Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-06-16
NEW MONEY FOR OLD.
AN EXCHANGE FOR MUTILATED
AND WORKOUT BILLS.
Uncle Sans Redemption Bureau and ths
Work Of Its Experts RULES Of the Depart.
ment and Schemes for Cheating the Gov
ernment

eTNI1gNt.
Washington Star.
There are several experts employed
by the government to inspect the
currency Offered for redemption. In
fact, every person employed in the bu-
reau is in some degree an expert, be-
cause each one of them has to pass on
the genuineness of the money pre-
sented for redemption, and this is II
difficult task. Remember that this
money comes to the treasury, as a
rule, only when it is so badly 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
of counterieiters and should be reject
ed. 1t is not at all to the dscredit OF
the experts OF the bureau that some
bogus money has got past them and
been detected in one of the Offices to
which the pieces of the money so for
further examination. This does not
occur often.
The peculiar province Of one expert
is not to detect bad money-though
she is an expert at that-but to put
together 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 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. 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 nets, or, buried in the dampness
OF cellar, it rots away, or, swallowed
by COW, it is rescued from her stom-
ach a Shiny mass of paper.
Here are the rules OF the treasury
for the redemption 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 value OF the note is given. For
a piece two-fifths in size of the original
nothing is given. But this last provi-
sion is limited by the law, which gives
discretion to the Treasury Department
to give full value for note if the own
er can prove to the satisfaction of the
authorities that the note, or the miss
ing part of it, was destroyed. This
last provision opens the door to possi-
BILE 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 microscope for Identification.
They are picked apart, and each tiny
piece is assigned 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 meas.
ured to see whether there is two-fifths
or three-ffths of the note identifable
or whether it is so little that the own
er can recover nothing. Sometimes it
is very serious matter to the owner,
but the poor are not the only appli-
cants for assistance to recover dam.
aged money. At the time w. X. Van
derbilt's beautiful home at Newport
was burned Mrs. Vanderbilt sent in
about $1,000 in mutilated currency,
out of which the expert was able to
identify for redemption all but frac-
ton of the sum.
1t is not alone mutilated money
that comes to the treasury, but dirty
and worn money OF all kinds, to the
extent of nearly $500, O,OOO, 600 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 divided up for counting and
Identification before they are destroyed.
But this is not the most frequent
form of attempted fraud. The mutt
lated money offers the easiest path to
this sort of crime.
Some of the experiences of the re-
demptiOn division with would be
thieves are interesting. One man in
Kansas sent to the treasury 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 destruction OF
part of the notes. 1t happened that
the treasury had redeemed the other
halves of these notes just Two and
half years before for money broker
on the Bowery, in New York, and,
thinking the case suspicious, lad kept