The Springfield herald., 1899-04-07
PATCHING UP MONEY.
WORK OF GOVERNMENT TO
REIMBURSE INDIVIDUALS.
ode Cases of MutiiatIon-Cheatl the
Treasury of tho United States Is Free
auentiy Attempted and Sometimes
Achieved.

There are several experts employed
by the government to inspect the cur
rency offered for redemption. In fact,
every person employed in the bureau Is
in some degree an expert, because each
one of them has to pass on the genn-
ineness OF the money presented for re-
demption, and this is a difficult task,
says the Washington Star. Remember
that this money comes to the treas
ury, as a rule, only when 1t is SO bad
ly worn that it will not pass current.
This dirty, torn, greasy, ragged money
the experts have to handle and decide
whether it was issued by the govern
ment and should be redeemed at its
face value or whether it is the work oil
counterfeiters and should be rejected.
1t is not at all to the discredit of the
experts of the bureau that some bogus
money has got past them and been de-
tected in one of the offices to which
the pieces of money go for further ex-
animation. This does not occur often.
The peculiar province of one woman Is
not to detect bad money-though she
is an expert at that-but to put to-
gether torn pieces of money sent for
identification and redemption. These
pieces of money come from all parts of
the country and arrive under the most
extraordinary conditions. This Is not
surprising, in view of the fact that
they come from experiences with fire
and water and gastric juices and many
other powerful agents. not infre-
10
in stove, whence it is taken in bad
ly charred condition, with only ashes
to represent the greater part of 1t.
Often 1t is used by rats to make their
nests; or, buried in the dampness of
cellar 1t rot3 away; or, swallowed by
a COW, it is rescued from her stomach
Shiny mass of paper. Here are the
rules of the treasury for the redemp-
tion of mutilated money: For piece
of currency greater than two-fifths and
less than three-fifths OF the original
note, one-half the. face value of the
note is given. For piece as great as
three-fifths, the whole of the note is
given. For piece two-fifths in size
of the original nothing is given. But
this last provision is limited by the
law, which gives discretion to the treas
for a note if the owner can prove to
the satisfaction of the authorities that
the note. or the missing part of it, was
destroyed This last provision opens
the door to possible fraud, and many
are the efforts made by dishonest per-
sons to take advantage of it. The frag-
ments of money which come to the
treasury are turned over to one of the
experts and sorted out under the mi
croscope for identification. They are
picked apart and each tiny piece is as
signed to its place like part OF
puzzle This is usually done on glass
and the fragments are eventually put
between pieces of glass to hold them
together while they are measured to
see whether there is two-fifths or
three -fifths of the whole note identifia-
BILE or whether it is SO little that the
owner can recover nothing. Sometimes
it is very serious matter to the OWL
er; but the poor are not the only ap-
plicants for assistance to recover dam
aged money. AT the time w. X. Van
derbilts beautiful home at Newport
was burned Mrs. Vanderbilt-now Mrs.
Belmont-sent about 81 900 in mutilat-
ed currency, out of which it was able
to identify for redemption all but a
fraction of the sum. Some of the ex-
periences of the redemption division
with wouldbe thieves are interesting.
One man in Kansas sent to the treas
ury the halves of some small bills with
the edges nicely charred, accompanied
by an affidavit from the sender that
he had put the money in his pocket,
hung his coat on fence and that the
coat had been burned, to the destruc-
tion of part of the notes. 1t happened
that the treasury had redeemed the
other halves of these notes Just two
and half years before by money
broker in New York, and, thinking the
case suspicious. had kept an eye out
for the possibility of attempted fraud.
The Kansas man was person of good
business standing, and his banker
threatened the treasury officials with
dismissal if they questioned his afii-
davit. They put the case in the hands
of the department of justice, and
eventually the man pleaded guilty and
was fined $1,000. A bank in Alabama
received from depositor a fragment
of $40 bill and the treasury people
paid S. for it. Later came claim ac
companied by the other part of the
bill, little charred, with an affidavit
saying the sender had burned the re-
mainder of the note by mistake. A
Chicago man sent in fragments of two
500 bills and one $40 bill, with an afH-
davit telling how the other halves had
been destroyed; and in the same mail