Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-07-19
TyCLE SANS BANK NOTES.
gov OLD ONES ARE REDEEMED ny
THE TREASURY.
rho work Done by Fifty Seven Em-
pIOYcs. Mostly ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Of the Redeemed Notes.

One Of the most complete Of the gov
eminent workshops. says the Washington
Stqr. is the national bank redemption
division Of the treasury department. The
work done there while Of complicated
nature and requiring great accuracy, is
ID systcmatized that it runs without a
hitch Even If a mistake should occur
IN handling and counting the vast sums
Of money which constantly pass through
,bc bureau. the system Of checking and
rcceipting is so perfected that it would
be discovered in very short time, and
rs origin traced almost simultaneously.
The fifty seven employees of the bureau.
mostly ladies, who are locked in a long
room on the west side Of the building, arc
the ones who count and sort the old
worn out bank notes, which are sent to
the department for redemption. Each
counter has a separate table with com
partmcnts for different notes The casual
visitor to the department gets partial
glimpse OF the ladies behind the wire
screens, rapidly lingering the soiled and
torn money which has just been with
drawn from general circulation. but. for
precautionary reasons, visitors are seldom
admitted to the interior
The bureau is in existence ten wears.
and the work accomplished by it is in
valuable Since its origi, there has been
redeemed 81, 391 ,494, 097. 10, or over
Gice the national bank circulation.
What is the average life Of bank
noteW asked a Star reporter of one of
the officials.
About five years" was the reply.
"Of course, re added, 1--WE have no
other way of finding out than by com
pairing the amount annually redeemed
with that in circulation, about twenty
per cent. of the whole circulation being
redeemed every five years. The life Of
the legal-tender notes, being of smaller
denomination, is only about three years.
The amount Of money received from
year to year varies from $50, 900, 900 TO
S240 900, 600.
A star reporter was escorted through
the division by Superintendent Rodgers,
and the modus operandi was kindly ex-
planned Money sent here to be re-
deemed goes through three separate pro-
Ccsses, said that officer. Packages
are received from banks, and Just in the
shape they come are taken by the coun-
tiers, who give their receipts for them. 20
their tables, and are there sorted out by
denominations. These packages, con-
tanning bills according to denomination,
are turned in at night. and the next day
the counters divide the bills into groups
We have tifty-two of these groups. which
include all the national banks, arranged
alphabetically by towns in which they
are located. New York has group Of
It's own, and so has Boston, on account
of the large number of banks located in
those cities. The group packages are
deposited in the vault, to be gradually
withdrawn and the bills separated accord
ing to the banks of issue. This consti-
tutcs the third and last process. Bank
notes which are fit are returned to the
banks of issue, and a check gen
orally given on sub-treasury sent for
those which are not fit. While
the first two processes are daily, the
third is of course not. The groups are
taken from the vault in order, and the
whole tifty-two are generally gone
through with about twelve times year.
When the redemption is under $780,
600, 600 in year about seventy-five per
cent of the notes received here have to
be destroyed, a very small portion prov
ing fit to be used again. When, how
ever, the redemption is much over that
the proportion of fit notes is much
larger.
Il see the ladies are allowed to have
comfortable seats while at work, has that
always been the caseg" asked the Star re-
porter
No; several years ago they were COM
PEELED to stand at these large cases and
perform their work. But the con-
slant strain from standing and from the
use of the muscles of the shoulders in
handling the money, was very injurious.
The systematizing of the work. however,
permitted changes in the manner of per
forming 1t. After FIVE years of study in
the old way woman would be almost
sntirely used up.
This book, , continued Mr.. Rodgers.
turning to rather small account book,
shows the workings of this division
SINCE Its organization to the present day,
giving the result of each days proceed
ings 1t is balanced daily. and from an
inspection of it, the workings of the di-
vision can be seen at glance. If bank
SENDS more money than is marked on a
package, or not as much as marked, it is
noted here. On May you will see that
mere was shortage of $500. That is
rather peculiar, for the package of money
came from the National Metropolitan
oahK OF New York, Just a day or so be-
lore lt susnpnded Tho a. - a.