The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-18
BIG, ROUND SILVER DOLLARS.
Many Millions, of These Coins Stored in
the Vaults Of the Treasury.
The Metal Said To Be Growing Scarce, and
the Token Of the Fathers May Present.
ly Be Worth One Hundred Cents
THE SILVER DoLLARs..
The Quantity ON Hand--Ans Interesting; Talk
with Treasurer Wyman

The Quantity Hand--An Interesting, Talk
with Treasurer Wyman.
Special to the indianapolis Journal.
WASHINGTON, July TE-No one. who has not
visited the silver vaults of the Treasury build
ing in Washington can form an idea of the.vasb
space occupied by the. standard silver dollars,
which are piling up constantly at the rate of
4 g 600, 600 per month. The second session of tile
Forty seventh Congress made provision for the
building of additional vaults.im which te store
these vast quantities Of dollars, which. no,one is
willing to take if paper can be had The new.
vault in the Treasury building has just been
completed and as soon as the elevator can be
extended to the suB-basement floor the bullion
will be stored in this new receptacle. Atpress
emit thedollars owned by Uncle Sam are scats
tered all over the country, the vaults at New
York, Philadelphia San Francisco; Carson City,
New Orleans, Washington and Chicago being
simply flooded with the stuff. The new vault.
here, which extends along the basement floor
under the cash room of the Treasury, is di--
vided into compartments which resemble cells in
a jail. The capacity of these rooms is. about
$45, 900 O00
/ do you ever expect to fill them up71 I asked
Treasurer Wyman. to-day.
mo- do.not believe these vaults will ever be-
crowded. Silver is becoming more scarce each
week, and the Director of the Mint has difficulty
in securing enough silver at his regular weekly
purchases to fulfill the law The production, of
silver is diminishing rapidly, and r shall
not be surprised to see the. price go
up rapidly until the standard silver dollar viii be
Iintrinsically worth it's face"
us there much of demand for standard dol
lars lately9'
"Not so much as there was in January last
the money available for printing United States
notes and securities ran low, and we ceased to
print one and two dollar bills Then for while
there was steady demand for silver dollars,
but since the beginning of the current fiscal year
we have begun to issue small bills again. and of
course the silver dollars came back again.
EDO you expect that the large quantity of sill
yer dollars which are now retained in the vaults
of the Treasury will ever find their way into cir
culationp
That question is very difficult one to an
swer, but can say that think there is just as
much silver in actual circulation to-day as there
is likely to beifor some years to. come"
"How many one-dollar and two-dollar notes
do you expect oissuel during the current fiscal
yearln
That question is another that is rather Diff
cult to answer. The amount at our disposal for
printing notes and securities is $3650O0 This
is s., 900 more than last year Last year at this
time there was a scarcity of treasury notes of
all sizes. This year. however, we have a good
supply on hand of all denominations, except
ones and twos. We shall print a supply Of the
former first, and within thirty days will be
ready tosupply all who desire them After that
we will see about the twos /"
DO you ever reissue these small notes after
they have once been paid into the Treasury
properP
VERY seldom. We tried the.plan of sorting
out those fit for circulation once, butit was not
successful, and now we generally cancel them
''What is the average life of the small treas
ury notelh
From three TO four years, It is fact. that
the entire circulation is Cancelled about once in
three and one half years.