The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-03
Counter

One-cent pieces.. 70 lS "A good many of these counterfeit sil- yer pieces, too. were made of real sil- yer, So that the teller had no adyant- age of the feel of a ogus plated piece.
 Tn counting coins as they come from the banks, sorted according to denomi nations, an expert working five hours cannot count and sort more than S0,000 silver dollars. He will count $25,000 in half dollars. throwing an average of zoo coins out of each 1000. Of old quarters he can count 10000 a day, find ing only 250 to 300 in each 1000 that are good enough to be reissued. He will count 25.000 new issue quarters in a day, throwing aside about 25o out Of the thousand. It takes an hour and half to count 1000 lo-cent pieces.
 . Weighing of Gold Pieces.
 All gold must be weighed. piece by piece, and this weighing Is done on such delicate scales that an electric office fan cannot be operated in the weighingroom. Where gold com has lost less than one-tenth of per cent of its weight the government re- | ceiyes 1t at it's face value and re- | tires it. If it haN lost more than that l the person depositing is charged at the l rate of four cents a grain for all that the coin Is light.
 Tn counting silver and minor coins the fore and middle fingers Of the right l hand are used to rake the money Into the canvas bag at the teller's left hand. | He has spread out the coins first on metal table, and his tra$ined, sentitive fingers drop almost involuntarily upon the pieces, cipping them with a quick I movement into the bag.
 | dA- l tacting commercials excels that of pull ing 9 single bill over the tips of the fnge. of the left hand. The package of bills. right side up. is taken in the left hand, with the thumb resting on the first bill, A slight push of the left thumb slips the top bill only oi the handful. Its edge Is caught by the | fingers and thumb of the right hand and the paper pulled under the left | thumb and over the tips of the left hand fingers. As first indication of the counterfeit bill nothing Is more conclusive than this feel" No mat ter how new or how old the bill It has the same identifying touch to the ex- pert. He would tell its genuineness on the darkest night of Egypt. Twelve
 thousand bills counted and put in packages Is a good days's work.
 There are frequent troubles in the l sub-treasury with the counting of the Chicago banks. Bags are found to be | light, and 1t is a question of accuracy | and veracity between the subtreasury clerk and the bank teller. It would be impossible to have the subtreasury clerks count the money while the bank messenger waits, so @ bag Is credited l to the changes of recountiRg. Here 1 is the difficulty.
 coin Weighed in Bags.
 As partial protection for the sub treasury bags of coin are always weighed. Any great shortage in tn way would be noted. Stacking might be some proof, only that in two piles of silver dollars, each with twenty coins in it, there may be difference of s2 and vet no coin in either pile be too worn to circulate. If silver ccins be of mixed denominations .as they some times are, weighing proves nothing, as the standard silver has 42.5 grains weight, while dollar in fractional sil- | yer weighs only SS5.6 grains.
 The easiest coins 10 sort and count are silver dollars. and the hardest are copper cents. Cent pieces that are unmutilated and put In bags of $20 each will weigh within two or three cents of the count. and 'often these are accepted by weight.
 A peanut slot machine company, | however, recently ran against sub treasury snag. The salt in the vend- | ing machines has been corrodmg the | coins in ugly manner and the refusal 1 of Subtreas asurer Williams to receive them until they had been cleaned has been sustained by the Washington gov a-~-oo~t pn~eafter the peanut ven ders must clean these coins to make them acceptale. The ruling of the de- partment Is that in a great measure this coroding of the coupers Is will 1 full and knowing mutilation.