Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-02-21

This was in the gold room, back Of
the disbursing department. 1t Is a
twin to & other room directly oppo-
site and used for the same purpose
These rooms are no larger than the or
dinary living room of a family, but
Croesus never saw such a mass OF
wealth as is piled up in them. Packed
in small bags and tucked away in the
small closets that line the rooms are
stored gold coins to the. value of $780,
100000.
Entrance is effected, when business
requires 1t, by means Of two keys held
by two trusted men. No one Is left
for a moment in either of the gold
rooms alone-nor would he care to stay
there long.
Each of the closets is examined once
month by three officials. who COM
pose the examining committee. The
sealed bags containing the gold are
counted and the closets that are filled
are sealed, the amount contained In
each stamped on a tag, which bears
also the initial Of each examining Of
ficer. The seal In the three parts, to-
gether making a complete circle, and
each department represented on the
committee retains its own part of the
seal.
While the committee is performing
it's work the two men who are entrust-
ed with the keys to the room remain
with them. It would, therefore, require
the collusion Of five men to violate a
seal or rob the room of even single
bag of gold. The bags are sealed midi
vidually with patent lead seal which
must be broken before it Is possible
to open q bag.
There is only one other working room
on the main floor of the building. This
Is the coin room at the rear. Here Is a
busy place. The most expert coin
counters in the United States are en-
ployed here. The men look like me-
chanics as they work, their sleeves
rolled up and their .forearms barred to
allow free action for the bulging mus
cles developed by constant use.
They are muscular lot of men, even
though they handle nothing heavier
than coins. All the coin. received by
the sub-treasury passes through this
room and each piece is handled and
examined as 1T is counted.
While no attempt is made for speed
that would sacrifice accuracy, once In
awhile a 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, examin-
ed and bagged $4,000 in silver quar-
ters between a. m. and p. m. This
means that he handled $4,000 pieces Of
silver in the day, at the rate Of 1883
pieces an hour, allowing half an hour
for luncheon. The silver quarter Is the
standard by which expertness Is
gauged, that coin being the most con-
venient size for handling.
It is generally supposed that coun-
terfeits are detected by such. AS a
matter fact it is the trained eye that
does this work. AS an exhibition of the
accuracy of the counters, one Of them
performed a 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 previ-
ously counted /. and weighed, was
thrown a 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 1t
should be was left on the balance.
After the coins had been thoroughly
mixed the counter began to brush
them from the bench, two at a time,
into his left hand. Six handsful Of f1f-
ty coins each he took away and was
speeding on the seventh when he stop
ped, picked up coin that to the re-
porter seemed no different from Its fell
lows, put it on the scales and said that
it was the coin that had been thrown
into the pile as a test. The scales
proved it so.
Under this room is the old silver
storeroom. A new room for the stor-
age of silver has just been finished,
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 a dozen men are skidding 1t
along on smooth planks all day long.
The old room is somewhat crowded.
It is 46 feet long, "a feet wide and IL
feet high, but until the work Of shift
ing the silver dollars began, a 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
65, 900 bags, containing a thousand sill
yer dollars each, are stored here, the
smaller coins being kept In an adjoin-
ing room IL feet In size each way.
Nickels 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,OOO,0OO
is handled.
The immense treasure kept in this