Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-01-06
NOT ENOUGH PENNIES.
The Treasury Unable to Meet the
 Demand for Them.
Over 7oO,OOo,OOo One-Ccnt Pieces Now in Actual Clrculation-One of Cnclo Sam's Profitable Investm cnts-
 Facts About Nicl<ei5.


 nickels and dimes pour in from all di- rections upon tho Treasury until the of | ficials arc nearly ready to go wild over | the inability to meet these demands. "I can not understand it," said prom | incnt official of the Mint Bureau, talk | ing to a Chicago Journal correspondent i about 1t. "Wc arc coining millions of | pennies every year, one year after an | other, and sending them all over the | country, and yet tho demand continues | for them, and seems to increase rather than decrease. During the past twenty | fivo years we havo coined from twenty l to thirty million of pennies year, and | yet the dCmand for them goes on all tho | time. A penny is a thing that does not wear out very fast and that people do not destroy either by melting it up, as l might be the case with silver coin, or by any other process. I can not imagine | what becomes of them.
 1 "1ow many do you suppose thero are in the country?"
 That is pretty hard to say. The hints havo coined, since they were established in 1193, S00,000,000 of pennies. Up to the time of the war the | number of pennies coined within a year did not usually run over 5000, OGO | or 6,000.0 .000. From 1860 thCre was marked increase, and nearly every year | from that time the number has run up | from 20,000,000 to 30,o00,0O0 and 40,- GOO, 900 and sometimes as high as 50,- 1000 in a year."
 l "Where does the demand for them l come from?"
 Ut is scattered pretty well over the country now. Formerly thero was l practically no demand from the South, 1 but within tho past few years they l have taken to using them, as far South | as Louisiana, and even in the West, l whcro there used to bo no demand for l them at all, they arc now being called 1 for. Last year we sent 127,000 of them 1 to Alabama, 100, GOO to Arkansas, G2 1000 to California, 35O. 900 to Georgia, GO. 900 to Louisiana, 200, ,OOO to North Carolina, 125,- 900 to South Carolina, 26O,000 to Ten | ncsscc, and so on. The demand for | niokclS South is also very considcra bio l now and it is no uncommon thing to | send S15, ,000 or SEQ, ,0Oo worth of nicklcs 1 to a Southern State within a year." "How many pennies and other minor coins do you suppose arc in circulation | now?'
 "Thcrc must bo over TOO, 900, 900 of pennies. And as I said few minutes ago, there have been over 500, 900, ,000 of pennies coined by the mint, but about 100, 900. 900 redeemed and rcmCltcd. Tho | old copper cents, which wrro so largo and so burdcnsome, have many of them been redeemed under the act of 1S11 and have been romcltod. The number of those originally issued was over 150, 900, ,OOO. and about B, 900. .00O have been rcmelted, leaving about 100000. 900 still outstanding. Who're in the world they are 1 can not imagine, for you very sell dom see ono of the old large size copper | cents in circulation now. Then thcro was an act of Congress authorizing the | redccming and romelting of the old nickel 1-ccnt pieces, which were issued later, and we haVC redeemed and re- melted about 75, OOO, 900 of those, leaving | about 125 ,000,0 1000 of them still aliOat. Then thcrc arc about 800, ,000. GOO of tho bronze 1-ccnt coins now in circulation. There arc about also 6O, ,000, 900 of bronze | 2-ccnt pieces and something over 3O,- 000,OO of nickel Scent pieces still un- accounted for and presumably still in oirculation.'
 What about tho nickel 5-cont piccos?"
 "There arc pretty nearly 200, 900, 900 of thoso in circulation, It is curious, with roo, 100000 of pennies, 200, 900, 900 of nickcls and 30,000,0 ,000 of ? and Scent pieces in circulation, that tho demand still continues as it does. But tho people l arc clamoring for them everywhere. Tho demand is usually the greatest at this time of the year, but 1t Is even greater l than usual now"
 "Whcre arc tho pennies and nicllols made?"
 "At tho Philadelphia mint exclusively. We buy tho blanks from parties who | manufacture them for us and they arc | stamped at tho mint. We have bought in the year just ended 375,CO0 pounds of | blanks for the 1-ccnU bronze pieces and 100000 pounds of nickel blanks for the 5-ocnt pieces"
 What do these blank pieces cost tho Govcrnment?"
 "Tho bronze pieces for pennies cost about 35 cents pound and the 5-cent pieces cost 42 cents a pound."
 "Thon you mako somc money on theso when you issue thom as 1 and 5-cent pieces?'
 "Yes; VIC get 145 pennies In a pound of the bronze metal and 01 pieces in a pound of tho nickel"
 ''So you get $l.45 worth of pennies from the material which costs you 85 cents pound, do you?"
 "Practical]y that, yes. Of course, it costs something to stamp the pennies at the mint. We make & greater profit, however, on the 5-cent pieces, for wo get 90 of those out of a pound of metal, and they go as 5-cent pieces; we get $4.50 worth of them for pound of metal, which costs us a trife over 42 cents."