Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-01
MUTILATED MONEY.
How, When and Where the Gov-
 ernment Redeems It.

How, When and Where the Gov- ernment Redeems It. Average Life of a Circulating Bank-Nots Money Transformed Into Trinkets Advantages of Silver Money Over Gold Coin.
 What becomes of the old, ragged, dirty and torn paper money and the worn, clipped and defaced coins! Greenbacks and paper currency of the various kinds have certain life, which, being ended, their days of usefulness are considered passed, and they are then withdrawn from circulation by the Treasury Department and fresh and crisp new bills take their place. The average life of a bank-note or Government note is 0 matter hard to de- | termine, says the St. Louis Republic. This depends entirely upon the hands into which | it falls and the number of times it is passed out into circulation. Should it | come into the possession of miser and go 1 into his strong box, it's life would be, of course, much longer than if in steady use, but upon an average note is in circulation | only six or seven years. Bills of small de- nomination, ones, twos, fves and tens, are. | of course, worn out more quickly than those of larger amount. A $50 bill would be care fully folded and put into pocket-book, where one would be crumbled up and go into the vest pocket, along with the | metal coins.
 | Under the rulings of the Treasury De- partment all sub=treasuries and designated | Repositories of the United States are re- quired to lay aside all currency that has be- come worn to any great degree and for ward the same to the department in Wash lngton. This is at once sorted as to issue and denomination and proper return made to the sender. All National Bank notes are separated from the others and when sufficient amount is collected 1t is returned to the bank issuing the same and | it is left to their discretion whether the bills shall again be put in circulation or not, and if the officials of the bank think the notes too badly worn to again be put afloat they are returned again to the Treasury Depart ment at W ashington and the institution is given credit for the amount
 All money of this character, when with drawn from circulation, is destroyed First l the issue, the denomination and the num- Der and class are carefully noted in books 1 kept for that purpose, and in the presence of officials named for this duty the notes are thrown into a macerating machine, and the whole cut into the smallest possible pieces. After they have been so thoroughly macerated as to preclude even the possibil- ity of their being put together again, the residue is sold to firm in Washington who press it under hydraulic pressure into odd | shaped little trinkets and charms which are sold to curiosity seekers who delight in the possession of an article which may have represented thousands of dollars at some previous stage of it's usefulness.
 It is frequently the case that in some ac- cident parcel of bank bills is but partially destroyed. An end may be charred off in a fire or in a hundred ways a bill may be made unfit for circulation. Should three ffths ef the original bill be preserved this may be sent to the Treasurer and 1t will bo redeemed without question, but when there is less than three-ifths, but clearly moro than two-ffths of the original proportion remaining, they are redeemable by the United States Treasurer only at one-half the face value of the whole note
 Should there be loss of more than two ffths of the entire bill the Treasurer will redeem the same at face value if the frag ments are accompanied by an affidavit of the owner or of other persons having knowledge that the missing portions have been totally destroyed. The Treasurer, of course, exercises his discretion in the re- demption of mutilated currency so as to protect the Government against fraud, and one of his rulings in this regard is that all afidavits shall be sworn to before notary
 
 on the instrument making oath that the statements are all true. Should the Treas urer decide that the evidence is not sufficient to protect the Government against fraud, he will refuse to redeem the fragments and will fe. turn the pieces to the owner. All sub- treasuries are authorized to redeem all notes which contain not less than three tifths of the original bill. The consignee x,,,,ct ,,o,, tho oocf of tran for the return of the sum allowed in the redeem ing of defaced or mutilated money of any character.
 Silver money has an obvious advantage over gold coin, in that the former is redeem able no matter the amount of abrasion that may appear, while gold coin that has lost more than one per cent through abrasion is considered mutilated and is receivable for only the actual value by weight The gold coins coming into banks or to the sub treasuries when found light in weight are stamped on both sides with the capital 'L, i" denoting that the piece is deficient in value, With silver coin, although it may be worn perfectly smooth, if it shows no evidence of having been tempered with, 1t will be re. deemed at face value. All minor coins made of the baser metals, five, three, two and one cent pieces, are redeemable if they are not so defaced as to be readily identified. These rulings are made by the Treasury Depart ment, and not being part of any act of Congress they may be changed at any time, when one Treasurer takes a different view of the matter from that of his predecessor. E A Diary Written in Blood.
 The diary of the famous Bar on Friedrich won der Trenck, cousin of the notorious Franz von der Trenck, which pprports t9 be written in his own blood while g prisoner at Madgeburg, is now offered for sale at Leipsic. The diary, inscribed on two hun dred pages of an interleaved Bible pre- sented to ..Trenck in 176O by the Princess Amalie, sister of Frederick the Great, in- cludes, besides number of poems and letters, various social, political and philo- sophical treatises, and 8 history af the prisoner's adventurous life, which ended ia 1794 on the guillotine He was condemned tc death by Robespierre as secret agent of foreign governments.
 A Mighty Cheerful Man.
 Uncle Billy Russell is, according to the