Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-09-21

woven in the company's own mills ard
htted with peculiar Ing genious strap
and lock fastening that is neld to be far
superior to any sealing wax arrange
ment ever devised. The mouth Of the
bag contains number Of Sits trimmed
With metal, through which the strap is
passed, drawn taut like puckering
string and then fastened with an tnge-
NOUS lock, almost as difficult to undo.
except under the right circumstances
and by the right person, as the most
elaborate combination safe lock. Be-
sides, each lock shows number. which
Is changed automa tically every time the
apparatus is touched. So perfect is the
fastening thus provided, that it woulo
virtually be impossible to get into
bag OF currency packed for shipment
without cutting the bag. and the COM
pany has suffered practically no losses
from dishonest employees tampering with
the bags containing bank notes since
adopting the new fastening, whereas in
the old days of sealing wax fastening:
such losses were not at all uncommon.
Before being put into the bags, tn
notes are made up into packages. Five
dollar notes are packed in $50, 900 lots.
Their bulk depends upon whether they
are new or not. Twenty thousand dollars
in "fves, new, would make a package
several inches thick and a million dol
lars in such packages would make a pile
about three feet high, four feet long, and
two and half fet wide.
SHIPPING THE CASH.
The precaution taken to insure the
safety of the currency shipments are elab-
crate in the extreme. The package Of
notes or silver coin are first locked or
scaled in the regulation bags, in the
shipping office of the express company.
Then the bags are placed in small safes
which are closed with combination locks
and then hauled on trucks to the cars
where the small safes are unlocked and
placed in the big car safe. It is as near
burglar-proof as human ingenuity can
make it, but no one has yet succeeds,
in building a safe that would not yield
to dynamite if properly applied. Whoev-
er shall invent device that shall do
away with express robberies will Ger
tainly be sure of fortune.
Heavy currency shipments do not be-
gin, as a rule, until some time after the
banks begin to pay out the cash to the
buyers and the farmers. At first each
Of the Western and Southern sub-treas-
uries located at Cincinnati, st. Louis,
and New Orleans, is well supplied with
the internal revenue and customs pay
ments which have been accommodating
for some time. AS long as this supply
lasts the Eastern banker, who has
send money South or West, merely has to
buy credit for the sum required, send
duplicate drafts to Washington and to
his Western correspondent, and the SUBJ
treasury nearest the ,atter will release
in currency the sum named. It is after
the supply in the sub treasures Is ex-
hausted that the 1ong-distance shipments
between bankers are. resorted to-
Shipments of new paper currency from
Washington are going on all the time,
the sums to redeem old and worn ones
being considerable. Just now, also, the
banks are taken advantage of certain
provisions Of the law to- increase thei!
circulation, and the government has been
printing and sending out new notes
in pretty big patches for some time
Preparations for the heavy demand fo-
currency in the regions where the big
crops are raised have been going on both
in the banks and IN Washington since the
latter part Of July or the early part of
Augusta. There are practically no ship
ments OF currency from the East to the
Pacific-coast for the movement of crops.
the coast getting it's supply of none,
for that purpose, mostly in gold, which
is more popular there than In the East.
from the mint in San Francisco.