Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-13
Woman Expert in Treasury
Detects Counterfeit Currency

once put his savings. amounting to $1sj
i'm a tin can and buried ii in field. Soon
afterward he became very iii, and was
taken to a hospital. where he remained
several months. Upon coming out his
first thought was naturally to find his
carefully concealed hoard. but he found
that the farm had been sold, and
thoroughly. altered; there remained no
money lay. If. indeed. II had not been
ploughed up. The new owner, however
promised to keep a lookout for tn :,
money. and to let him know if he found
it. This he did. and the greatly reioiced
negro brought the bills here for redemp-
tion The money was very badly decom-
posed. but all, save twenty-dollar ma
tional bank note of which only the outer
rim remained. was identified by me and
redeemed at full value. :
- Money recovered from dead bodies g.
sometimes sent i'm for redemption. Some
years ago a supposedly poor German
died in New York. 4 local paper devoted
few lines to the occurrence. and the
notice was widely copied. and even an
peared I'm papers i'm Germany. The broth
err of the dead man saw Il. and wrote
to the German consul at New York. say
ing that his brother could not have been
pauper. as he had received several
thousand dollars shortly before his death.
Inquiry was made, the body eXhumed and
beneath the clothing was found a belt
containing over $4,000 The money was
redeemed here.
An Ohio farmer buried his money a
number of years ago. instead of banking
IL. One day while adding TO his treasure
he discovered that the elements were
playing the role of robber. and rapidly
destroying his hoard. Instead of taking
or sending the receptacle, with its CON
tents undisturbed. TO the Treasury for re-
demption, he emptied the money, dropping
to pieces with decay, into a pillow case
put it around his body beneath his cloth
ing, and then started for this city Part
of his journey was performed on an Ohio
river steamboat where, it is sad, he pre-
ferred to sleep on deck. despite the wealth
er. rather than trust himself with other
passengers.
when he reached here a messenger
was sent with him to assist him In get
ting the money off his person. but this he
insisted i'm performing for himself The
bills were found broken and crumbIed to
a fearful extent. However. all of tie
United States notes and gold and silver
certificates were here redeemed at their
full value, and only a batch of small
bank notes, of which neither name of
bank. number. nor official signatures re-
manned. proved a total loss. The amount
redeemed was something over $4,000.
form of draf; the farmer refused to
take ii. and chose large bills. News
reached the department soon afterward
that he had been followed and robbed OF
the entire amount"
Mrs. Leonard has been EMPLOYED i'm
the Treasury since 1864. having been an.
pointed from Pennsylvania. She has been
regarded as an expert at her present oc-
cupation for more than forty years
While specializing on the detection OF
counterfeits. she had counted more
money than would pay off several ma
tional debts. The sum of S12O3O.OOO has
been counted by her In one day. Al
though 1900 notes is regarded as a good
days work. she had counted as many as
% 900. A portion of her work at present
is the instruction and training of the new
counters from the bureau of, engraving
and printing.