Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-01-04
OLD BILLS MADE NEW.
Uncle Sam Is a Very Honest Old
Gentleman.
He VIII Give Crisp New Notes for Old and
Mutilatcd Currency-Even Money To-
tally Destroyed Is Sometimes
Made Good by Him.


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 u clear gain to the
government. If Il man throws n TWEEN
| ty-dollar- bill into the fire with lot of
| paper, and realizes too late that flames
| are no rcspecters of persons or papers,
| he may tell of it rs 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
it worth something and goes to inquire
about it. 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 be
informed upon. The paper issued by
the government and called money is OF
course merely n mal1eshift. A gold
certificate for ten dollars is merely a
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 it 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
| circulation. United States notes, frac-
tional currency notes, gold certificates,
| silver certificates and treasury notes of
| 1890 are all rcdccmable by the United
States treasurer. The assistant treas
urerS at the different sub-treasury
| offices are also authorized to redeem
| these bills, provided the bill retains
| three-ffths of it's original proper
tions. If, however, more than two
fifths 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 de-
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
the person making the application
must be satisfactorily shown by some
| officer with Il 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-tfths of a bill remains,
must 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 n nations
Indebtedness is entirely destroyed the
| government, as a matter of honesty,
| will give the owner 4 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 a
bill with part torn off. 1t can be re-
deemed at its face value only when
clearly three-ffths remain, and if any
one should present the other part
(Which is less than three-ffths) he
could get nothing at all for it 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 it can to shield it's 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 ur
to be kept in circulation it is practi.
cally useless. A man came into the st.
Louis sub-treasury not long since and
showed n number of badly used-ur
bills, as he asked if they were worth
anything. The officers were busy a.
the time, and, as 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 a friend that
he guessed it 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 month ago. A gen
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 wet
soggy mass left. He was referred by
the treasury department to Mr.. Barlow