The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-13
WEAR AND rEAn OF PAPER MONEY
Bills of Small Denomination Worn
out at Christmas Time.
Frnm lhe Nem Ynrl, Snn

out at Christmas Time.
From the New York Sun.
The enormous amount Of mutilated and
worn-out bills that flow into the sub
treasury at this time of year makes it the
busiest of all seasons for those who are
employed in examining money previous
to sending il 20 the treasury at Washing
ton for destruction.
This temporary augmentation in the IN
fuX of notes begins usually with the new
year and continues steadily for some four
or five weeks after which the number
quickly decreases and in brief space falls
to the normal, The mutilated money that
is carried 60 the sub-treasury during the
month of January is commonly known as
holiday money" since the Christmas sea-
son Is directly accountable for 1t. 40.
a curious circumstance connected with
holiday money Is that the increase is raVher
in the quantity of paper than in the actual
value of the bills handed in, That Is %
say, that while the number of bills hand
ed in Is far greater than at any otner tlme
OF the year. the actual amount OF money
represented by them Is by no means IN the
The reason Of this is" said Mr. G. w
MARROW, deputy assistant treasurer the
other day that the increase In the num-
Der of the bills Is due largely to the money
spent about Christmas time by persons OF
slender means. There are some 3,VOOWl
inhabitants in and about New YORK OF
which, If you divide them up INTO classes,
you will find a large proportion are IN tle
habit OF saving up small sums, about II
or 81. to spend at Christmas. Inc result
Is that lust before Christmas an enormous
number of 81 and 81 bills hnd they way
into the stores, whence they drilt INTO the
banks, and from the banks all those .hat
are mutilated or otherwise unht Tor fur,
Their use are sent here. As 60 when Dlll
has become too worn or dirty for circulac
ton that matter is left to the Judgmen,t, OF
the bankers. The average IRE Oh plli 10
about six or seven years. ,.,..
1.-The present time Is. by far the busiest
OF the year for us. SO far as muulateQ pa "a
per money Is concerned we are recelNln6
at present | suppose, from lO0OO 10 lfo,VJO
pieces of paper money day, or when
about 10000 or $1,000 are u ana y puls
THESE are usually paid for with bills OF
| larger denominations, for at present tne
banks do not stand in need OF small money.
| The time when small bills are most IN ue-
mand Is when the farmers beBih TO hioxc
| their crops After the INITIATED pllls
| have been passed on here they are then
sent by express to the treasury az WASH
| ington, where, having been examined they
are destroyed, reduced TO pulp, ana SOLO 70
| the paper mill that makes the highest PIG.
Here Is yesterdays shipment, on oy Whic en-
| you will see that we sent $505OOO worth OF
mutilated bills; but yesterday was SLACK
compared with some days, IT, ,o.,.,oa,,
Some idea Of the proportion ottw tt,ia
| SUBJ treasury and the number OF these blhs
| actually in circulation may be seen from
this report, where you VIII ma that m
| June last there were outstanding or iegal
| tender notes 5000, 900; of treasury notes, IL
600. OO0 and of silver certificates, 35O0O,00O
| When this local rush. as we call ~, or mu.
| tilated bills comes to an end, when VIII
| probably be by next month, the numDel
of notes received by us will probably be
| nearer 100000 than $4,000 The number
| very seldom falls below 100000
For the examination OF the mutllateo
| bills sent to us, there are mere ABOUT
! twelve or fourteen men. This number
may appear rather small for the handling
| of so many notes, but one man Is sup
| posed to be able to count and examln,
| 1900 to 1900 notes day. The greal
| majority of the notes sent In here come
from the banks, but a good many come
from the big business houses and few
are brought in by private individuals
Sometimes we get as many as bO,OOO 10 TO-
600 from single bank in day
1.-The public, by the way, seem 10 b'
rather ignorant of the value of muttlatet
paper money. Sometimes some one bring
In scrap Of a dollar and expects to &c
full value for 1t, even when unable TO ac
count satisfactorily for the rest of it-tha
is to say, all he knows of IL Is that II wa
lost in the street or So such an explana
ton is. of course, not considered Sufhcieni
as the lost piece might easily be foun
| and brought here, too. Quite as common
| w. however, he suffers himself by his "
norance of what is redeemable. Their
seems. for Instance, to be an impression
that a torn bill must be disposed o
through a broker The fact is, however
that provided three-fifths of the bill re
main 1t can be redeemed for its face value
| When less than three-tifths but NOR
than two ,hths remain, then 1t Is worth NJ
more than half Its face value Sometime
Il happens THAI only very small piec
remains, in which case II Is necessary 4
! make an affidavit, and demonstrate to tn
| satisfaction of the United States treasuri
| at Washington that the rest of the bill
| has been destroyed.
80 used are those who count the bill
here to judging of how much has beef
lost that even when a bill has been tori
| irregularly they rarely have to use rul
| 10 measure II, "