The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-23

rnu on the local banks for change. A newspaper lately published an anus ing story of how bank manager in a new Oklahoma settlement employed this fact to advance the interest of hiscompany:
 "Silas D. Petersen last month opened branch of his bank at Blue Creek. The Blue Creekites scorned it; they had done without a bank so far and saw no use for one. The prospects were bad. The manager had an idea, He sent his clerk to all the stores to get change for greenbacks. He soon had nearly all the coined money in the settlement. The CreekiteS were flush of greenbacks, but couldn't change them anywhere. Some one suggested changing them at the bank. A rush was made. As each note was handed in the clerks handed out good silver coin. sEyery one was charmed with the banks courtesy. i Next morning Arthur F. Jackson came in and opened an account, and before noon every one with money had de- posted it in the bank
 1 Superstition has led many ignorant individuals to collect large numbers of coins of particular denomination. A remarkable case occurred in South , Russia two years ago. A prophet" ap-- peared at Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov, and proclaimed that he had come to save the world. Meeting with a bad reception from the townspeople, he tramped inland and gained many peasant adherents. Among other queer doctrines he preached that all ffve-copeck pieces issued in 1861, the year of the emancipation of the serfs, were holy" They were to be brought to him for preservation in an oaken chest. When Russia got into difficulty all these coins would turn to gold and save the empire.
 Over an area of three hunderd square miles the peasants feverishly set about collecting the holy money.
 When the prophet had collected about | $40 worth he decamped, after chang ing them at local bank for gold.
 An attempt to corner the Maria Theresa dollars, which are used as currency in many parts of Northern Afica, collapsed owing to queer cause. An. Abyssinian, Ras Makoppo,
 conceived the ingenious idea of collect ing all specimens of these coins ex- tant in his district. As they were old coins, he reasoned, they would rise in value. After he had possessed him. self of about three thousand he found that the country was as we'll supplied with them as ever. While he had been busy collecting them, modern
 Maria Theresa dollars, made in Ger many, were being imported by the thousand. The result was that the coin fell in value, and the too astute chief lost half his wealth. The Russian government corners it's own coins. Every year it hints a
 limited number of bronze coins of the nominal value of. one-quarter copeck, in English value 5one-sixteenth of a penny. As these; coins are practi- i cally not in circulation only a few are issued. The 'Temainder are sold
 by the mint authorities, at about double their value, for use as card counters. fws
 Birmingham boasts the only man
 who corners had coins. The gentle man has unique collection of false money. Some years ago he issued a notice to various stradespeople that he would give one-quarter of the nonlin
 al value for certain specimens of counterfeit coins which might have been passed upon them. He now possesses several thousand, some so like good money that the fraud is not perceptible. some so clumsily made that is is hard to understand how trades man could have been taken in.-Tit- | Pits z