The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-30
CAPITAL CITY GOSSIP,
No One Knowsth Who're All tho
Pennies Put In Circulation
Arc Now.
Twenty Seven Dollar Bills Weigh
aB Much as One Gold
Eagle.

An Ingenious Youth with q Pint OF Green
back riscss-A Initiated Currency
Nsw Designs.
ta1AsurNaToN, Oct. 9.-Kens Baohe sends
tks following to the st. Louis Globe Demo-
crAt: What becomes of all the pennies?
It seems to be with them very much a. it
il with pi~ns-nobody knows where or how
they disappear. Yet they vanish in soms
fashion. Last yoar tho Philadelphia mint
coined 8 1000, 900 Of pennies. II would take
! good sized building to hold 10 many, but
they did met begin to supply the never
satisfied demand for more. Just 10Y the
establishments inst referred to is hard At
work manufacturing further supplies. and
70 1t will continue.
Bronze cents arc subject to more acct
dents than happen to any other United
States coins. II is said that a penny
changes hands in trade ten times for once
that a dime passos from one pocket to an
otherf Being of small value these little
pieces are not taken much care Of. There
are ! thousand ways In which they get ont
OF circulation, and thus the minting Of
them has to be kept up continually. Tho
metal blanks from which they are made by
the simple process of stamping are turned
out by contract for Uncle Sam BY q factory
lin Connecticut at the rate Of Loco for 81.
Al thoy como from the machine, fresh and
new, they look like glitterinR gold.
One may gst a notion of the numbsr Of
pennies lost from the history of the old half
cents. OF thege 500, 600 were issued a fsw
years age. Where ara they now? A few
are in tina cabinets of coin collectors. None
have been returned to tho mint for iecoin-
age, or are held by tho treasury. Nobody
sees Thorn in circulation. All of them, ex-
cept some hundreds saved out by curio
hunters, have absolutely disappeared. Of
the old oopper pennies l19,00O,000 still re-
main ~unaccounted for, save that once in a
while one sees a specimen. There are more
than {, 100000 bronze two-cent pieces some
whers, out of 1850, GOO of them that the
governments issued. or nickel 3-cant
pieces, nearly 100000 are yet outstanding.
although it is almost never that n OF
them is como across.
In the treasury here, one day this week,
the question came up as to the weight of a
dollar bill. Scales OF perfect accuracy wsro
brought into requisition, and the surprising
discovery was made that twenty-seven 81
noteB weighed exactly ~ much as a $40 gold
piece. The latter just balances $40 grains.
However, the bills weighed were perfectly
crisp and new. Trial made with s~oilsdnotes,
showed that twenty-seven Of them weighed
consids IA bly, more thar the $40 coin. Every
paper dollar on its way through the world
continually accumulates dirt, perspiration
and grease, SO that after a year OF use il ID
percsptibly heavier.
Tho actual weight Of paper money which
the treasury sends by express every year to
all parts Of the country is in the aggregate
enormous. Since July l il has dispatched
S88, 600, 900. nearly NIL of it in small notes,
TO the south and west for the purpose OF
moving the crops. The banks lend this cash
70 the farmers on whatever they grow, and
thus the products Of tho fields are harvested
md shipped.
Speaking OF the redemption of paper
money, a very novel and interesting appli-
cation was made the Other day to the di-
vision Of the treasury which has this bust
mess in hand. The story, as it quickly came
out, was AZ follows:
An ingenious youth employed to sweep
out 4 New York bank devoted attention for
h considerable period to gathering up the
crumbs from the tills in tho shape Of cor
nsrs and other bits Of notes, such as got
torn of and fall bout in INV place were
dollars are counted. In the course of time
no got together . quantity of scraps OF the
sort sufficient to fill a pint measure, and he
sent them on TO the redemption bureau ut
Washington in a box, with the explanation
that they had been eaten BY mice: HI
stated tho amount at 5000. and asked for
new bills in exchange. His little game was
betrayed or tho face Of it BY the fact That
tho pieces + orwarded represented, il any
thing, not less than $1,000. The usual Aft
davit was demanded from him, swearing to
his loss; but he had not thought Of that re-
q~uiremsnt, and lacked the nerve to glys IT,
luckily for himnelf.
Undoubtedly the redemption division
does sometimes get swindled, though not
often. The woman experts employed to
examine the money gent in are wonderfully
skillful. II il marvellous how deity they
notes and set Al accurate valuat on upor
them. The othor day a poor woman il
Ohio sent a wee corner Of q $40 bill. with 1
pitiful story about her baby's having burnt
it. Hardly more was left than . fragment
big enough to show the figures Of the de-
back. tlice are great dssttoyers of papel
currency. and some Of the most hopeless.
sDecim ans that come in have been heweC
MP for beds by those little rodents. Some
times 4 pill-bOI full OF neutrality-suspicious.
ashes will arrive, accompanied by a certif-
cate stating the amount represented. u
course such q case is hopeless. 1t is usually
4 kitohen-st0vs catastrophe.
Kitchen stoves burn up more cash every
year than is lost in any othsr one way. Peo-
pie will confide their boards to them fol
hiding, and whom they are lighted the
greenlasks 60 up in smoke. The greatest
sum svsr consumed by FIRE in this country
was 81, 600, 900. That amount WAS burned
at thu subtrensury, but the government wal
able to replace it at the cost Of paper ane
printing. It has been estimated that on,
per cent. of all paper money issued is los
or destroyed. OF the old fractional cur
rency it is reokoned that 100000 wortt
has been totally lost.
A few days ago an old colorsd man from
across tho Potomac in Virginia brought t.
tho treasury an extraordinary looking lumI
of metal. He said that 1t was a lot Of sill
YER dollars, halves and quarters. which b,
had put in a tin can Gome years back ant
hidden in the stone wall of n barn by re-
moving . stone and plastering up the ori
fice. When recently he took out the DO,
he found shat triokllng water had rusted j
almost away, covering the coins with oxide
of iron and sticking them togethol
in u mass. Assistant Treasurer
Whelrley had the lump put into
acid and treated with lye and sawdust. &c
that the silver pieces came out as pretty
and bright as when they were minted, and
the old anRn CARVED them away delighted.
49, f1rn Lr. Arts "a n or vxAtn Nr III