Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-09-20
THE PAPER MONEY.
How Uncle Sam Prints His Green.
Backs.

How Uncle Sam Prints His Green.
Special Correspondence Of the STANDARD.
All the money used in the United
States is now engraved and printed at
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
in Washington, ID. c. The plates,
described in former letter, from which
the money ia printed, and stored by
the ton in an enormous vault on the
ground floor of the building. Here, q
short time before work hours begin,
the printers form in line and receive
from the custodian the plates they are
to use for the day. The plates are
numbered, and each man gives a
receipt for his precious charge.
The presses, some two hundred in
number, are all hand presses, and each
requires the attendance of two persons
the printer and his assistant, usually
a young lady, whose duty it is to place
the sheet upon the plate for printing
and then remove the same and examine
it to see if the impression taken is per
feet. The assistant receive $l.25 per
day wages, which is deducted from the
pay of the printer. They are ap-
pointed through the Civil Service Com
mission, and usually are placed under
the charge Of the printers and remain
with the same ones who have in
structed them in the duties OF their
trade.
The paper, in sheets large enough
for four bills, comes from the Treasury
Department in bundles OF one thou.
sand sheets. When it arrives it is
counted into packages of one hundred
sheets each and thoroughly moistened
80 that it will absorb the ink.
The printer applys ink to the plate
with hand roller, wipes with cloth,
and then polishss it with the open
palm of his hand. No satisfactory
substitute has been discovered for the
human hand for this finishing touch
in preparing the plate for printing
steel engravings and for that reason fine
work cannot be done on steam presses
The design is cut down into the
plate and the fine lines are filled with
ink. Each plate has to be studied by
itself, for the skill OF the printer depends
upon the knowledge OF the proper way
in which the particular plate should
be rubbed. No two plates require the
same treatment. When the plate il
polished off," the attendant places 6
sheet upon the same, and then by
turning a wheel the table carrying the
plate is passed beneath roller under
great pressure, and the ink in the
lines adheres to the paper. Every i'm
perfectly pointed sheet is thrown aside
and for each press an allowance j.
made of one poor sheet out of every
, hundred. If the number spoiled ex
ceeds this the printer is charged fol
the estimated cost Of the paper and
all the work put on it up to the time
the injury is done. The backs are
printed fist, then after seasoning and
remoistening the faces, then the mum.
bers are applied, and finally the red
seal is affixed and the bills are cut
apart.
The printed sheets, good and bad
are turned in and counted. If sheet
is missing the printer has to pay the
government the full face of the four
bills, no matter how high the depomi-
nation. The sheets are counted some
sixty times from beginning to end
and the system of work is so perfectly
arranged that it is almost an unknown
thing to find a mistake made any
where.
A good printer prints about nine
hundred sheets day, though occa-
sionally an extra rapid worker can
turn off thousand. The pay is by
the day and depends upon work done.
After deducting the wages OF the as.
sistant the printer has from four to
six dollars per day left for his services
The printers are now entitled to q
leave Of absence for thirty days per
year, the same as other government
clerks, and during this time they re-
ceive the average amount earned for a
certain period previous to taking theft
vacations.