Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-08-04
Boston Herald.

Uncle Sam is busy now counting out
his pennies. He is closing up accounts for
cents and nickels redeemed during the
fiscal year which ends June 80, and he
finds that the monthly average has been
about 100000 pennies and 100000 scent
pieces. Out of this great number Of
small coins five in every hundred have
gone to the melting pot at the Philadel-
ptia mint, the balance being restored to
circulation among the people.
The treasury during the last year manu-
featured 70. LAB cents and 254S0,213 nick
els. New York state took nearly 1O0O0,C00
of the pennies, Illinois about 100000,
Massachusetts 100000 and Pennsylvania
1900, 600 These are the great confusing
states, and stand in the same order as to
consumption of nickels. Ten years ago
pennies were little used in California and
the south and were practically unknown
in Nevada, Wyoming and Arizona, but
today they circulate everywhere.
Cents and nickels wear out pretty rap
idly because they are passing constantly
from hand to hand, and the immense
numbers of them that pour into the treas
ury at Washington are carefully sorted
over for the purpose of throwing out those
which are too much damaged to be fit
for further use.
They arrive in bags from banks all over
the country, for redemption in more con-
venient money, and the first thing to be
done is to count them. This process is
performed by nimble-fingered persons,
mostly women, who accomplish the task
with rapidity little short of marvellous.
The counter takes a newly received bag
Of pennies, pours out a quantity of them
a double hundred, say-upon her table,
and with two or three quick motions
spreads them out so that they lie fiat,
no one of them upon another Then with
deft fingers she throws them, two at q
time, from the table into her left hand,
which is held beneath the edge TO re-
ceive them. Her eye meanwhile scans ev-
cry piece, and If there is counterfeit in
the lot Ii can hardly escape her notice.
Usually il will betray itself by a differ
ence in color, but If not thus detected, it's
ring as 1t drops into the palm with the
other coins gives it away.
When a counterfeit is found the counter
picks up big pair of shears and cuts the
bogus coin in two, laying the halves aside
in little box with others like them, Not
a day passes that a good many bad cents
and nickels do not turn up at the treas
ury, most of them coming from New York
and Philadelphia, where the business of
making such small coins occupied the at
tention of many Italians and Polish Jews.
The profits of the industry are small, but
the pieces, being of such small value, are
easy to pass.
Eventually the counterfeits, cut in
halves, go to the bureau of the secret SER
vice, under the direction of which they
are melted in furnace, to be sold finally
as old metal
The pieces that are too much worn to be
of further use are thrown into a separate
receptacle, and every few weeks a large
consignment of them is sent to Philadel-
phia, where they are melted for coinage.
Quite frequently foreign coppers turn up,
and they, likewise, go to the melting pot.
Some foreign copper coins are about the
same size as our cents, and will pass for
the latter pretty well, for lack of scrutiny
"a fact which, on one occasion, induced an
ingenious person to import several BUSH
els of Austrian pfennigs for circulation In
this country. They circulated fairly well,
but the author of the scheme soon found
himself in prison.
Ninety-nve per cent of the pennies and
nickels are in Sufficiently good condition
to go out again into circulation, and for
this purpose they are put up in paper
envelopes and cloth bags. Bags that con-
tain $50 or more are sewn up, tied ana
tagged, with a wax seal over the string
for additional security, the initials of the
counter and a note Of the weight OF the
sack gives a guarantee of correctness.
Some of the money is packed in paper
rouleaux, called cartridges. one woman
being kept busy all the time in rolling
sheets Of paper, each of them printed with
the amount represented by the contents.
If bank cashier anywhere hands you
cartridge marked Five Dolls; dimes;
treasury. u. S." you may know that 1t is
not necessary to reckon the contents.
The counters are so expert that II is
considered no great feat for a woman TO
reckon and do up in bags or cartridges 5O,-
900 pieces in six hours, incidentally re-
iecting every counterfeit, foreign or mutt
lated coin. There are, however, very rev
mutilated coins in circulation nowadays,
simply because people will not accept
them. For this reason 1t has ceased TO
be a popular pastime to drive nails
through pieces of money or put them on
railroad tracks.
When a 20-cent piece turns up, 1T goes TO
the melting pot, because Uncle Sam is no
longer minting or circulating that kind
of money; and the same remark applies to
the nickel with big ", which was
found dangerous because when gilded II
could be passed for IS gold piece. Old
fashioned copper cents that come in are
used for minting new bronze cents, with
the addition of some tin and zinc to make
the requisite alloy, and the same thing
is done with the old-time copper half-cent
Cents are subject to more accidents
than any other coins. Being of such small
value, very little care isg taken of them
and that is why the treasury has to go on
turning out new ones at the rate of 6O,O00,-
900 to 100000 per aqnum. Slot machines
have greatly Increased the demand for
these small bronze coins, and so also have
the penny newspapers and the odd prices
made popular in dry goods shops.
At the treasury they say that the cent
is a barometer of business conditions. A
heavy storm or a sudden coming of cold
weather-anything in short, that keeps
the corresponding. part of the popula-
ton at home-is accurately reflected in
the falling off of the cents coming to the
sub-treasuries for exchange. During pc
RODS of dullness cents accumulate at sub
treasures, but when trade revives they
begin to circulate rapidly again.
The stream of coppers flows out con-
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