Devils Lake inter-ocean., 1899-10-06
NEW MONEY FOR OLD.

laA w ulON I l. INylO OADs
AN EXCHANGE FOR MUTlLATED AND
WORNOuT- BILLS.
Uncle Sans Redemption Bureau and
the Work of It's Experts-Rules of
the Department and Schemes For
Cheating the Government.
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 genuine
ness of the money presented for re-
demption. and this is a difficult task.
Remember that this money comes to
the treasury. as rule, only when it is
SO badly worn that it will not pass cur
rent. This dirty, torn. greasy. ragged
money the experts have to handle and
decide whether it was issued by the
government and should be redeemed at
its face value or whether it is the work
Of counterfeiters and should be rejected.
It 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 the money 60 for further ex-
animation. This does not occur often.
The peculiar province of one expert
is not to detect bad money-thougb
che is an expert at that-but to put to-
gether torn pieces of money sent in for
Identification and redemption. These
pieces of money come from all parts of
the country and arrive under most ex-
traordinary conditions. This is not sur
prising in view of the fact that they
come from experiences with fire and
water and gastric juices and many 9th
er powerful agents. "A not infrequent
accident to money is to be left in
stove. whence it is taken in badly
charred condition, with only ashes to
represent the greater part of it. Often
it is used by rats to make their nests
or, buried in the dampness of cellar, it
rots away, or, swallowed by COW, it is
rescued from her stomach Shiny mass
of paper.
Here are the rules of the treasury for
the redemption of mutilated money
For piece of currency greater than
two-ffths 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 value of
the note is given. For piece two-ifths
in size of the original nothing is given.
But this last provision is limited by the
law. which gives discretion to the treas
ury department to give full value for a
note if the owner can prove to the satis-
faction 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 persons to take ad-
vantage of it.
The fragments of money which come
to the treasury are turned over to one
of the experts and sorted out under the
miscroscope for Identification. They are
picked apart. and each tiny piece is as
signed to its place like part of puz-
zle This is usually done on glass, and
the fragments are eventually put be-
tween pieces Of glass to hold them to-
gether while they are measured to see
whether there is two-ffths or three
fifths of the note identifable or whether
it is so little that the owner can recover
nothing. Sometimes it is very serious
matter to the owner, but the poor are
not the only applicants for assistance
to recover damaged money. At the time
W. Z. Vanderbilt's beautiful home at
Newport was burned Mrs. Vanderbilt
sent in about 81 900 in mutilated cur
rency, out of which the expert was able
to identify for redemption all but a
fraction of the sum.
It it is not alone mutilated money
that comes to the treasury. but dirty
and worn money of all kinds. to the ex-
tent of nearly $500, 900, 900 year.
Sometimes counterfeits get past the
experts in this bureau and are caught
in the other bureaus to which the halves
are sent when the packages of old notes
have gone under the knife and been di
vided up for counting and Identification
before they are destroyed. But this il
not the most frequent form of attempt
ed fraud. The mutilated money cffer1
the easiest path to this sort of crime.
Some of the experiences of the re
demption division with would b
thieves are interesting. One man ii
Kansas sent to the treasury the halve
Of some small bills with the edges nice
ly charred. accompanied by an affidavit
from the sender that he had put tn
money in his pocket, hung his coat OF
a fence and that the coat had bee1
burned. to the destruction of part o
the notes 1t happened that the treasur.
had redeemed the other halves of thes
notes just two and half years befor
for money broker on the Bowery. il
New York. and. thinking the case sus
picious, had kept an eye out for tn
possibility of attempted fraud. Tn