Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-03-11

trusted with the keys to the room
remain with them. II would, there
fore, require the collusion of five men
to violate seal or rob the room Of
even single bag of gold. The bags
are sealed individually with patent
lead seal which must be- broken be-.
fore it is possible to open bag.
There is only one other working
room on the main floor of the build.
ing. This is the coin room at the
rear. Here is q busy place. The
most expert coin counters in the
United States are employed here.
The men look like machines as they
work, their sleeves rolled up and
their forearms barred to allow free
action for the bulging muscles de-
yeloped by constant use,
They are muscular lot of men,
even though they handle nothing
heavier than coins. All the coin re-
ceived by the sub-treasury passes
through this room and each piece is
handled and examined as il is
counted.
While no attempt is made for
speed that would sacrifice accuracy,
once in awhile counter will take a
day in which to ascertain just how
fast he can work at top speed. In
the latest test of this kind one man
counted, examined and bagged $22,.
600 in silver quarters between 8 a..
m. and 4 p. m. This means that he
handled $4,000 pieces of silver in the
day, at the rate of 1888 pieces an
hour, allowing half an hour for
lunche con. The silver quarter is the
standard by which expertness is
gauged, that coin being the most
convenient size for handling.
1t is generally supposed that coun-
terfeits are detected by such. AS a
matter of fact, it is the trained eye
that does this work. AS an exhibi-
tion of the accuracy of the counters,
one of them performed test for a
Sun reporter who visited the sub
treasury.
A thousand five-dollar gold pieces
were dumped on one of the benches
at which the counters work. Into
this shining mass, which had been
previously counted and weighed, was
thrown gold piece of similar value,
which was light. The coin had been
weighed on pair of very fine scales
and the small shaving of metal by
whose weight it was lighter than it
should be was left on the balance.
After the coins had been thor
oughly mixed the counter began to
brush them from the bench, two at
time, into his left hand. Six hands
full of fifty coins each he took away
and was speeding on the seventh
when he stopped, picked up a coin
that to the reporter seemed no differ
ent from its fellows, put it on the
scales and said that it was the coin
that had been thrown into the pile as
test. The scales proved it so.
Uder this room is the old silver
storeroom. A new room for the
storage of silver has just been fin
ished, which is said to be the best of
its kind in the world. The silver in
bags is being taken out of the old
room now, and half dozen men are
skidding it along on smooth planks
all day long.
The old room is somewhat
crowded. 1t is 46 feet long, "a feet
wide and II feet high, but until the
work of shifting the silver dollars
began, few days ago, one could not
take two steps from the door without
coming into contact with bags of
silver packed from the floor to the
ceiling. About $4,000 bags, contain
ing thousand silver dollars each,
are stored here, the smaller coins
being kept in an adjoining room IL
feet in size each way.
Nickles and cents are kept in
vault opposite to the old
silver vault. Not many of these
small coins are kept on hand, but in
the year nearly $4,000,0O0 is handled.
The immense treasure kept in this
unpretentious building, usually about
$500, 900, is safe from the danger
of fire. Nowhere is there piece of
wood used in the construction.
Doors, partitions and trimming are
of steel, and the floors are Of stone.
Desks and chairs are the only in
flammable material, except the paper
notes, in the building, and fire is
scarcely to be feared from either o.
these sources.-New York Sun.