The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-10-31
WHERE THE PENNIES GO.
WHY The MINT COINS CENTS BY
THE MILLIONS.


WASHINGTON, Oct. 25.-What becomes
OF all the penniesl It seems to be with them
very much as it is with pins-nobody knows
where and how they disappear. Yet they
vanish in some fashion. Last year the
Philadelphia mint coined "a, 600 600 pennies.
1t would take good-sized building to hold
so many, but they did not begin to supply
the never.satisfied demand for more. Just
now the establishment referred to is hard at
work manufacturing further supplies, and
so it will continue.
Bron ze cents are subject to mere acci-
dents than happen to any other United
States coins. 1t is said that penny changes
hands in trade ten times for once that
dime passes from one pocket TO another
Being of small value these little pieces are
NOT taken much care of. There are a thou
sand ways III which they get out of circula-
ton, and thus the miuting 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 Con-
necticut at the rate of 900 for 81. As they
come from the machines, fresh and new,
they look like glittering gold.
HISTORY OF THE OLD HALF CENTS.
One may get notion of the number of
pennies lost from the history Of the old half
cents. OF these S00,0O0 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 recoin-
age or are held by the treasury Nobody
sees them in circulation. All of them except
some hundreds saved out by curiosity hunt
ers have absolutely disappeared. OF the old
copper pennies 119 900. 900 still remain un-
accounted for, save that once in a while one
sees a specimen. There are more than
5000, 600 bronze 2-cent pieces somewhere
out OF the 1900 900 of that the govern
ment issued. OF nickel 2-cent pieces nearly
100000 are yet outstanding, although it is
seldom that one Of them is come across.
In the treasury here one day this week
the question came up as to the weight of a
81 bill. Scales of perfect accuracy were
brought into requisition, and the surprising
discovery was made that twenty-seven 81
notes weighed exactly as much as a $40 gold
piece. The latter just balances $40 grains.
However the bills weighed were perfectly
crisp and new. Trial made with soiIed bills,
such as come in every day for redemption,
showed that twenty-seven Of them weighed
considerably more than the $50 coin. Every
paper dollar on its way through the world
continually accamulates dirt, 80 that after
year of use It is perceptibly heavier.
The 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 it has dispatched
$3S, 100000, nearly all Of it in small notes, to
the south and west for the purpose of
moving the crops. The banks lend their
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, q very novel and interesting appli-
cation was made the other day TO the
division 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
q considerable period to gathering up the
crumbs from the tills 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 quantity OF scraps of the sort suf-
hcienr to fill pint measure, and he sent
them to the redemption bureau at Wash
ington in box, with the explanation that
they had been eaten by mice. He stated
the amount at $500, and asked for
new bills in exchange. His little game was
betrayed on the face of it by the fact that
the pieces forwarded represented, if any
buluk, uOJ loss luhu Sl,OOU. L rs uhudI gill
davit was demanded from him, swearing to
his loss; but he had not thought Of that re-
quirement 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.
HANDLING CHARRED MONEY.
IL is marvellous how deity they will poke
over few charred fragments OF notes and
set an accurate valuation upon them. The
other day a poor woman in Ohio sent a wee
corner of $40 bill, with a pitiful story
about her babys having burned it. Hardly
more was left than a fragment big enough
to show the figures Of the denomination, but
she will get the money back. Mice are
great destroyer of paper currency, and
some of the most hopeless specimens that
come in have been chewed up for bods by
those little rodents. Sometimes a pill box
full of indistinguishable ashes will arrive,
accompanied by a certificate stating the
amount represented. OF course, such a
case is hopeless. IL is usually a kitchen
stove catastrophe.
Kitchen stoves burn up more cash every
year than is lost in any other one way. Poo
pie will confide their boards to them for
hiding, and when they are lighted the
gresnbacks 90 up in smoke. The greatest
sum ever consumed by fire in this country
was 100000. That amount went up in
SMOKE at the sub-treasury, but the govern
ment was able to replace it at the cost of
paper and printing. 1t has been estimated
that l per cent. of all the paper money
issued is lost or destroyed. or the old
fractional currency it is reckoned that
s., 900, 600 has been totally 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 lot Of
silver dollars, halves and quarters, which he
had put IN a tin can some years back and
hidden in the stone wall of barn by re-
moving stone and plastering up the orifics.
TREATING COINS WITH ACIDS.
When recently he took out the box, he
found that trucking water had rusted it al
most away, covering the coins with oxide
of iron and sticking them together in a
mass. Assistant Treasurer Whelpley had
the lump put into acid and treated with lye
and sawdust, so that the silver pieces came
out as pretty and bright as when they were
minted, aud the old man carried them away
delighted.
One day this week 81 note on the Ma
tional Bank of Rhode Island at Newport
came in for redemption. On the face it
looked quite new, but the back was washed
perfectly clean, so that not a mark was left
on it. The Joke of it is that the bureau Of
engraving adopted tie brown back for such
bills on the ground that it could not be
washed OFF, as the green back can be. 1t was
intended in this way TO prevent counterfeit
ers from procuring treasury paper by rem
dering notes Of small denominations blank