Evening journal., 1893-02-01
MUTILATED MONEY.
HOW DAMAGED CURRENCY IS RE-
DEEMED BY THE GOVERNMENT.

hopclctaly Dentfo1eus
The redemption division of the treas
ury department is one Of the most inter
esting Of its branches. It is here that
mutilated money comes for identifca-
ton, and the form in which it comes
tells to the chief Of the division many q
romance and many tale of woe. There
is much that is humorous and much
that is pathetic in Mrs. Browns public
experience. That experience ranges over
nearly eighteen years now. and in that
time millions of dollars have passed
through her hands, most of it in such
condition as to be beyond Identification
by ordinary means.
There Is hardly any way You can think |
of in which money is not mutilated or
partly destroyed. Men light their ci- |
gars with it when they are drunk; rats |
gnaw it into tatters, and fire crisps it |
into brown ashes. Whenever there is a |
sudden cold snap at the beginning Of |
winter the redemption division has a
perfect harvest of mutilated money. One
of the favorite hiding places which wom-
en- have for their savings is the oven.
When a cold day comes the woman
probably forgets all about the money,
builds fire in the stove and cooks the
bills to what is known in the cookbook
as a erich brown
An interesting case is that of woman
living near Hamilton, O., who was
burned to death. She had a pocketbook
\ with her containing seventy dollars.
Her children sent the pocketbook with
its charred contents TO the treasury de-
partment, and Mrs. Brown picked out
the seventy dollars and identified it. A
great deal Of the money that comes in is
partly burned. Wherever n part Of the
burned money can be identified and a
satisfactory affidavit is furnished as to
the facts the government restores the
amount to the owner. But if a note is
entirely destroyed the government is just
so much ahead.
Much Of the money which comes in for
redemption has been damaged in rail-
road wrecks. When a car Is burned in a
railroad wreck no attempt is made by
the express company TO remove the
money from the safe. The safe is sent
direct to the treasury department and
opened there. The money is usually in
i n
taken out, and the treasury experts go
over it and identify as much of it as can
be recognized. Two years ago a pack
age containing S22. 900 was taken from a
wreck near St. Louis, and all of the
money was identified and restored to its
, owners
: Afavorite hiding place for money with
men who have no faith in banks is in
their cellars. A Philadelphia man sent
$3.50 which he had buried in tin box
under his cellar hOor. When he took up
the box he found the money mildewed
= and rotten. The package as it came
! into Mrs. Browns hands looked like a
bunch Of tobacco leaves. 1t was almost
4 impossible to distinguish the character
i Of the notes with the naked eye. Mrs.
q Brown was picking apart the pieces bit
! by bit and arranging them on slips Of
r brown paper cut to the size of a dollar
= bill She said that she expected to iden-
. tify the whole of it.
2 One man sent in some time ago forty
i two dollars which had been taken from
the stomach of a goat The goat was not
worth forty-two dollars, so he was sacri-
% feed. The identification of this money
!, was not a very nice task, but it was com
!, paratively an easy one. When Mrs.
. Brown dropped the sticky mass into a
basin Of water the bills came apart and
. were very easily identified. This is not
!, the only goat case which has come TO the
= redemption division, and it has happened
= that even cows and pigs have been sacri-
: feed to recover money which they had
! swallowed. There is one case on record
!. where a baby swallowed some bank
I, notes, and an emetc saved the money
e and possibly the baby. Babies do not
often swallow an entire bill but many
afidavits are received accompanying por.
tons of bills which say that the missing
portions were swallowed by babies and
therefore wholly destroyed"
y Usually when mutilated money is sent
y in for redemption the owner has a close
~ If not perfect idea Of the amount which
"a is represented, but one old German il
- the west sent in some years ago what h,
y claimed to be the remains Of $1,000, anC
y after n long, long investigation Mrs
~ Brown fully identified 50, 100 in the
y package. A secret service agent wa
~ sent out to investigate the case, but h'
:, could discover nothing that would throw
y light upon the mystery, and so the mis-
s take was charged up to the old man'
% stupidity, and the department sent 81, ,1O'
to him.
r The redemption division receives yer.
~ frequently pieces torn from bills, &C
companied by afidavits saying that In
remainder of the notes has been destroy
ed by mice. But the experts Of th
IN treasury department can tell in minut
a whether q piece has been torn off or eatel
sh off, and these petty frauds are never sue
us ccssful.
A Treasurer Nebeker has a five dolla
llg bin in his Office made Of sixteen piece
ne cut from FIVE dollar notes matched s
na nicely that the ordinary eye would nc
p- detect the fraud. This composite not
er was sent in by a bank clerk in Nel
OF York. The treasury experts detecte
the fraud Immediately, and of course tn
L 49, H.. -