Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-10-02
THE MAKING Of MONEY
ono OF the Easy Ways of Doinr =,
irlnf1ng of Notes.

The pressman rubs the plate s,..
with roller saturated with ink Tha'
he rubs off all the superflous inl n nen
rag, and finally he polisbes tba r %.n
with his bare and inky hand. When
it has been thus made ready he pIacaa
the plate under roller, laws a sheet IS
fresh paper upon it, gives a twist to
big iron wheel that communicates tha
hand power, and plate and paper naso
under the roller, the sheet COMING ons
with the faces of four perfect notes
printed on it. Four notes are %
graved on each plate, you see. As fas,
as the sheets are printed they are la;J
neatly in a pile by the young woman
assistant. who puts sheet of brown
paper between each two sheets to leon
them from rubbing. This same per,
Torrance is going on at more than 2oo
hand presses in the big room.
Revenue and custom stamps for
cigars, liquors and all such things ara
printed by some of the presses on
blush green paper; but in money
notes and certificates alone an AVERAGE
of one and a half million of dollars;s
printed in this room daily. All of
Uncle Sans paper cash is manufac.
tured there. The printers have to be
such skilled men that they are paiS
from IS to $Sa day by the piece system
After being printed on one side the
sheets are printed in like manner on
the other though not by the same men.
For safety sake no one person is al.
lowed to make note entirely. and Inv
this and other checks stealing is rem
dered impossible.
The sheets thus completed are taken
to an office off the big room, counted
and but into wooden boxes on little
trucks. Then the boxes are wheeled
upon an elevator and conveyed by it to
the examining room below. In the
examining room they are taken and
counted by women. If their account
talles with the count above stairs the
sheets are laid across racks arranged
in such manner, stack shape. that
dozens of layers of them can be placed
one of top of the other. The rack
stacks are piled upon trucks, which
are run by small railway across the
floor into an oven bigger than an ordi-
nary sized room, built of iron and
heated by steam pipes. There the
sheets are left until they are dry, when
they are taken out and again exam
ined, all defective ones being thrown
aside and charged up to the boss of the
printing department. He is allowed
percentage of 2 per cent of spoilage,
but if he exceeds that he must pay for
the labor lost Next, the sheets are
placed between oiled pastebords and
put on an hydraulic press. which SUBJ
jects them to a pressure of $500
pounds to the square inch. This makes
them smooth. After this they 90 to
another room, where the sheets are
clipped and the notes numbered by
machines. Finally they are counted
again and deposited in the great vault,
which has sometimes had in it as much
as S4, 100000.
Only the other day the vault keeper
sent over to the Treasury little pack
age that you could have put comfort
ably into hand bag and carried away
containing SIS, 900, 600 in $4,000 GER
tificates for legal tender notes In
making such transportation of wealth
the sheets Of money are put into a
wooden lock box and showed aboard
a huge chilled-steel safe on wheels,
which conveys the millions safely
through the streets. The upper part
of the big vault is lined with cup
boards, each one of which bears the
name of State. The cupboards are
receptacles for the national bank notes
of the various States. The notes and
certificates reach the Treasury in sheets
of four-or, three in the case of the
bigger gold certlicates-and are there
cut apart and stamped with the Treas
ury seal. When the Treasury wants
money it simply makes a reqnisition
upon the vault keeper of the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing for whatever
it needs. Authorities in The depart
ment say that the greatest difficulty
counterfeiters meet with in the imta-
ton of United States money is found
in the peculiar paper used by the Cow
eminent, which has silk iiberi run
ming through it. You can pull these
silk tibers ont of one of Uncle Sans
notes without injuring it, but If YOU
split Il counterfeit in two YOU will md
any silk iibers that may he in it sun
ply laid between the two films of pa
per- and they viii not pull out at all
The making Of this paper is a Govern
ment secret and is conducted at Dali
ton, Mass. under the eye of Treasury
experts. - WaShl1qton Star