Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-10
FATE OF ALL THE
OLD BANkNOTES
NEW MACERATOR DESTROYS
ALL TRACE UF THEM
Machine Which Did the Work for
Years Gave Chance to Dishonest
Persons-NeW One Pre-
vents Any Juggling
snecial to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9.-Until within
a year or so ago the old macerating
machine in the sub-basement of the
treasury department was the means
nv which all old bank notes sent in
for redemption were destroyed. Then
the government installed a new mac
orator at the bureau of engraving and
printing, by which all paper money
whether issued by the government or
by national banks, is reduced to a
pulp after 1t has served its time OF
circulation.
The order for the new machine was
brought about by the protest Of GER
tain national banks that claimed the
old machire failed to do its work per-
fectly, and that the bank notes dumped
into 1t not infreque1tly turned up in
sections for redemption by the banks
of issue; that the pulp sold to various
makers and manufacturers of images,
to be sold as souvenirs, was filled with
large pieces of bills, and that these
were offered for redemption. Notwith-
standing the fact that the old treasury
macerator had been in service for many
years and had reduced to pulp many
trilions of dollars in bank notes which
had ceased to be current, these conn
plants were the first ever made against
its nonperformance of duty; but the
treasury officials obtained such posi-
tive evidence that the bankers were
correct in their assertions that the or
der for the installation of the new
machine was at once promulgated.
Make Good Souvenirs
Washington souvenir dealers have
long realized that the pulp lima ges
found a reader demand than any
other, and those made from the pulp
of the notes last destroyed, or partly
so, by the treasury macerator always
brought a higher price than the ones
manufa ctured from the pulp of the
macerator at the bureau of engraving
and printing, this being entirely due
to the fact that images from the lat
ter contain not a speck of greenbacks,
the notes being reduced to almost a
whitish pulp. Naturally, visitors pre-
fer an image made from real
money" in which some of the money
would be in evidence. The treasury
macerator production or output was,
therefore, worth a great deal more to
the manufacturers, and always brought
a much larger price. In fact, the
bureaus pulp Is almost a drug ON the
market.
Nevertheless, the images--busts of
presidents, the Washington monument,
Uncle Sans hat, the national emblem,
the eagle, the capitol, the treasury.
cats, dogs, frogs etc, each representing
from $4,000 to $4,000. must now be made
from the bureau pulp or first class
counterfeit, for every note destroyed
must be in this specially constructed
machine, which works every day and
night except Sunday. there being from
81 1,5O0, 600 to s2,0OO,000 macerated every
twenty-four hours. This work OF mac
Grafton and the preparation for It are
under the personal direction OF repre-
sentatiVes OF the treasurer, the sec
retary, the controller and the regis
ter, and these representatives go with
the heavily guarded wagon containing
the money to the bureau, where Il Is
taken from the steel boxes, checked
on, placed IN the macerator, the iron