The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-03-23
Pennies as Money.

N
are stamped at the Philadelphia Mint
but they are not, as most people sup
pose, made there. The government
buys the blank coppers on which the
design is stamped from Western firm,
each thousand cents costing S1.25. So
100 cents with face value of 81, cost
the government less than one-ffth of
that sum,
AS a result of all this, Uncle Sam
makes big profit on his pennies. This
would not be true if all the pennies that
are coined were presented for redemp-
ton. They never are, however, for
fully one-ffth of them seemingly go
out of existence in mysterious ways.
All the ways in which the pennies are
lost are as multifarious as the sins OF
the usurer. If the lost pennies were
weighed, it is estimated that they would
tip the scales at $500 pounds.
When the blanks from which the
cents are made reach the mint they are
first run through a stamping machine
which cuts them out, imprints the de-
sign aud drops them into boxes.
Then they are run through sorting
machine, which throws out any that are
imperfectly made and the rest pass on
to broad table, where they are count
ed, not by hand, but my means of a
grooved case into which they fall 500 at
time. Then they are tied up in can
vass bags ready to be shipped away as
they are called for.
One would think that the penny
would be the last coin to be counter
feited, but as matter af fact there are
more spurious cents than there are of
dol are and dimes. A pound of copper,
enough to make 100 cents, can be
bought for eleven cents, 30 that the
counterfeiters can make a good profit if
they are skillful enough. So many bad
pennies come to the United States
Treasury that some of the Secret Ser
vice men are at work all the time look
ing for the men who make them.
The hardest worked member of the
whole coin family is the penny, said
Superintendent Muhlman of the New
York Sub-Treasury the other day, as
he watched the unloading of an ex-
press wagon piled high with canvass
bags of the copper coins. 1t is the err
rand boy of the money world, and re-
markedly spry youngster, too, who
covers lot of ground in the course of
year. 1t is also prominently the
children's coin, though l dare say
there are a lot of interesting things
about it that those whose sticky fin
gers help to keep 1t under motion do
not know.
For instance, cents often come to us
at the rate of million day. The
Sub-Treasury is the clearing house of
these coins for the metropolitan dis
trict, and we handle an immense num-
Der of them in the course of year.
That lot just coming in contains SIS 900
worth and represents days collections
from single big slot machine COM
pany.
Perhaps before the day is over de-
livery truck from one of the great de-
partment stores will be down here after
BIC, 900 worth 100000 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 railing of
heavy iron bars, and behind these bars
clerks were busily at work. In one
corner, piled as high as the mems
heads, were the canvas bags, each with
it's 1000 coins, just as they we're
broug ht in. On the opposite side were
three clerks busily counting off from a
great heap of loose pennies.
Perhaps there are 10000 900 one
cent pieces here now, continued the
superintendent, possibly more. The
stock is growing now, has been since
the beginning of the year. That is to
say, there are more people who have
pennies which they want TO exchange
for bills than there are who bring us
large denominations and get cents for
them. The pennies are as good as
calendars for US.
For several weeks before Christmas
we didn't take in many; the children
were saving them up to buy presents.
All those that passed into the hands OF
the candy man, toy dealers and shop.
keepers about December % are coming
back to us now but they will go ouI
again by and by. Every fall when
school opens the pennies begin to come
in fast. The children are spending
more for candy and such things. Du
l l. a.