The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1893-02-17
OLD BILLS MADE NEW.
Uncle Sam Is a Very Honest Old
Gentleman.
He VIII Give Crisp New Notes for Old and
Mutilated Currency-Even Money To-
tally Destroyed l. Sometimes
Made Good by Him.

He VIII Give Crisp New Notes for Old and
Mutilated Currency-Even Money To-
tally Destroyed l. Sometimes
Made Good by Him.
The amount of money in the shape
of bank notes and bills that are lost or
destroyed every year is enormous.
Nearly all of this is clear gain to the
government. If a man throws "A twen-
ty-dollar- bill into the fire with a lot of
paper, and realizes too late that flames
are no respecters of persons or papers,
he may tell of it as a rather rough Joke
on himself, but he gives it up as lost
nine times out of ten, and pays no more
attention to it. If he saves a small
part of the bill he may perhaps think
II worth something and goes to inquire
about IL. If he does he stands a good
chance of recovering his entire loss
The law upon the subject is quite
plain. and one that people ought TO he
informed upon. The paper issued by
the government and called money is of
course merely a makeshift gold
certificate for ten dollars is merely
promise on the part of the government
at Washington to pay the bearer ten
dollars in gold when he presents that
certificate at the treasury Office. If
that certificate is never presented and
no demand is made for the gold il rep
resents the gold remains in the vaults,
and the government is ultimately that
much ahead. When bills become worn
or in any way unfit for circulation the
treasury or any of the sub-treasuries in
the country are not only willing but
glad of the chance to make an ex-
change. and thereby put good bills in
cir LOT
tional currency notes, gold certificates,
silver certificates and treasury notes of
1890 are all redeemable by the United
States treasurer. The assistant treas
urers at the different sul-treasury
offices are also authorized TO re leem
these bills, provided the bill retains
three-fifths of its original p-opor-
tions If, however, more than two
ffths of the bill is gone the assistant
treasurers have no authority to act,
and the matter must go before the
treasurer. If two-fifths of the original
proportions of the bill remain and a
possibility exists that the remainder is
still in existence, then the United
States treasurer will redeem the mutt
lated currency at one-half the face
value.
There are circumstances, however,
under which the entire sum lost will
be made good by the government if
the treasurer is thoroughly satisfied
that the bills have been entirely Ge-
stroyed. This fact has to be made
clear by the party asking for the re-
demption of the destroyed money; a
detailed description of the circum-
stances must be given; it must all be
sworn to, and the good character of
81, ha
must be satisfactorily shown by some
officer with a seal Even after all this
is done, the matter is still left discre-
tionary with the treasurer as to
whether he will make the loss good or
not. The wording of the law closes
with the provision that The treasurer
will exercise such discretion under
this regulation as may seem to him to
protect the United States from fraud"
These provisions do not refer to the
national bank notes, which. when less
than three-tifths of a bill remains.
mcst be presented to the bank of issue.
The main reason for this law allow
ing the redemption of mutilated cur
rency is that the government loses
nothing by it AS already stated, the
piece of paper is simply promise TO
pay, and if this evidence of a nations
indie btedness is entirely destroyed the
government, as a matter of honesty,
will give the owner a new evidence of
the same indie btedness. The former be-
ing destroyed, there would be no pos
sibility of the government having to
pay the same debt twice. The same
reason applies to the redemption of n
bill with part torn off. 1t can be re-
deemed at its face value only when
clearly three-fifths remain, and if any
one should present the other part
(which is less than three-fifthsD he
could get nothing at all for il unless
showing clearly and satisfactorily that
the first portion had been destroyed. In
this way the government protects itself
entirely, and at the same time does
what il can to shield its creditors and
protect them from loss.
Very few people know the law on
the subject, the general opinion being
that when money is too badly used up
to be kept in circulation ii is practi-
cally useless A man came into the St
Louis sub-treasury not long since and
showed a number of badly used-up
bills, as he asked if they were worth
anything. The officers were busy a.
the time, and, rs the bills were quite
badly mutilated, he was told TO come
back at five o'clock and the matter
would be looked into AS he went out
the door he remarked to friend that
he guessed IL wasn't worth while as il
probably wouldn't amount to anything,
and so he never came back. The same
sort of an incident came under the OBJ
servation of r Barlow, the notary
public in Cashier Hayes office at the
post Office, about a month ago. A gem
tleman who had fallen into the river
had so completely saturated his clothes
that when he was pulling some paper
out of one of his pockets forgetting
thirty dollars in currency he tore the
money all to pieces and had only n wet,
soggy mass left He was referred by
the treasury department to Mr.. Barlow
in order to furnish a necessary affida-
Wit, and. when he found il would take
some little time, work and patience. he
said he wanted to start to Philadelphia
that night, and he guessed he wouldn't
take the trouble on the slim chance of
getting anything. In this and all sim
liar cases the real feeling of the appli-
cant almost invariably is that any eff
fort to regain what is lost is simply
n L.. a.