The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-24
BAD AND FOREIGN COINS.
A Clearing House Through Which
Pass These Coinage Waits.

ries, drugstores, barber shops and bus
mess houses of every kind in Cincin-
natl, who walks on two legs and each
one of those two legs is rs years DID,"
Dan Murphy was saying when some
asking for a night owl card.
He is a monetary curiosity, and has
been doing business in Cincinnati for
half a century The person l refer to
is George w. Clark. For so years Mr..
Clark has been engaged gathering up
foreign and mutilated coins and light
gold. Gold that has been worn down
below the measure and has to be re-
coined. Out of this employment he has
builded up a fortune of $4,000. Didn't
you ever meet him? Nice old gentle
man.
IF ever your front door opens and
a thin. bony, beared face, surrounded
by a silk tile, is edged through and
you hear a voice yell Canada you
may know it is Clark. His whiskers
are sandy, his step quick and firm and.
his eye gray and clear as a hawks.
He can see further ahead where a dol
lar can be made than you could with
( a field glass in fair weather
Some time ago he found a gentle
man in this city who was making
regular shipments of goods to Can
ada, and arranged to put his coins in
with the shipments, thus saving freight
rates. There is not a corner in the uni
verse he hasn't studied how to get
around the easiest way, and a fine old
man at that.
Il venture to say everybody in Gin
cinnati who is in business knows his
face and voice, if they don't his name,
for ne is as regular as the sun, and
nightly near as bright-when it comes
to making a few ducats. If you've
got any of the coins he wants you
had better let him have them, for he
will pay you better than anybody else,
even though he does make a little profit
himself. If that old gentleman had
been started right when he was young
that is, along the higher financial
ways, he would have made the Roths-
childs look like dump citizens"
The remarks of the established boni-
face led up to an interview with the
money changer, who lives like prince
at 90 Highway avenue, West Coving-
ton, where he has made his home for
thirty-years. The Clark residence is a
stately, d-fashioned brick building
resting upon the crest of a knoll over
looking the Ohio. 1t is an affair of
wide porches, gables, garrets, breezy
parlors, with upright wall paper, to
photographs taken in the dim old days
before men of this craft learned how
to scrape out moles, wrinkles and char
acteristic features from the likeness.
Old-fashioned roses, hollyhocks ana
lawn decoration in better standing half
a century ago than to-day help to give
the old homestead rich and beauteous
setting.
Mr.. George w. Clark was at home
i fhnta oh
over three score years and ten, he is as
spry as he was at the age OF ~, ana
readily discussed his affairs.
81 was in the business before I came
to this city from Middletown, Conn,
said he, lin 1S49. My brother, John
Clark, was here before me, and at his
solicitation I came West also, and for
Is years we were partners in the bus
mess of accommodating discounted cur
rency The conditions are not so Ia
vorable for making large profits out
of the work now as formerly. The ma
terial is constantly declining in vol
ume. During the Civil War, for in
stance, I often shipped as much as S.
| 900 worth of coin to New York at a
time These shipments were made
weekly. My profit was from to per
cent. On some / made as high as 10
per cent. My motto has always been
to live and let others follow my ex
ample. During the war 1 handled sew
eral thousand dollars worth of boun-
ty land warrants, and on these made
considerable money.
I'm the early days the Spanish and
Mexican silver dollars were about the
only currency of the kind in circula-
ton. began by gathering them up, as
they were a far more honest dollar
than our own, and were wanted in the
China import trade. China never did
take much to the American dollar She
would not accept it, and it was that
that caused the issue of the trade dol
lar, with it's increased amount of sill
YER Let me add that this country made
great mistake in calling in and re-
deeming that trade dollar. 1t was
greatly needed, and the sooner one like
it in weight is issued the better it will
be for the Chinese and Malayan trade.
AT least 100000 of these silver dol
lars are in circulation to-day in the
Celestial Empire, and If ever silver
gets back to it's original value China
will be the winner. If it never does she
still has i'll her possession the best sill
yer dollar ever minted.
Mutilated coin buy and sell for bull
lion. The law passed some years ago
discountenancing mutilated coin caused
the country is pretty we'll drained of
them. You have heard of law which
forbids, on penalty. the mutilation of
a coin. That is all bosh No law of
that kind could be executed. A man
has right to do anything he chooses
with coin that comes into his possess
sion.
II believe 1 know half of the active
business people of Cincinnati. One
tenth of them I know personally All
the banks lay aside their discounted
currency for me- 1t is cheaper for them
to sell it to me than to ship it them
selves either to New York or Canada.
! am content with a very small margin
and readily get all they have. l can
pick up a piece of light gold and in
stantly tell you exactly what it is
worth. English gold is a shade finer
than that of other nations, being 92h
to 90
81 have seen banks and bankers come
and go. business houses fall to decay.
you might say, and whole districts of
the city change complexion with the
years through which / have daily toll
ed through them on my way. OF the
old banking institutions only the
Franklin remains 7. S. Goodman was
one of my earlier acquaintance, as
was James Espy of the Ohio Valley.
II get up with the lark, and out and
over the river to the city and then be-
gin tireless round. All kinds of bust
ness homes in the heart of the city
are visited at least once week. Those
in outlying districts / drop into about
but a. A.