San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-03
! PROCESS AT THE SUBTReASuRY
THAT SURPRISES uAlNY.

| Ii one Is IN Doubt About n Counterfeit
and Does Not Want to Lose Che Bill
the Wall Street Governments ecce Is
Bad Place for mrormat,rn
A reporter was standing the other day In
the rather dim and close smelling -con OF
| the United States subtreasury on Wall
street, In which citizens have their bills
exchanged for gold and silver. ana from
which bankers draw the coin that makes
foreign trade possible. wnen 4 respecranIy
dressed man approached one or the paving
tellers.
| Il just want to know" he said, "if this
ten dollar bill is all right, or only a coun
terfeits"
The clerk took the bill. and retired with
it for moment. He came back, and with
out word handed the bill 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?" de
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 the
same fashion"
"This wouldn't have happened had I
taken it to a 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 bust
ness men who have taken them in honest
trade, and they think it is lther 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 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 counterfeit
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 a
| bank. The United States secret service
detectives have well nigh stamped out the
business of counterfeiting coin, and al
though the scounterfeits 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
three characteristics of the genuine coin
| 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 the
| fate of bad bills and bogus coins, there is a
precedence ut 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 a bright, new minted five dollar gold
piece.
| ....-- LOSS TO BANKS. .-..s-.--..
All gold coins wear in proportiou more