The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-02
MARKING BAD MONEY
A PROCESS AT THE SUBTREASURY
THAT SURPRISES MANY.
If One Is in Doubt About q Counterfeit
and Does Not Want to Lose the Bill
Pod plaza for Irfo

and Does Not Want to Lose the Bill
the Wall Street Government Office IL
Bad Place for Information.
A reporter was standing the other day in
the rather dim and close smelling room Of
the United States subtreasury on Wall
street, in which citizens have their bills
exchanged for gold and silver, and from
which bankers draw the coin that makes
foreign trade possible, when a respectfully
dressed man approached one of the paying
tellers.
81 Just want to know" he said, 'fif this
ten dollar bill is all right, or only a coun-
terfeit:"
The clerk took the bill and retired with
it for moment. He came back, and with
out word handed the bin to the man
Across its face was stamped the word
counterfeit" The letters were cut out
of the body of the bill so that no power
could again put it in circulation.
What do you mean by doing that," do
manded the indignant citizen
''Oh, you needn't get mad" remarked
the teller 1.-THE law is imperative. Every
bogus bill that comes here Is treated in this
same fashion"
This wouldn't have happened had
taken it to bank"
"You should have thought of that before
you brought it here"
''This sort of thing" said the teller to
the reporter, as the man left looking rather
crestfallen, happens nearly every day in
the week, and sometimes it is funny to see
how men take on when their bogus bills
are destroyed. They are respectable busi-
ness men who have taken them in honest
trade, and they think it is rather hard that
they should not have chance of getting
them off again on their unsuspecting
neighbors.
COUNTERFEIT COIN.
"You heard what he said about the
banks? Well, that's quite true. If he had
taken his bill to the bank he would have
been told that it was a counterfeit and it
would have been handed back to him in
tact if he was known. By law the national
banks are required to treat all couhterfeit
bills just as they are treated at the United
States subtreasuries They don't do it.
however, with their big customers, because
they fear it would offend them and lead to
loss of business"
Very little counterfeit coin finds its way
to the subtreasury. 1t is seldom indeed
that even a stray bogus coin passes the
watchful eye of the receiving teller at q
bank. The United States secret service
detectives have well nigh stamped out the
business of counterfeiting coin, and al
though the counterfeits which now and
then find their way into circulation are
much better than those of twenty-five years
ago, they are always faulty in one of the
fbpna n no or of ha
thickness, diameter and weight.
If they be of the proper weight, they are
either too thick or the diameter too large,
and little machine on the desk of each
receiving teller at the subtreasury applies
all three tests in half second. When a
counterfeit gold or silver coin is presented
it is confiscated and melted in the United
States assay Office for old metal.
Apart from the action which decides tho
fate Of bad bills and bogus coins, there is
precedence at the subtreasury which puz-
Zles the ordinary citizen. 1t is the refusal
of the government to redeem its own gold
coins at their face value, except they be
fresh from the mint. while the most tat
tered of five dollar treasury bills is good
for bright, new minted five dollar gold
piece,
LOSS IO BANKS.
All gold coins wear in proportion mora
than silver. If you have a twenty dollar
gold piece and fancy that it is light, don't
go to the subtreasury to find out; especially
if it seems much worn 1t will share the
fate of a counterfeit bill in a mitigated
form, as the letter 81, for eight" will
be punched on its face, and it viii be fit
only for the melting pot, or to sell as old
gold. One half per cent Of loss on the
weight of the coin will insure it this fate
without appeal.
Every bank suffers considerably in the
course of a year from this ru4e OF the
treasury. When bankers present gold at
the subtreasury for the purchase of certifi
Gates all coins that show a loss of Il per
cent. in weight are stamped and go 10 the
melting pot in the assay office. There is
no charge to bankers for melting light
weight coin, and the owners lose only its
depreciation in weight.
An average of about $4,000 in light
weight gold coin is received annually by
the subtreasury on Wall street. The loss
on this coin, which averages from half of
l per cent. to per cent, fallson the banks
all of which accept light weight coins with
in those limits rather than offend their
customers. AS rule, all the large banks
hold their light coins until they amount
to s, 900 in par value before bringing them
TO the subtreasury.
SWEATING COINS.
The reason assigned for the refusal Of
the government TO redeem its light gold
coins at their face value instead of making
the loss by depreciation fall on bankers
and citizens generally is that to accept
such coins below weight would encourage
criminals to tamper with them and give q
new impetus TO the sweating" process,
which has often more to do with the light
weight than the ordinary wear and tear in
The sweating" process Is simple re-
euires little intelligence, subjects the oper-
ator to the minimum risk of danger from
detection, and returns fair profit on an
original investment OF say 500 in twenty
dollar gold pieces,
The sweater" places number OF twenty
dollar gold pieces in a buckskin bag and
shakes them together long and violently.
The friction detaches small particles Of
gold from the coin-so small that they leave
10 marks on the coin Of the treatment to
which il has been subjected. The coins are
then removed and individually have lost
SO little In weight that it can only be de-
tected by the scales. The bag is low
boiled, which makes the gold particles ed
here to the buckskin. IL is then dried aid
burned, and the ashes are then fused in a
crucibls and the gold recovered.-New York
News.
Her Strong Point
Mrs Gadd-How Is your Girl. MIRA