The daily tribune., 1905-05-06
UNCLE sAM's HONEY.
Recounting Entire Amount Casl
in the Treasury.

1
Of tho United States. retires from
office and thus makes necessary the re.
counting the entire amount Of money
in the treasury, . formalit. gone
| through every time there il change
Of treasurers. Every piecs of money
from the insignifinanr copper to the
80. 900 notes and the $50, 600 bonds,
will have to be accounted for before
Mr.. Roberts is released from his bond
and = receipt given him for the
amount. which will be considerably
over 81 900, 900. 900.
Mr.. Roberts has been treasurer for
eight years. having been appointed by
President Mckinley. He took the
oath Of Office July l.. 1897. and leaves
the treasury with its business affairs
in excellent shape.
Iu speaking Of tine count OF the vast
amount of money in the vaults, Mr..
Roberts said:
I'm July, 1897, when came into
office, the work was begun and com.
pleted by q corps of fifty CLERKS, select.
ed from the various parts of the treas
urer's office. where counting is carried
on. There was nearly $500. 900, 600 in
the treasury at that time and the work
| was not finished until the following
February"
"What is the method of counting ?"
"The bills arc counted by hand and
the gold, silver and other coins are
weighed. The gold is put into eight.
ounce duck bags. each bag holding
&c. 900. and the silver in similar bags
Of 81 900 to the bar The method is
to count out the respective amounts of
gold and silver for one bag OF each
kind, aud use these bags as the stand
ard OF weight-that is, weighing the
other bags against them. Should
the slightest deficiency be found in
any bag the coin is turned out and
counted piece by piece. Where the
bags have been used for any consid-
| arable time and are found to be worn
in any way new bags are substituted.
and then also the contents thereof are
counted separately"
"How fast can an expert couat
bills?"
"Well, lG. 600 bills is considered a
good days work in the office. The
number counted depends very much
upon the condition of the bills when
we receive them Sometimes they are
torn and ragged, and then they havo
to be patched. This takes much time.
of course. F."
"Are men or women more prof.
cient in the work ?''
"That can not be accurately answer.
cd, because there are expert counters
in both sexes. The employees of the
cash room proper. where most OF the
counting is done in the daily rout inc
Of business. however. are all men.
"Will the task of counting take 80
long as seven or eight months. ~ 1t
did before. Mr. Roberts?"
"No, do not think so. 1t all
depends on how much of the money
has to be counted by hand. In 1897
there were found evidences of lead in
some Of the bags and this necess itated
the counting by hand of most of the
silver money
ibid the count aud the amount
shown by the books correspond.
"No. there was > deficit OF $500.
/, An act was passed by congress reliev-
ing my predecessor of the amount"
1t has been found that where coin
is bagged for mum Der Of years, and
1t has been necessary to remove the
contents frequently, it lost very con-
siderably by abrasion. even being be.
low the limit Of tolerance. Bags are
often found light from this cause
when . general count is going on and
the coin found deficient. either gold
or silver, has to be recoined at the
expnese Of the government. The
duck bags in these instances are
burned and the residue, whether It
ha uola NJ sIlvar .~yad aud uaad