Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-24
FATE or THE PENNrEs.
why Il 10 That the Mint Dc Cesning Breass
Cent? by Mtlltons.

FATE or THE PENNIEA
why Il 10 That the Mint d cssaias Brs.ss
Cent? by Miiiioes.
NNRry-Foul MILLIONS OF rHKx oouEp last
vKAR AND Still ruK cRr Is FOR noRs-wEloHr
OF DOLLAR BrL-P1oKrNos IN BASK-rnE
ruRK-
NIHAT BECOMES OF ALL THE PENNIESi
w 1t seems to be with thom very much -
il il with pins-nobody known where and how
they disappear. Yet they vanish in some
fashion. Last year the philadelphia mint
coined q, oo9, 900 Of pennies II would take .
good-sized building to hold 90 many, but they
DID not begin to supply the never-<atisned do
mand for more. Just now the establishment
referred 20 10 hard ct work manufacturing
further supplies, and so 10 will continue.
Bronze cents are subject to more accidents
than happen to any other United States coins.
II 10 said that . penny changes hands in trade
ten times for once that dime passes from one
pocket 70 another. Being Of small value these
Little pieces are not taken much care Of. There
are a thousand ways in which they get out Of
circulation, and thus the ninting OF them has
to be kept up continually. The metal blanks
from which they are made by the simple pro-
cess Of stamping are turned out by contract for
Uncle Sam by factory in Connecticut at the
the machines, fresh snd new, they look like
glittering gold
THE PENNIES LOST.
One may get notion Of the number Of pen
mics lost from the history OF the old half cents
or these 500 900 were issued q few wears ago
Where are they nov? A few are in the cabi-
nets OK coin collectors. None have been re-
turned to the mint for recoinage or are held
by the treasury. Nobody secs them in circula-
tion. All of them. except some hundreds
saved out by curio hunters have absolutely
disappeared. OF the old copper pennies 49,
600, 900 still remain unaccounted for, save that
once IN q long while speci-
men. There are more than 5000. 900 bronze
2-cent pieces somewhere out of 800. 900 of
them that the government issued. or nickel
Scent pieces nearly 2 0c0. 900 are yet outstaud-
ing, although it is almost never that one Of
them 10 come across.
In the treasury here enc day this week the
question came up as to the weight OF o dollar
bill. Scales of perfect accuracy were brought
into reqaisition and the surprising discovery
was made that "a one-doilar notes weighed
exactly as much az 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 for redemption, showed that twenty
seven of them weighed considerably more than
the twenty-dollRr coin. Every paper dollar
on its way through the world continually &C
cumulates dirt Precipitation and grease, 60
that after year OF use tits perceptibly heavier.
WEIGHT OF PAPER MONEY.
The actual weight Of paper money which the
treasury sends by express every year to ali
parts OF the country is in the aggregate
enormous. Since July / il has dispatched
So, 000, 900, nearly all Of it in small notes. to
the south and west, for the purpose of moving
the crops. The banks lend this cash to the
farmers on whatever they grow and thus the
products Of the field are harvested and shipped
Speaking OF the redemption of paper money.
very novel and interesting application was
made the other day to tho division Of the treas
ury which has this business in hand The
story, as it quickly came out, was as follows:
An ingenious youth employed to sweep out
New York bank devoted attention for a consid-
cradle period to gathering up the crumbs from
the tiiis in the shape Of corners and other bits
OF notes such as get torn of and fall about in
any place where dollars are counted. In the
course OF time he got together a quantity of
scraps OF the sort sufficient to ill pint meas
ure and he sent them on to the redemption
bureau at Washington in q box, with the ex-
PLANTATION that they had been eaten by mice.
He stated the amount at 600 and asked for
new bills in exchange. His little game was be-
trayed on the face Of it by the fact that the
pieces forwarded represented, if anything, not
less than $1,000 The usual affidavit was de-
manded from him, swearing to his loss. but be
had not thought OF that requirement and lacked
the nerve to give it, luckily for himself.
NOT OFTEN swINpLEp.
Undoubtedly the redemption division does
sometimes get swindied, though not often. The
women experts employed to examine the money
sent in are wonderfully skillfuL 1t is mary elous
how deftly they will poke over q few charred
fragments of notes and set an accurate yalua-
ton upon them. The other day Q poor woman
In Ohio sent wee corner CT a go bill, with a
pitiful story about her baby's having burnt IT,
enough to show the figures of the denomins-
tion, 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 these
little rodents. Sometimes q pill box full of
indistinguishable ashes will arrive, accompa-
MED by certificate stating the amount repre-
sented. Of course such a case is hopeless. II
is usually a kitchen stove catastrophe.
Kitchen stoves burn up more cash every
year than is lost In any other one way. People
will contide their boards to them for hiding,
and when they are lighted the greenbacks go
up in smoke. The greatest sum ever con-
sumed by IRE IN this country was Ell 600 600
That amount went up in smoke at the sub
treasury. but the government was able to re-
place it at the cost Of paper and printing. Ithas
been estimated that per cent Of all the paper
money issued ie lost or destroyed. OF the old
fractional currency il 10 reckoned that Is O0O.-
600 worth has been totally lost.
"A few days ago an old colored man from
across the Potomac in Virginia brought to the
treasury an extraordinary-lookin lump of
metal. He said that il was a lot O: silver dol
lars, halves and quarters which he had put in q
tin can some years back and hidden in the
stone wall Of q barn by removing q stone and
plastering up the orifice. When recently he
took out the box he found that trickling water
had rusted il almost away, covering the coins
with oxide OF iron and sticking them together in
3 mass. Assistant Treasurer Whelpley had the
lump put into acid and treated with I've and
sawdust, so that the silver pieces cam. out as
pretty and bright as when they were minted
and the old man carried them away delighted
THE BACK OF NOTE WASHED.
One day this week fye-dollar note on the
National Bank Of Rhode Island at Newport
came in for redemption On tho face it looked
quite new. but the back was washed perfectly
clean, so that not . mark was left ON it. The
joke of it il that the bureau Of engraving
adopted the brown back for such bills on the
ground that it could not be washed of, as the
green back can be. It was intended In this way
TO prevent counterfeiters from procuring
treasury paper by rendering notes of small
blank with acids and printing
big ones on them. This il the first time that
confidence in the indelibiity of the brown ink