The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-01-25
FATE OF THE PENNIES.
Why 1t Is the Mint Is Coming
Cents by Millions.
Ninety-Four Millions of Them Minted
Last Year. and Still the Cry Is for
More Weight of Dollar Bill
-Mutilated Money


What becomes of all the pennies?
1t seems to be with them very much
rs it is with pins obody knows where
ind how they disappear Yet they
ranish in some fashion. Last year the
Philadelphia mint coined "a, 600, 900 pen
les 1t would take good-sized build
lg to hold so many, But they did not
egin to supply the never-satisficd de-
and for more. just now the estab-
ishment referred to is hard at work
manufacturing further supplies, and SO
will continue.
Bronze cents are subject to more ac-
cidents than happen to any other
United States coins It is said that
penny changes hands in trade ten times
Tor once that 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 circula-
lion, and thus the minting of them has
70 be kept up continually. The metal
tanks from which they are made by
The simple process of stamping are
urned out for Uncle Sam by contract
" factory in Connecticut at the rate
If thousand for one dollar AS they
come from the machines, fresh and
new, they look like glittering gold
One may get notion of the number
of pennies lost from the history of the
old half cents OF these, 800, 900 were
issued a few years ago. Where are
they now? A few are in the cabinets
of coin collectors. None have been re-
turned to the mint for recoinage or are
held by the treasury. Nobody sees
them in circulation. All of them ex-
cepJ some hundreds saved out by curio
hunters have absolutely disappeared.
OF the old copper pennies, 119,000,0 coo
till remain unaccounted for, save that
nee in a long while one sees a speci-
men. There are more than 5000, 600
bronze two-cent pieces somewhere out
II 4, 800, 900 OF them that the govern
iaent issued. Of nickel three-eent
pieces, nearly 2, 900, 900 are yet outstand-
ng, although it is seldom that one of
them is come across.
Inthe treasury here one day recently
the question came up as TO the
weight of q dollar bill. Scales of per-
feet accuracy were brought into requis-
ition, and the surprising discovery was
made that twenty-seven one-dollar |
notes weighed exactly as much as a
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
showed that twenty-seven
of them weighed considerably more
than the twenty-dollar coin. Every
paper dollar on its way through the
worll continually accumulates dirt, so
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 S3S, 900, 900,
nearly all of it in. small notes. to the
south and west for the purpose Of NOV
ng the crops. The banks lend this
his cash to the farmers on whatever
hey grow, and thus the products of
he field are harvested and shipped.
Speaking Of the redemption of paper
money, a very novel and interesting APP
olication was made the other day to
he division of the treasury which has
his business in hand. The story, as it
came out, was as follows:
An ingenious youth employed to
weep out New York bank devoted
attention for a considerable period to
up the crumbs from the tills
n the shape of corners and otAer bits
If notes such as get torn off ana fall
bout in any place where dollars are
In the course of time he got
ogether quantity of scraps of the
ort sufficient to fill pint measure,
nd he sent them on to the redemption
bureau at Washington in box, with
he explanation that they had been
aten by mice. He stated the amount
t $500, and asked for new bills in eX-
hange. His little game was betrayed
N the face of it by the fact that the
ieces forwarded represented, if any
hing. not less than 1000. The usual
didavit was demanded from him,
wearing to his loss; but he had not
bought of that requirement and lacked
he nerve to give it, luckily for him !:
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