The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-01-25

| ployed to examine the money sent in
are wonderfully slsillful. 1t is marvel
GUS how deity they will poke over a
| few charred fragments of notes and
! set an accurate valuation upon them.
The other day poor woman in Ohio
sent a wee corner of a $40 bill, with a
pitiful story about her baby's having
burnt it. Hardly more was left than a
| fragment big enough to show the fig
ures of the denomination, 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 those little rodents. Sometimes a
pill box full of indls -inguishable ashes
will arrive, accom- PANIED by a certifi-
cate stating the amount represented.
Of course, such case is hopeless 1t
is usually kitchen-stove catastrophe.
Kitchen stoves burn up more cash
every year than is lost in any other one
way. People will confde their boards
to them for hiding, and when they are
lighted the greenbaclzs go up in smoke.
The greatest sum ever consumed by
fire in this country was 81. 600, 900. That
amount went up in smoke at the sub
treasury, but the government was able
to replace it at the cost of paper and
printing. 1t has been estimated that
one per cent. of all the paper money
issued is lost or destroyed. OF the old
fractional currency it is reckoned that
S. 600, 900 has been totally lost.
A few days ago an old colored man
from across the Potomac in Virginia
brought to the treasury an extraordi-
nary looking lump of metal He said
that it was lot of silver dollars,
halves and quarters, which he had put
in tin can some years back and hid
den in the stone wall of barn by re-
moving a stone and plastering up the
orifice. When recently he took out the
box, he found that trickling water had
rusted it almost 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 I've and saw
dust, SO that the silver pieces came out
as pref ty and bright as when they were
minted, and the old man carried them
away delighted.
One day this week SIS note on the
national bank of Rhode Island at
Newport came in for REDEEM ption. 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 engr av-
ing adopted the 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 |
counterfeiters from procuring treasury |
paper by rendering notes of small de- |
blank with acids and print
ing big ones on them. This is the first |
time that confidence in the indelibility |
of the brown ink has been disturbed |
Even the seal on the front, which is
done in the same ink, has entirely dis
in the bill described. Whether
the thing was done for jest or by ac-
cident the authorities do no pretend to
say.
The new designs soon to be made
for the entire series of silver certif-
Gates except the one for two dollars al
ready completed will furnish big job I
to the bureau of engraving. Only the
backs are to be changed, but the
making of a single one of these money
plates, with all the lettering and geo.
metric lathe work involved, is a for
nidable task. 1t is not on this &C
count that Chief Engraver CASTELAR,
thinks the proposed alterations I'M
wise. His opinion is that it is mistake
TO change the appearance of currency
more often than is absolutely neces-
sary. The people do not readily accept
paper cash that has strange look.
To illustrate this Mr.. CASTELAR,
old how he happened to be in
New York at one time during the war
ooking out for gang of counterfeit
.rs To avoid making his presence in
,he city conspicuous he put up at
hotel where he was I'M
Known. For some purpose h e handed
% the clerk at the desk brand-new
note. 1t was an issue just out,
With Gen. Spinner's portrait on it, the
LIKENESS having been substituted for a
picture of Justice with her scales,
which the forgers had initiated very
The clerk looked at the note with
vident suspicion, and handed it back.
81 never saw anything like that be-
ore, J" he said.
sit is good, 1 ass ure you, replied
Gr. Castelar,
81 don't believe it," said the clerk.
Very well, rejoined Mr.. CASTELAR,.
1T doesn't matter, though know it is
God, because made it myself.
The clerk smiled sardonically.
'That is just what occurred to me-
e said Therefore 1 refused to ac- ]
ept it."
Mr.. CASTELAR, felt that the joke was
n himself so he treated himself to
ottle of soda-water at the bar and left
Or Washington that evening Wash
lgton Cor. N. Y. Sun.