The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-05-19
WORN OUT MONEY.
How inc Governmen, Makes Money.
Exchange

Exehange.
 l, is announced in Washington tha, ,he fund for paying express charges on United States notes sent there for redemption will be exhausted at the end of the pres- CT, fiscal year. That means good deal of dirty and ragged currency throughout the country. said Treasurer Wyman, in speaking of the subject.
 How is it. Mir. Treasurer" asked, .,ha, this fund. which has always been available for this purpose heretofore, is no, to be had longer :"
 Simply because congress didn make any appropriation for this purpose he replied. ''It made an appropriation for paying the express charges on bank notes sent ia for redemption, but not for United States currency notes, or 'greenbacks. as they are popularly known. 1 suppose it was omitted by some error"
 And will this have a percepiible ef- feet in reducing the amount of the green backs sent here for redemption .'
 Undoubtedly" was the reply. After June goth banks sending soiled and mu- ulated greenbacks for exchange will have to pay express charges on them. Of course this is a small iten, yet the tcn- dency will be to keep the notes in circu- lation as long as possible, and the cur rency will be visibly dirtier and more ragged during the coming year than before. Especially will this be the case in the west and south. where the long distance and high express charges will keep the currency in circulation much longer than in the sections more accessi- ble.'
 With what are bank notes redeemed other bank notes"
 Sometimes in bank notes and some times in greenbacks, according to circum- stances. The United States notes greenbacks-are exchanged for other and new greenbacks in most cases, except when gold, silver or New York exchange IS asked for instead"
 What is done with this worn and mu- tilated money when it is presented for exchange" ]"
 .It IS sent to the macerator, a big iron machine in the basement of this building, where 1t is ground to pulp, and the pulp sold to paper-makers, who get the color out of it and make 1t into paper again
 You used to burn it did you no,T-
 l. ''ies, but the present system was found preferable as it destroys the money more etfectually. and the sale of the pulp brings something into the treasury
 Are the worn gfeenbsoks redeemed with other and new greenbacks of the same denomination
 Most necessarily. Most of them are redeemed with new greenbacks except where gold, silver or New York exchange Is asked for; but as to denominations. we usua ally give whatever is asked for.
 By this time the report had come back from the redemption division. Of there had been redeemed this year up to date SfoS 900 ooo of national bank notes S-,.ooo. 900 had been sent in for redemp- ton. and sIo.ooo.oco of the lot had been decided f, for circulation and sent out again.
 Of the currency thus redeemed. one dollar notes form a very large proportion. They are worn out faster than any of the other bills, in spite of the fact that the si yer dollar IS constantly being thrust forward in the vain attempt to make it take the place of the greenb ,ck dollar In the redemp,ions last year of the green backs alone there were SS. ,6S 900 in one dollar bills redeemed and destroyed, i, 4,o4oo 1000 two-dollar bills, 2,55S,ooo i've dollar bills. and I.SSo.ooo ten dollar bills. The life of the dollar greenback appears to be very brief. Of the ,6, 100000 one dollar notes issued between 1875 and 1879. known as the issue of I87S,' 3s,- ooo.ooo have come back torn and ragged and dirty, and been redeemed with others, bright and new and crisp. Yet of the 2p,ooo ten-dollar bills of that same lot, issued at the same time, not halt had yet come back at last accounts Since the beginning Of the issue of these obliga- Gons is about g., 800 100000, nearly eight times the amount now outstanding, and nearly four times as much as was afioat in 1863, when the largest quantity of this sort of obligations tS6oS ,oooooo) was in circulation. A great deal of this money that has been issued by the government in the past twenty-one years has never come back. The government is gainer millions upon millions of dollars in this way. It is estimated by the treasury de- partment, for instance, that SI 100000 was burned up in the Chicago fire. Other millions were lost and destroyed during the war, others are loss or sunkcn and blown up in sseamboats, ofhes burned in burning buildings, and many millions were los, from careless pockets, or worn out and never presented for re- demption- Nobody sees any paper fac- tional currency in circulation nov, yet there is nearly SIS 100000 of it that has never been presented for redemption. IL IS probable that not SI.ooo.ooo q the SIs,oooooo of this still out will ever come in. Experts estimate that at least per cent of the money thus issued by the government never comes back for re- demption, and that the government has been gainer from 3S,ooo, 900 to S4o,ooo,- 900 by this process in the past twenty years, or nearly S1.ooo.ooo year.
 The vigilantes.
 iCarl Pret1e,'s National Weekly.
 Four weIl-known citizens organized Themselves into vigilance committee