Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-01-30
OUR AMERICAN PENNIES.
They Are the Most Agile Coins
 Issued by Uncle Sam.
,,anx Millions of Them Have Been w.ae-Are often Counterfeiteo Where They Are Used-
 Made at a Profit.
Tcopyright. 1S9S.l


 The little penny is the most agtle com that bears the face of the goddess ol iip- erty. If all the pennies that are no" Ill circulation in the United States WeIe piled one upon another, when the pie was finished it would be 100 times as biz as the giant Goddess of Liberty that eniigbteps a small part of the world ln New York harbor.
 If those same pennies were laid edge to edge they would extend from oan Francisco to St. Petersburg. It is also true that the tall pile of them referred to would be 4,O00 times the height or the Eiffel tower, the tallest in the world.
 All the pennies in the United States are stamped at the Philadelphia mint, but they are not, as most people sup pose. made there. The government buys the blank eoppers on which the design is stamped from western firm, each 1000 cents costing $f.25. So loo cents with a face value of one dollar cost the government less than one-tlfth of that sum.
 As a result of all this, Uncle Sam makes a profit on his pennies that would drive a pawnbroker to suicide with envy. This would not be true if all of the pennies that are coined were presented for redemption. They never are, however, for fully one-ffth of them seemingly go out of existence is mys- terious ways. All the ways in which | the pennies are lost are as multifari- ous as the sins of the Nsurer. If the lost pennies were weighed, it is esti- mated that they would tip the scale at 2,5oo pounds.
 When the blanks from which the cents are made reach the mint they are first cut into long strips. These strips are run through a stamping ma- chine which cuts them out, imprints the design and drops them into boxes.
 Then they are run through a sorting machine, which throws out amy that are mperfectly made. and the rest pass on to a broad table. where they are counted, not by hand. but by means of q grooyed case into which they fall 800 at time. Then they are tied up in canvas bags ready 10 be shipped away as they are called for.
 One would think that the penny would be the last coin 10 be counter feited, but as a matter of fact there are more spurious cents than there are of dollars or dimes. i pound of copper, enough to make 100 cents, can be bought for Il cents, so that the coun- terfeiters can make good profit if they are skillful enough. So many bad pennies come to the United States treasury that some of the secret serv- ice men are at work all the time look | ing for the men who make them.
 'The hardest working member of tbe whole coin family is the penny," said 1 Superintendent Milman, of the New York subtreasury, the other day. as he watched the unloading of an express wagon piled high with canvas bags of the copper coins. "It is the errand boy i of the money world and a remarkably l spry youngster, too, who covers a lot of ground in the course of year It is also preeminently the ehildren's coin, l though I dare say there are lot of interesting things about it that those whose sticky fingers help to keep it un- der motion do not know.
 For instance, cents often come 10 us at the rate of a million day. The subtreasury is the clearing house of these coins for the metropolitan district 1 and we handle an immense number of them in the course of the year. That lot just coming in contains 1000 worth and represents a days collection from a single big slot-machine company.
 Perhaps before the day is over a delivery truck from one of the great department stores will be drawn here after $10,0O0 worth, ,oG0,000 pieces That often happens, and it shows the way they come and go. Here" leading the way to the room occupied by what is known as the minor coin division you see the way we handle them.'
 The part of the room which held the money was protected by a railing ot heavy iron bars, and behind these bars clerks were busily at work. IT one corner, piled as high as the men's heads, were the canvas bags. each witf its 1000 coins, just as they had beer brought in. On the opposite side three clerks were busy counting off from z great heap of loose pennies.
 Perhaps there are 50O00, ,00O one-cen- pieces here now," continued the su perintendent, possibly more. The stock is growing now, has been since the beginning of the year. That is tc say, there are more people who have pennies which they want to exchang, for bills than there are who bring II, large denominations and get cents fo1 them. The pennies are as good as cal endars for us.
 For several weeks before Christina, We don't take in many; the chlidrel were saving them up 10 buy presents All those that passed into the hand, of the candy men. toy dealers and otbe, shop keepers about December 25 ar, coming back to us now. But they vii go out again by and by. Every fal when school opens the pennies begin {, come in fast. The children are spendin, more for candy and such things. Dur ing the summer months they accumu 1 late on our hands for. +hay fl, x-1,,- =