The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-12-12
About Money,
From New York sun.

ana now tney disappear. L eJ tney VANISH
in some fashion. Last year the Philadel-
phia Mint coined $4,000, 900 pennies. 1t
would take a good-sized building TO hold
so many, but they did not begin to supply
the never-satisfed demand for more. Just
now the establishment referred to is hard
at work manufacturing further supplies, and
so it will continue
Bronze cents are subject to more acci-
dents than happen to any other United
States coins. 1t is said that a penny
changes hands in trade ten times for once
that a dime passes from one pocket to
another Being of small value, these little
pieces are not taken much care of. There
are thousand ways in which they get out
of circulation, and thus the minting of them
has to be kept up continually. The metal
blanks from which they are made by the
simple process of stamping are turned out
for Uncle Sam by contract by factory in
Connecticut at the rate of thousand for
81 As they come from the machines,
fresh and new, they look like glittering
gold.
One may get a notion of the number of
pennies lost from the history of the old
half cents OF these, $1,000 were issued
few years ago. Where are they now?
A few are in the cabinets of coin collectors
None have been returned to the mint for
recoinage or held by the Treasury. No
body sees them in circulation. All ofthem
except some hundreds saved out by curio
hunters have absolutely disappeared. of
the old copper pennies, 119,000,000 still
remain unaccounted for, save that once in
a long while one sees a specimen. There
are more than 100000 bronze two-cent
pieces somewhere out of 4 800, 900 of them
that the Government issued. Of nickel
three-cent pieces, neatly 100000 are yet
outstanding, although it is seldom that one
of them is come across.
In the Treasury at Washington one day
the question came up as to the weight of
dollar bill. Scales of perfect accuracy
were brought into requisition, and the sur
prising discovery was made that twenty
seven one-dollar notes weighed exactly as
much as twenty-dollar gold piece. The
latter just balances $40 grains However,
the bills weighed were perfectly crisp and
new Trial made with soiled notes, such
as come in every day forredemption, showed
that twenty-seven of them weighed consid
cradle more than the $50 coin. Every
paper dollar on its way through the world
continually accumulates dirt, so that after
year of use it is perceptibly heavier.
Speaking of the redemption of paper
money, very novel and interesting appli-
cation was made the other day to the divi-
sion of the Treasury which has this business
in hand. The story, as it came out, was as
follows;
An ingenious youth employed to sweep
out New York bank devoted attention
for considerable period to gathering up
the crumbs from the tills in the shape of
corners and other bits of notes such as get
torn off and fall about in any place where
dollars are counted. In the course of time
he got together quantity of scraps of the
sort sufficient to fill pint measure, and he
sent them on to the Redemption Bureau,
at Washington, in box, with the explana-
ton that they had been eaten by mice.
He stated the amount at 5000, and asked
for new bills in exchange. Hislittle game
was betrayed on the face of it by the fact
that the pieces forwarded represented, if
anything, not less than $1,000. The usual
affidavit was demanded from him, swearing
to his loss; but he had not thought of that
requirement and lacked the nerve to give
it, luckily for himself
Undoubtedly the redemption division
does sometimes get swindled, though not
often. The women experts employed to
examine the money sent in are wonderfully
skillful. 1t is marvellous how deity they
will poke over few charred fragments of
notes and set an accurate. valuation upon
them. The other day poor woman in
Ohio sent a wee corner of a $50 bill, with
pitiful story about her baby S having burned
it. Hardly more was left than fragment
big enough to show the figuree of the de-
nomination, but she will get the money
back. Mice are great destroyers of paper
currency, and some of the most hopeless
specimens that come in have been chewed
up for beds by those little rodents. Some
times pill box full of indistinguishable
ashes will arrive, accompanied by certif-
cate stating the amount represented. OF
course, such case is hopeless. 1t is usually
a kitchen-stove catastrophe.
Kitchen stoves burn up more cash every
year than is lost in any other way People
will confide their boards to them for hid
ing, and when they are lighted the green
backs 90 up in smoke The greatest sum
ever consumed by fire in this country was
81 100000. That amount went up in
smoke at the ub-Treasury, but the
Government was able to replace it at
the cost of paper and printing 1t has
been estimated that one per cent. of all
the paper money issued is lost or de-
stroyed. OF the old fractional currency it
is reckoned that SS,000,000 has been to-
tally lost.
A few days ago an old cOlored man from
across the Potomac in Virginia brought to
the Treasury an extraordinary looking lump
of metal He said that it was a lot of
silver dollars, halves and quarters, which he
had put in tin can some years back and
hidden in the stone wall of barn by re-
movinga stone and plastering up the orifce.
When recently he took out the box, he
found that trickling water had rusted it
almost away, covering the coins with oxide
of iron and sticking them together in a
mass Assistant Treasurer Whelpley had
the lump put iu acid and treated with lye
and sawdust so that the silver pieces came
out as pretty and bright as when they were
minted, and the old man carried them away
delighted.
Philosophers and the World.