The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-13
THE SMALL COIN BOOM.
War Tax Largely Responsible For Pres
ent Big Demand.

Ihe public now uses % tunes as many
small coins as it used half decade ago.
1t would not be a great surprise to dis
cover an increase Of 10 per cent or %
per cent in the use of nickels dimes and
pennies; but the fact that their use has
been multiplied by half hundred is hard
to account for.
The facts with relation to the use of
pennies are obtainable at the treasury
department III Washington 1T is ito the
treasury that the public comes for its
coin. People doing business that requires
the making of change apply TO their
banks for pennies, nickles, dimes and
quarters. The banks, that they may fur
nish this subsidiary coin, ask the treas
ury, or the sub-treasury, for enough of it
TO keep their stock up to the demand.
The treasury, always responsive to de-
mand, keeps enough of it minted to meet
all calls.
The records of the treasury show that
for eight years including l90S-l9l5, the
banks asked Tor and received 100000
pennies. This was 100000 a year.
1t IS in comparison with this pigmy fig
ure that the record of the last few
months is so surprising. Since last July
the public has been demanding and re-
celvlng about 60,000,000 pennies a month.
1t has been using 10 times as many Of
them in month as it formerly used in a
year
The chief agency that has led to this
prodIgIous use of pennies is the revenue
act OF a year ago, supplemented by that
modern entertainment, the motion pic
ture show The tax on admissions to-
these entertainments required the break
ing down of the final nickel in change
nearly every time any man, woman or
child bought a ticket to a movie. Then
there were similar taxes to be paid when
one bought soft drinks, cigars, any of
those articles which, under the law, were
Injuries. The newspapers of the nation
have doubled in price, requiring more
pennies to handle the business. Street
car fares, for a generation so universally
five cents each, have found level in
most cities between five and 10 and this
again breaks up a nickel and necessitates
the use of pennies. The resulting penny
boom has been most remarkable
New and interesting situations have de
veloped as a result. There used to be al
third of the United States, from the
standpoint of area, which insisted on ig-
noring the existence of the penny. Be
SOAAO INC SACot BActALlS Oh ObNAIlA1AldCd III
izenship refused to have anything to do
with change smaller than the nickel. But
the present revenue law has made the
use of pennies unavoidable in the West.
The picture shows, the drug stores, the
collectors of luxury taxes out West, have
been required to split the nickels just as
is done on the Atlantic seaboard. The
penny has been forced into general use
in the Rockies and beyond for the first
time.
1t is interesting to take the measure of
this penny food that is sweeping over
the land. 1t takes l20 pennies to weigh al
pound. On this basis, a months coinage
of 10000 900 pennies would weigh 100000
pounds this would load 135 big drays. To
haul years output of pennies would
require train of feight cars half a mile
long There is not a railroad engine in
the world that could pull it mp a four per
cent grade.
Pennies are 95 per cent copper and five
per cent tin and zinc, which latter ma
terials decrease their tendency to cor
rode A pound of the resulting alloy costs
about % cents, and the coin is valued at
S120.
Though the pennies register the big in
crease in small coins used, there has also
been a larger demand for nickels. Be
fore the appearance Of the, unusual CON
ditions that have grown ont of the war
the country consumed about IS 100000
nickels a year. That number has recently
increased to about l00,000,000.
This develops another neat task in man
ufacture for the government. When one
gets behind the scenes at the treasury i
develops that a nickIe is not nickle at
20 = Int ial- Il
ell. This coin is largely the same mate
rial as the penny 1t is 70 per cent cop
per. To the copper is added % per cent
nickel which hardens the metal and DOM
mates il in appearance. The treasury
takes quarters worth of this alloy, puts
the stamp of the government on it and
turns out $500 worth of the coin of the
realm.
1t takes IS nickels to weigh a pound
A hundred-pound bag would contain 800
of them and would be worth 1878. The
nickels that the nation uses in year
would require more than $4,000 such bags
and it would take I66 four-ton trucks to
transport them.
In those 10 years before 1916 the United
States had turned out silver subsidiary |
coin at the rate of about 100000 a
year.
For the past three years the demand has
been around $25,OO0,o0O a year, and this
year it promises to reach S30,000,000
One strange feature in this manufac- |
ture of small coin is the fact that a con-
slant flood of it is kept going out, is be- /
ing poured into the pockets of the people, |
and almost none of it ever comes back.
This is particularly true of pennies. The
larger and more valuable coins come back |
to the treasury for redemption but not the /
pennies. 1t is supposed that people are