The Washington times., 1904-01-03
THE STORY OF THE BUREAU OF
ENGRAVING AND PRINTING

/ much engraving upon the plate that the
impressions destroyed most of the SUBJ
/ stance of the paper. and after about
eight months the series was Cancelled.
! In this instance 1t might be well 70
mention the fact that there is Law
prohibiting the use OF the portrait Of
any living person on a government note
which gives rise TO many funny stories.
among the most notable Of which is one
told on a former chief Of the bureau.
who allowed his vanity 10 get the bet
ter of him to the extent Of having his
own portrait printed on the fractional
currency then being issued. Another al
legged reason for this law is that it was
to prevent the portrait Of Andrew Jack
son on Government money while he wa
! President. II is said that the plates had
been prepared and the notes were abou+
to be issued when the law went effect.
| Another story 10 the same effect is
that Andy Jackson. during his cam
paign for President. had a good pull
with the Treasurer of the United States
and thought it would help him greatly
in his canvass if he could get large
number OF one-doIlar bills with his por
trait engraved on them. and buy votes
with them. Needless to say. the Treas
ury officials have no record of this being
done
Internal revenue stamps are delivered
TO the Commissioner of Internal Reve-
nue.. postage stamps TO the Postmaster
| General and bonds to the proper Of
ficials of the Treasury Department. who
give the legal receipts to the Director
of the Bureau of Engraving and Print
-
Safeguards Against Stealing.
During the several processes Of print
/ ing money and securities. every pre-
| caution is taken by the Government 10
| safeguard the bureau against dishon- |
esty counterfeiting, or loss. \ receipt /
is taken by the custodian of plates for
every plate that is delivered into the
hands Of the printers Only certain /
number Of these are given out. and il I
the resultant printed sheets are
.ost or displaced their face value has to
be made good by the recipient. A SINH
lar receipt is required for the amount of
paper he draws from the wetting room
He is allowed to spoil or damage GER
tain number of sheets in every thou
sand. II. at the close OF days work
a sheet is missing. he is required TO
make good it's face value. whatever il
may be. or give good explanation of
what became Of Il.
Eight hours is the present period OF
time that each shift works The amount
of money in United States and national
bank notes averages 81, 10000. The. daily
issue of money paper is 100000 sheets
The same precaution taken with the
paper is observed in handling the plates
for notes. stamps. and bonds
Double door time locks are me chief
safeguard against burglars and dishon-
esty. each vault having two different
combinations. The accountant holds the
combination to one vault and the vault
keeper that OF the other. The combina-
ton is I'm a sealed envelope in the pri-
vate safe of the Director of the bun eau.
10 be used I'm case of an emergency.
Thus far there has never been an oc-
casion TO open this envelope.
There is a vault in which the daily
reserve. amounting TO about Sis.OOOOOO.
is kept The money is put mp in pack
ages OF 1000 sheets to the package, four
bills to each sheet.
Ho-o-.r SA;II :. NJ u,-5z
One OF the most interesting features
OF this bureau is the destruction of worn
and mutilated paper money. AS soon
as banker gets a bill of any denomina-
ton that he thinks is too worn TO be
OF further use. he ships IT to the United
States Treasury TO be redeemed. For
the purpose of counting redeemed bills
there are five clerks kept busy every
day. They take this money. count and
recount Il. q en- slice IL with large
knives. and seIs. il to the bureau. where
IL is counted again in pieces. so that ,
not a single piece escapes. Then it is
thrown into a large vat and boiled to a
pulp. This pulp j. sold TO paper manu-
facturers and souvenir makers. who
mold il into souvenirs of odd shapes. I
which are peddled throughout The
The receipts Of mutilated coins
and paper money fIom the nine sub
treasures and banks amount TO more
than S1.OCO.OOO a day.