The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-28

out some 100000 pennies daily, but that Is
not enough, says the New York Mall
and Express.
Cashier M L. Muhleman. Of the SUBJ
treasury, says that the demand for the
coins is SO great that he averages the
I applications and pays, to each IN pro-
portion to the size of his demand. One
department store asked the other day for
a cool million of pennies-$100 900. Tho
store wanted enough to last three
months. Others were more conservative
| and wanted only o,0GO These orders
were the extremes.
Perhaps the most remarks BILE feature
of the rage for cent pieces is the fact
that there are more pennies in circula-
ton than Of any other coin. Last year
the subtreasury sorted out 110.S13 coun-
terfeit pennies from total of Al, liz 900
old ones handled. OF course, the new
ones are paid out without examination.
The old ones were brought in by con-
Germs that wanted them redeemed for
money of larger denomination. The big
stores that need pennies in their business
do not call on the subtreasury to re-
deem, but only to replenish their supply
Thus the number secured at the SUBJ
treasury is no measure Of the total they
turn over every day in business. 1t is
the '99 cents, reduced from ST." that
does it,
USED IN SLOT MACHINES
These odd prices in the big stores help
another class of business The bargain
hunters get odd pennies. and go about
the city poking them into slot machines
for chewing gum and candy, into picture
machines and weighing apparatus Most
of them find their way back to the gov
eminent counters through the auto
matte machines and the newspapers
Most Of the counterfeit pennies come
from those two sources. Newsboys are
not judges of money and machines are
minimizing Nearly everybody passes
bad cents at one time or another as
they are hard to detect, being of aln ost
the right size and having very good
workmanship bestowed on them The
only way they can be told in a hurry is
by their weight, thickness. and color:
they are of pure copper, while the genu-
Inc are of bronze, which is 90 per cent
copper and per cent tin and zinc.
1t has been suspected that the counter
feiting is done right in this city on the
East side. Most of them are traced back
to the neighborhood of the BROOKLYN
bridge and Park row. The next greatest
number comes from the slot machines
that dispenses candy. There is a theory
that The coins are made and distributed
among clique of candy dealers, who
pass them out to children, and who
keep up their stock of gum and of all
articles that. can be had of the slot ma
chimes by making rounds of the ma
chimes and putting in bad coins for sup
plies. 1t takes but a minute to run a
dollar into candy machine. and one
could carry away pocketfuls of CANDY
without attracting much attention.
MANY COUNTERFEITS
During November the subtreasurv re-
deemed 2,874,000 and found 1856 of them
had. In the same month, out Of 1855, 26O
n1ckels redeemed, only 112 were bad
Inc most bad pennies taken in one day
recently was 1880, out of total of 157.
GOO. OF all the pennies taken from the
picture machines, per cent are counter
felt.
The number of pennies redeemed fur
nishes gauge Of business in the par
t1cular lines that use them most. Trsu-
ally a midsummer month furnishes the
most There were 100000 redeemed last
August. Last month the pennies were
working hard in the stores, and there
We're but 2,800,00 redeemed
1t keeps seven men busy all the time
counting and asserting the pennies IN the
local subtreasury. The penny room Is in
the corner ON Cedar street Each OF
these men can count $500 IN pennies in
one day-60,0O0 pieces-throwing out the
bad ones without hesitation The gov
ciAiii.Siie LII iAisileS d lhdcflne Tor count
ing the coins, and this is used in some
of the smaller subtreasuries, where the
counters are not SO expert, but here the
handwork is the fastest. This CITY sun
plies these coins only for this state New
Jersey, Western Massachusetts, Connec-
ticut and Rhode Island. The city takes
most of them. The great West consumes
millions more than are supplied directly
from the mint to the various subtreas-
urieS.
It costs the government about one
IIth OF cent to make a penny It
costs the counterfeiter no more-less
In fact, for he does not need expensive
dies-just stamps the copper disks with