The St. Johns herald., 1894-03-15
ISSUING NEW BONDS.
The Work Is a Complicated One and In-
 wolves a Great Deal of Labor.

The Work Is a Complicated One and In-
 wolves Great Deal of Labor.
 The business of issuing new set of bonds Is matter of some moment to the officials of the treasury depart ment, because it involves a great deal of labor in the bureau of engraving and printing, in the registrars office and in the treasurer's office. It takes some time for the bureau of engraving and printing to get out an issue of bonds. The engraving is a slow proc ess, says the Washington Star. Then the paper must be prepared. The is sue of renewal bonds in 1891 was printed on paper ten years old, which was lying in the vaults of the bureau. 1t had to be taken out and wet down, and it was not ready for use for ten days. Bonds go through the presses three times. First the tint is printed on the face of them. Then the form on the front is printed in black, and then the form on the back is printed, also in black. These bonds were printed from plates which were made in 1876. The bond issue of 1891 was a reissue of the bonds of 1876; so the bonds were printed alike. It is aston ishing how little wear there is on the tempered steel plates from which bonds are printed. But this is not more remarkable than the process of freshening the plate which has been worn a little. If a bond plate looks at all dull under the microscope it is put in the transfer press and the cylin- ders with which the design was cut in- to it are rolled over it again.
 Anyone who has seen the fine hair lines in the engraving of bank note or greenbaclz will appreciate the marvellous accuracy of machine which can be adjusted so that the original cylinder, passing over the engraved plate seven or eight years after the original engraving, will cut again into the same lines and simply deepen the impression. The variation of thou sandth part of an inch in the adjust ment of the cylinder would blur the plate and ruin it. The cost of trans ferring from the cylinders alone is about fifty dollars plate, and that feature of the preparation of the bond issue would cost the government fully three thousand dollars. The cost of engraving and printing would bring the expense of issuing a new series of bonds up to about fifteen thousand dol lars The registered bond is about fourteen inches long by six inches wide. The old coupon bond was eighteen by twenty-four inches. This was the size of the four per cent. bond which was to run thirty years with in- terest payable every three months, and which bore one hundred and twenty coupons. In the issue of coupon bonds the signature of the register of the treasury is engraved on the coupons. It twould be impossible for the register to sign one hundred and twenty cou- pons on each bond. In some of the heavy issues of bonds the signature in the body of the bond has been en- graved. But all of the registered bonds are signed by the register or his depu- ty. When these bonds are issued the initials of the clerk who entered and the initials of the clerk who recorded each bond are written in the corner of it, so that if there is any mistake it can be traced very quickly.