Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-04-12
CORNERED THE COPPERS.
Tho Ingenious Scheme of a De-
trOit Baker.
His Pennies BEING Refused by . Banh
lie Collects Barrels OF Them and
Creates u Shortage in the
Market.

Detroit banks dislike To take pennies,
nickel> and other small change as much
a. the western cowboy, who invented
the term. hates t. See such currency in
Il game If poker. As rule there is
strong kick when any large amount of
pennies is turned i'll at once. and some
time ago the local hanks adopted rule
not to take pennies i'll bulk from mer-
camille establishments. This aroused
the Indignation Of sturekeepers who re-
ceived large quantities of cnppers from
their customers. as under the new deal
they were obliged IL ship their surplus
to eastern cities or send il to the treas
ury department ar to sub-trcaSuries at
considerable trouble and expense.
Barrie x Salal,n, who run the larg-
est bakery in the city, and naturally
take IN an almost endless number OF
cents. We're the most seriously affected
of any firm, and they determined ON re-
vcngc. just how to accomplish this
was a mystery. If the rule had applied
to only one bank it would have been
easy to get even by transferring business
to another bank, but as all the banks
had united on the issue this remedy was
out of the question. To SuSpe al all
banking relations could not be- thought
of. Mr.. Barrie went home one evening
trying to devise some plan to get even.
As he sat reading the paper after sup
per one of his children asked for
penny to put in missionary box.
suddenly an idea occurred tn him.
Why not work on the missionary idea
and get corner on the penny market
With the large amount of coppers COM
ing to his store it would be easy to
soon accumulate enough sinners to
cause n Seriou, shortage on cents. The
more he thought If it the more Mr.. Bar.
RE was pleased with the idea. On tie
following morning he consulted his
partner, and the two decided to carry
the plan into execution.
A strong hogshead was secured. care
fully sealed up and placed in the eel
lar. a slot was cut in the lid and tin
tube placed to run from the slot to the
cash drawer upstairs. Early i'll Novem
Der the first penny was dropped into
The huge barrel, and after that every
copper that came in, instead of being
placed with cash to be turned into the
bank, was dropped into the slot. The
barrel began to fill and the receiving
teller at the Citizens savings bank was
puzzled at receiving no more offers of
heavy deposits of cents. Mr.. Barrie
explained at the bank that he had
found a new way of getting rid Of his
pennies.
But slot machines. Sunday school con-
tributions at Christmas and a heavy call
by merchants for small change during
the holidays exhausted the visible supply
of the useful coppers, and the banks.
instead Of refusing to take large guam
titles of pennies, were at their wits
end to gather enough to supply their
customers. Merchants who sent to
banks for five dollars, ten dollars or fif-
teen dollars worth of cents were disap-
pointed. The banks telegraphed to
eastern cities, but were unable to get q
supply on short notice. Then the follow
ing appeared in a Detroit paper:
''There is great scarcity of pennies in
Detroit"
Mr.. Barrie was happy. He dropped
into his bank and casually asked the
cashier about the penny crop. lie then
pleasantly reminded the cashier that
the bank had once sneered at cOppers
On the two days following he made
similar remarks at the bank and on the
fourth visit he casually said:
"By the way, guess we've got quite
batch of pennies up at the shop. If
you'll send man up l can give you
some. But l want premium of one
and one half per cent"
The bank readily agreed, and a mes.
senger was sent up. When he arrived
he was told there were more pennies
than he could carry. If the bank want
ed them all they must send up an ex.
press wagon. The telephone was re.
sorted to. The bank was delighted.
Oh, certainly, il would take all it could
get.
Half an hour later an expressman
called. The contents of the hogshead
had been cnptied into three barrels,
which were placed on the wagon and
taken to the bank. The cashier was
fairly struck dumb; he had calculated
on half a bushel of pennies at the out
s;de-here were barrels of them. He
telephoned to Mr.. Barrie. He didn't
want the whole mint.
Cant help that" said Mr.. Barrie.
"You said you'd take all you could get
1T one and one half per cent. premium"
So the barrels were rolled into the
bank and placed in back room, which
was cleared of all furniture. The thou
sands upon thousands of cOppers were
dumped on the tiled floor. Counting
them was out of the question, and
weighing was resorted to. The aver
age number of pennies in pound was
ascertained, and then the entire collec-
ton was weighed of. 1t was roughly
estimated that there were one hundred
and two thousand five hundred pennies
in the lot Barrie * Saladin received a
check for fifteen dollars and seventy
five cents rs premium. Then every
bank in town was notified that it could
have all the pennies it wanted by send
ing over. They all bit" and the bank
managed to unload about two-thirds of
its stock within a few hours. The
shortage in the penny market was re-
lieved, and there is now a superabun.
dance of tile copper articles.