The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-17
UNCLE SANS STRONG BOX.


d Building at Washington That Con
q tain Vast Sums,
- Uncle Sans treasure boxes are un
q dergoing some important alterations
3 They are not UP to date in the mode o
e their construction, nor burglar proof
t by any means. Seventy-five thousand
a dollars has been appropriated for theil
alterations, which consist in part of {
v new vestibule and strong doors for The
e great silver storage vault. This vaul'
t cost 100000 originally, and extends UNI
> der the terrace at the south end Of the
Treasury building. 1t contains nigh
: ty box of steel lattice work, eighty
I nine feet long, fifty-one feet wide and
= twelve feet high, filed chock full OF
+ silver dollars. Visitors are permitted
> to walk around the mass of treasure
following a narrow passage which runs
between the side of the box and the
steel walls of the vault.
) This lattice work receptacle holds
$101, 100000 in silver, which is packed in
wooden boxes, two bags of standard
dollars to a box, and each box weighing
} 120 pounds. Formerly the coin was
simply stacked up in bags but not
withstanding the walls of steel, damp
ness rotted the bags and the money ran
out of them. This made extra trouble,
requiring fresh counts and it is no
small job to reckon over such a gigan-
tic sum in metal. Hence it was decid-
ed to pack the stuff in boxes. Each
sack contains $1,000, and so long as the
treasurers seal on it is intact its con-
tents do not have to be verified on oc-
casions when recounts are made
The bond vault is to be enlarged
greatly doubling it's capacity--a change
made necessary by the increasing num-
Der of National banks which deposit
bonds in the treasury. Many private
and state banks taking advantage of
the recent act of Congress, are coming
in as National banks. A new and thor
Ioughly modern strong room is to be
built for the registrars office to hold
Cancelled paper money that is awaiting
destruction in the macerator. Mean
while the sub-treasury in New York Is
putting in two additional vaults, one
for gold and the other for silver, the
latter measuring forty-seven feet in
length by twenty-eight feet in width,
and twelve feet in height. Gold and
silver are pouring In there by tons
daily and there is no place to put all
of it. At the present time that sub
treasury has on hand $17O, 100000 in gold
COIN and SIS 900 600 in silver.
There are row 1852, 900, coo silver dol
lars in the treasury at Washington, but
jonly S6,0S00 900 in gold coin. The treas
ury never kept much gold on hand
here, the great stock OF the yellow
metal being held in New York and at
the mint in Philadelphia. If one wants
| to see crude gold in masses he should
| visit the mint in the Quaker City,
where he will find it stacked up in
heaps of bricks-tons on tons of it-all
ready for conversion into coin. At the
present moment there Is $53 000 600
worth of gold bullion at this mint, with
S31 600, 000 In gold coin, not to mention
$3.50 900 900 in silver bullion and coin.
Notwithstanding the fact that the
treasury vaults compare so poorly with
the impregnable steel-cad structures
now used by great private concerns
that have valuables to protect, the gov
eminent feels fairly secure as to the
SAFETY VI It's EtOltu WEALTH.. lHP DeSt |
safeguard for coin is it's weight. Just
to illustrate this point it may be men
toned that the s152 100000, in silver now
held in the strong rooms of the treas
ury weighs nearly 5000 tons A million
dollars In cold coin weighs about two |
tons and Il would take very strong
man to carry off $4,000 worth of the |
yellow stuff Though a gold brick the |
shape and size of an ordinary building |
brick represents $4,000, it's theft" is
something astonishing.
There was quite a scare a few years
ago, when Gilfllan was treasurer be- \
cause the vault In the cash room where
the ready money is kept refused to
open. 1t is always set from $3.50 a. m,
with time clock, but on this occasion
something seemed to be wrong with the
mechanism and the steel doors re-
NAMED obstinately closed Nine O'Clock
arrived and still the money was locked
up, For once Uncle Sans bank was
obliged to suspend payments. Experts
were sent for and came with their tools
to break open the vault but before they
got there the big safe had opened of its
own accord. 1t turned out that the
time lock had been set by accident for
$3.50
In this vault not only gold and silver {
but many millions in paper money are
always kept Each parcel holds 1000
notes, and is in size just about foot
cube. If the denomination Is $500. a
single such package represents $4,000
300. t
Burglars may be practically excluded,
out the treasury does not claim to be !
,heft-proof On an unlucll day In 1870
visitor came into the treasurer's Z
DOM with a large panama hat in his I
land. The treasurer's attention was =
distracted by some other people who =
we're trying 20 talk to him, and the man
iropped his hat carelessly over a pack :
ICE which contained 1000 ten dollar
totes lying on the desk. 1t was one of
everal packages, and the loss of its t
vas not noticed until some hours later. G
II course, the notes We're advertised, n
nd some time afterward a part of =
hem were deposited in a New York =
ank. The depositor was arrested, but
obody was punished for the crime. :,
A singular immunity from punish "
1ent seems to have attended thieves n
Tho have robbed the treasury in such
'ays. In 1875 clerk named Benjamin
To lna1F