The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-03
new BANK NOTES ARE REDEEMED.
Remarkable Experts in the Treasury De-
partment.

New York Evening Post.
When the national bank notes have tramped
about the country until they have become ragged
and vagabond, and have reached the lowest
depths of degradation, they are bundled up and
sent to the Treasury Department for redemption.
Many millions of these Migrants are received at
the Department each year. They have to pass in
review through the National Bank Redemption
Agency, where those that are utterly depraved
and good for nothing are sentenced to be chewed
up, and those that have got in through the force of
association, but are still not so far gone that some
good may not be got ont of them, are sent back
into the service. In the place of those that are
condemned nice, new notes, crisp and clean, are
sent out. The experience of these notes is
varied, and in some cases very novel and inter
esting, but their tale is told only by their ragged
and dirty appearance when they get back to the
department.. The average length of time that a
new note can keep up a respectable appearance
is about three years. Some have been found at
the end of twenty years to be a crisp as on the
day of their issue, but these are exceptional
cases. where they have fallen into
the hands of people who made pets of
them and carefully guarded them from rough
usage. The wandering note soon becomes a
tramp. 1t rapidly goes to pieces if it starts out
for the West, stopping along at the crossrOad
inns, or if it frequents drinking saloons and falls
in with low company Bad habits tell on a bank
note very quickly. 1t is hard luck when it falls
in with a bloody fingered butcher. Some have
been known to become good for nothing under
u la q OW 4ACy atO
subject, too, to all sorts of misfortune by fire
aud water.
Many thousands get burned UP. Then their
charred and blackened remains are sent to the
Treasury for redemption. One lady in the
Comptroller's Office in this case has charge of
them, and they are sent to her for
Identification before they can be re-
deemed. Her name is Fitzgerald, and
she is said to be very expert, seldom failing to
identify a note, giving it's proper name, date,
and al ccIGRntinp M ynotfQr how haHlu hr1rpf
it is. Sometimes packages of several hundreds,
done up to be expressed, are sent in all
stuck together and burnt clear through to a
black crispy mass. She then separates them
places the charred remains of each one sepa-
rately upon q glass slab and examines it very
carefully with a lnagnifving glass. She is famil-
lar with all peculiarties of the issues of the
various banks, and a note must be reduced al
most to ashes to be beyond her recognition,
though to an inexperienced eye it might not be
distinguished from a piece OF grocerS paper
which had gone through the fire.
All those notes otherwise mutilated 60 directly
to the redemption agency. The degree of expert
efficiency displayed there is something remark
able. This branch of the service was organized
about eleven years ago by General Spinner.
Prior to that there was no systematic redemp-
ton of the paper currency as 1t became too worn
for circulation, and a good many ragamuffin
notes were wandering about the country. The
service began with about one hundred and fifty
two people employed liz counting and asserting
the notes that came in for redemption. Very
nearly the same amount of work is now done by
ffty-seven. The counting in and asserting Of
the notes requires great care, and it is
only after long experience that it can be
done rapidly. There is an average OF
about $50. 900, 600 notes per year handled, and
they have to be counted about five times if there
Is no hitch in the count, and oftener il any mis-
takes are made. But the amount is variable
from wear RI UnaY and avon from month RI
month. The lowest number was in lS80-81,
when 60, 900, 900 were redeemed. and from thatit
has run up as high as 240, 600, 900 in a single year.
Some months it runs as low as 1000, 900 or
5,000,0 600, then again it runs up in other months
to Is, 900, 900 or 20, 000. 900. The months of Jan
nary and June always take the lead, those being
the periods just after the fall and spring trade
respectively, when the currency worn out from
the rough usage in traffic is collected and sent
in to be replaced by new notes.
The force Of Atty seven. all except two or three
of whom are ladies, can handle just half a mill
ion notes each day. This is very expert counting.
The notes when they come to be judged haze
first to be counted in" This requires the
counter in" to go over them twice, and she
must make no mistake and pass no counterfeit,
or the loss thus caused will be deducted from her
salary. She is given from q, 900 to 10000 notes,
for which she gives a receipt; then she counts
them in; then she counts them back, and if the
two counts agree she is given credit for them
VIII en- she settles up in the evening. turning in
the money bound and labeled with her name
and amount on each package. If the
packages. or any of them are found short,
she has to make good the deficiency.
Next, the notes have to be assorted, those in
good condition from those in bad condition; then
they have to be grouped as to denomination;
then distributed into banks of issue, and then
into denominations, under the heads of banks.
Then they are counted out" The ''counterin'
has to handle them twice, and the ''counter-out'
thrice, but the former has the most responsible
ity, and must be more expert. The counterin
handles from 5000 to ~, 1000 notes twice, or
counter out handles from 5000 70 1000 three
times. or counts from Is. 900 to y. 900 per day.