The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-15
THE ovERWoRKED PENNY.
1T IS THE ERRAND-BOY OF TEE FL
NANCIAL WORLD.
How Cents Are Minted' and There
Route From the Mint to Obscurity.

The little penny is the most agile coin
that bears the face of the Goddess Of
Liberty. If all the pennies that are now
in circulation in the United States were
piled one upon another, when the pile was
finished it would be 100 times as big as
the giant Goddess of Liberty that en-
hghtens a small part of the world in New
York harbor
If those same pennies were laid edge to
edge they would extend from San Fran
cisco to st. Petersburg. 1t is also true
that the tall pile of-them referred to would
be 1900 times the hight of 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 suppose, made
there. The government buys the blank
coppers on which the design is stamped
from a Western firm, each thousand cents
costing SIPS. So 100 cents, with face
yaluce of 81, cost the government less than
one-ffth of that sum.
As result of this Uncle Sam makes a
big profit on his pennies. This would not
/
were presented for redemption. They
never are, however, for fully one-ifth Of
them seemingly go out of existence in
mysterious ways. All the ways in which
| pennies are lost are as multifarious as
the sins of the usurer II the lost pen
MES were weighed they would tip the
scales az 2,500 pounds.
When the blanks from which the cents
H.
| cut into long strips These strips are run
through stamping machine, which cuts
them out imprints the design and drops
| them into boxes.
| Ihen they are run through a sorting ma
| chine, which throws out any that are i'm
| perfectly made, and the rest pass on to a
| oroad table, where they are counted, not
| oy hand, but by means of a grooved case
| into which they fail 500 at a time. They
are then tied up in canvass bags. rea5y
to be shipped away as they are called for.
one would think that the penny would
| De the last coin to be counterfeited. but
as matter of fact there are more spuri-
Gus cents than there are of dollars and
dimes. A pound of copper, enough TO
make 100 cents, can be bought for II cents.
80 that the counterfeiters can make
! good profit if they are skiilful enough. So
many bad pennies come to the United
states treasury that some of the secret
service men are at work all the time look
| ing for the men who make them.
| The hardest working member of The
| whole coin family is the penny" said
Supt. Milman, of the New York sub
treasury, the other day, as he watched
the unloading of an express wagon piled
high with canvas bags of the copper coins
1T is the errand boy of the money world
and a remarkably spry youngster. too
who covers lot of ground in the course
OF year. II is also pre-eminently the
children's coin, though 1 dare say there
| are lot of interesting things about it
that those whose sticky fingers help to
keep it under motion do not know
| For instance cents often come to Us
at the rate of million a day. The sub
treasury is the clearing house of these
coins for the metropolitan district, anu
we handle an immense number of them in
the course of year. That lot Just COM
ing in contains IS, coo worth and represents
a days collection from a single big slot
machine company
Perhaps before the day is over a deliv-
cry truck from one of the great depart
ment stores will be down here after $4,000
worth-l,00,00O pieces. That often hap
pens, and it shows the way they come and
go. Here" leading the way 10 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 YVES 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 its thousand coins
just as they had been brought in. On the
opposite side three clerks were busilv
counting off from a great heap of loose
pennies.
Perhaps there are 100000 1-cent pieces
here now" continued the Superintendent.
possibly more. Tho stock Is growing
now, and 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 cents are as good
as calendars for us
For several weeks before Christmas we
didn't take in many: the children were saw
ing them up to buy presents. All those
that passed into the hands of the CANDY
men, toy dealers and and other shooleep-
ers about Dec. 25 are coming back TO us
now But they will go out again by and
BY Every fan when school opens the
pennies begin to come in fast. The chill
dren are spending more for candy and sucb
things. During the summer months they
accumulate on our hands, for then the
youngsters are not spending so MANY.
Whenever there Is a strom a spell of bad
weather, or anything that keeps the pen
ny-spending population at home, we can
see the difference in the numbers that
come to us.
80 there are many ways in which we
can trace the connection between the chill
dren and the cents, and it may interest
the youngsters to know that they have a
great deal to do with the circulation of
this particular coin. Perhaps the two
things which have had most TO do with the
great increase IN the circulation of pen
MES in recent years are the slot machines
and the bargain stores.
THE craze for accent and 99-cent bar
gains requires great many pennies in the
way of change, and, as I have said. it is
no unusual thing for the big department.
stores to take $4,000 worth at a time.
Most Of these come back to us by the way
of the slot machines, which have come To
be wonderful in number and variety.
There are kaleidoscope views. phono-
graphs, automatic music boxes, candy and
chewing-gum sellers. weighing machines.
lifting machines and hundred and one
others standing at every hand ana coaxir Q