large proper
ton. They are worn out faster than
any of the other bills, in spite of the
fact that the silver dollar is constantly
being thrust forward in the vain at
tempt to make it take the place of the
greenback dollar. In the redemptions
last year of the g~reenbacks alone there
were $S,36S, 600 in %one-dollar bills re-
deemed and destroyed, 100000 two
dollar bills, 3,544,0O0 fve-dollar bills
and 1,380,000 ten-dollar bills. The life
4 the dollar greenback appears to be
very brief. OF the 26,0O0,00) one
dollar notes issued between 1875 and
1879, known as the tissue of 1872
25,000,0O0 have come back torn and
ragged and dirty, and been redeemed
with others, bright and new and crisp.
Yet of the 100000 ten-dollar bills of
the same lot issued at the same time
not half had yet come ba,k at last ac-
counts. OF the tissue of 1873" which
still continues, 100000 of the 49,
0O0,000 one-dollar bills have come
back, some of them scarcely a year old.
OF the tissue of 1880" which began
three years ago, hut is still running,
100000 of the one-dollar fellows
came back used up in the first two
years. The ten-dollar bills are much
longer-lived. OF $4,000 t%en-doller
notes is ued between 1880 and 1882,
only 10000 came back during those
two years, or about six per cont. of
the whole number issued, while of the
nearly twenty per cent. came back in
the same time. The total amount of
g%reenbacks and other government o.
legations (~silver certificates, fractional
currency. etc. which have been
redeemed and destroyed since the
beginning Of the issue of these obliga-
tions is about $500, 600, 900, nearly
eight times the amount now outstand-
ing, and nearly four times as much as
was aloat in 1865, when the largest
quantity of this sort of obligations
($69S, 000,000) was in circulation. A
great deal of this money that has been
issued by the government in the past
twenty-five years has never come
back for redemption, and will never
come back. The government is gamer
millions upon millions of dollars in
this way. 1t is estimated by the
treasury department, for instance,
that 100000 was burned up in the
Chicago fire. Other millions were lost
and destroyed during the war, others
are lost or sunken and blown up in
steamboats,, others burned in burning
buildings, and many millions were lost
from careless pockets or worn out and
never presented for redemption. No
body sees any paper fractional cur
rency in circulation now, yet there is
nearly $4,000, 600 of it that has never
been presented for redemption. 1t is
probable that not 100000 of the
$15,000,0 900, of this still out will
ever come in. Experts estimate that
at least one per cent. of the money
thus issued by the government never
comes back for redemption, and that
the government has been gamer from
$35,000,000 to $40,000,000 by this pro
cess in the past twenty years, or near
ly$2,000,00O a year.