The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-11-27
Among the Millions.

uiy UuuulHS W heavily DdlIeu yduu
studded iron door that opened into a pas
sage leading to the gold vaults. At tho
other end Of the passage an attendant I'M
fastened second door. As the reporter
followed his guide into a dimly lighted
room, about Is feet square, the door was
closed behind them and they were made
prisoners with over SAG, 100000 of gold
coin. The four sides of the vault, from
floor to ceiling, were covered with iron
doors opening into compartments contain
ing the coin.
These boxes that are sealed, y said the
cashier, pointing to door where slip of
paper was stuck to the lock with red
wax. ARE full. They contain 81 ,000. 600
each. Here''-throwing wide open door
that was standing aiar and revealing q
| compartment partially filled with plump
white canvass bags carefully packed-"is
a box we are using from. There are $3.50
o0O In there, " he continued, after glancing
at the tags.
How much gold do the bags contain %
| asked the reporter, as his eyes rested Wist-
fully on the outlines OF the coins shown
through the canvas.
Fire thousand dollars each, always
Silver is put up in thousand dollar bags.
This lower tier IS the double eagle row, in
the second are stored eagles, and so on to
quarter eagles. the smallest gold -eoin we
have on hand.n
How heavy is this 81 asked the reporter
as. he took up bag.
| ''Oh, that is easily handled it weighs
only eighteen pounds. 1t would be Il diff
| ferent matter to carry q bag Of silver,
though they weigh sixty pounds each
But come and sill take you down, to the
silver vaults.''
There is still another gold vault on the
second floor of the building, opposite the
one the, reporter had already visited and
exactly like it in the interior arrangements.
The two vaults together contain ST. AGO.
| 600.
After descending to the floor below in Il
slowly moving elevator and passing by
doors with complicated time locks clinging
| to their backs, a long passage was reached
with white painted iron gratings on each
side. Behind the gratings were bags Of
silver, filling every available inch from
| floor to ceiling.
you see we have more silver here than
there is accommodation for, so we are obliged
to fill up this end Of the passage with it.
There are $50, 000, 900 before you. Twenty
five millions are in standard dollars. The
denominations are separated by those
cross gratingS. y
What does it all weigh ~
road carloads. There are 140 tons Of COLO
up stairs. Allowing a ton to be a CARLOAD,
it would take 1140 carts to carry away the
coin in this building"
rs not this an unusually large amount
to have on hand ?'
ITO be sure it is. We are sending away
very little coin now, and taking it in at the
rate of $4,000 to $4,000 day. Silver
certificates are very popular now, espee
tally in the South and Southwest. New
York merchants seem to be prejudiced
against them. Since March l, 1888. we
have sent out S33, 100000 in certificates,
and we will probably send out $4,000, 600
before the cotton crop is in.
what is the total amount of cash OH
hand now p
"a little over one hundred and forty
millions of dollars. There are SO, 000, 900
each in gold and silver certificates and le-
gal tender notes. !"
The largest shipment that has recently
been made occurred last spring, when
$50, 900 900 were sent to Europe in gold
coin and bars. Contrary to the belief en-
tertained by most people, no bullion is
brought to. or stored in, the sub. treasury:
that is all done at the assay building. The
coin is brought from the minis generally
by express companies, but sometimes it is
sent as registered mail matter. Never
more than $50, 600 is sent at one time. 1t
is guarded en- route by the company,
which ceases to be responsible for it only
when it is delivered into the hands of the
government officials at the Pine street en-
trance to the building, 1t is then taken
to the counting room and weighed by the
bagful after being passed through the
hands of an expert. who can instantly tell
if the coins have been tempered with. 1t
was formerly required by law that every
piece should be weighed separately, and
that old coins which by natural abrasion
or sweating, had lost one half of one per
cent. should be rejected. For this purpose Z.
scales were provided of such delicate
mechanism that an eyelash would turn the
balance.
How do we detect bad pieces Well,
can't tell you. It's instinct, 1 guess,''
said an old expert in answer to the re-
porter's questi on.
Cant you generally tell by the weight
or size ?h
'.Oh, pshaw. no A composition of lead
and platinum is made that weighs and rings
exactly like gold. Look here there is u
piece that almost any man in New York
would as soon have as any that was ever
coined He tossed i'll front Of reporter
500 piece that looked, weighed and rang
like gold.
y w I'll. WIN > The lllstl Will IL
1T IS only worth so. 1t has been cut
and stuck together again. / rather think
my eyes are the best aids in detecting,
though can pick out q bad coin when
handlingia pile blindfolded.p
Are many spurious coins brought
here ?''
"Oh, quantities. Most of them are so
bunglingly done that it is easy to spot them.
Once when an investigating committee
was here was asked to pick q very clev-
erly 'doctored' piece from bagful. They
were all coined at the same time and ex
actly alike. picked it out for them all
right, and then the committee pretended
to be so interested that they wanted to see
it dohe again. The second time they
quietly changed the bad piece for good
one and were sure of catching me. They
got left, though, as the boys say. C0un
terfeits can always be detected by the mill
ing. No one has yet succeeded in reaching
the perfection with which the government
employees do it,
What is done with the counterfeits
that are presented.
I'VE are not allowed to destroy them,
but we put on a mark so that it is impos-
sible to pass them afterward. This big
pair of shears is used to cut spurious dimes
in two.'
''How about mutilated coins ?'7
"They are simply returned. The gov
eminent won't buy them, and we have no
more right to mark them than any one
else.''
(which are counterfeited most, bills or
coins ~
bills, by large majority national
bank notes generally. They are branded
and returned. The latest dodge is little
scheme we dropped on a short time ago.
A sharper will take, say five good bills,
cut them up into small pieces and shorten
them so that he can present the fragments
as those of six different bills. The law re-
quires that three-ffths Of bill be pre-
sented to get good one in return. All
sorts Of touching and amusing incidents
occur every day in this branch. This
morning poor woman came to the WIN
dow, with big tears in her eyes and two
burned 81 bills in her hand. She said the
baby had thrown them into the fire. The
corners of her mouth went up like q flash
when she was given new money in return
There is an other little trick l must tell
you-that is, to burn counterfeit note to
a crisp and bring it here for redemption
but strange as it may seem, they can be
detected even when reduced to ashes.