Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-04-10
The Small Coin Boom
by Frederic ]. Haskin

Washington, d. c.. April THE pub.
lic now uses fifty times ~ many small
coins a. il used half decade ago. IL
would not be great surprise to discover
an increase Of ten per cent or twenty-five
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 in Washington. IL is TO the
treasury that the public comes for it's
coin. People doing business that requires
the making Of change apply to their
banks for pennies, nickcls, dimes and
quarters The banks, that they may
furnish this subsidiary coin. ask the
treasury, or the sib-treasury. for enough
of IL to keep their stock UP to the de-
mand. The treasury, always responsive
To demand, keeps enough OF IT mlnted TO
meet all calls.
The records Of the treasury show that
for eight years, including loOs-l9l5, the
banks asked for and received 81 ,OO0, 900
pennies. This was four million year.
IL il in comparison with this pigmy
figure that the record of the last few
months is go surprising. Since last July
the public has been demanding and re-
ceiving about 60 ,0O0, 900 pennies month
II has been using fifteen times AZ many Of
them in month as il formerly used IN
year.
LUXURY TAX DID 1T.
The chief agency that has led 10 this
prodigious usc Of pennies IA the revenue
act ri year ago, supplemented by fhat
modern entertainment, the motion picture
D.. taw Tn fbpe q
entertainments required the breaking
down of the final nickel in change nearly
every time any man, woman or child
bought ticket 10 a movie. Then there
were similar taxes 10 be paid when one
bought soft drinks, cigars, any OF those
articles which. under the law, were luxlf-
rie~. The newspapers of the nation have
doubled in price, requiring more pennies
to handle the business Street car fares,
for a generation 40 universally FIVE cents
each, have found level IN most cities
between five and ten and this again breaks
up nickel and neeessitates the use OF
pennies. The resulting penny boom has
been most remarkable.
New and interesting situations have
developed as n result. There used 70 be
third of the United States, from the
standpoint Of area, which insisted on ig-
nuring the existence OF tho penny. Be
yond the Great Plains an open handed
citizenship refused 10 have anything %
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 a luxury taxes out West,
have been required % split the nickels Just
rs is done on the Atlantic seaboarfl. The
penny has been forced into general use in
the Rockies and beyond for the first time.
MOUNTAIN or PENNIES.
II is interesting 70 take the measure of
this penny food that il sweeping over
the land II takes 100 pennies TO weigh
pound. On this basis. months coinage
of SO 900 600 pennies would weigh 10000
pounds, This would load i25 big drays
10 haul a yenr's output of pennies would
require n train of freight cars half o mile
long. There IL not railroad engine ln
the world that could pull II up four per |
cont grade.
Pennies arc ninety-iive per cent copper |
and five per cent tin and zinc, which /
latter materials decrease their tendency 10 I
corrode. 4 pound Of the resulting alloy |
costs about twenty-five cents, ard the |
coin is valued at Sl.2e.
Though the pennies register the big |
increase in small coins used, there has
also been d larger demand for nickels.
Before the appearance OF the unusual
conditions that have grown out OF the
war the country consumed about 2ssV1,-
600 niekels a year. That number has
recently increased to about IO0,oo0,Ooo.
This develops another neat task IN
manufacture for the government. When
one gets behind the scenes at the treasury
=. 4 .kus al a rfrrpl
At all. or al anv rate, Is but one-fourth
nickel. This coin is largely the same ma
terial as the penny. IL "a seventy-fve per
cent copper To the copper is added TWEEN
tv-hve per cent nickel, which hardens the
metal and dominates. il IN appearance.
The treasury takes q quarter worth c
this alloy. puts the stamp OF the govern
ment on 10 and turns out four dollars
worth of the coin OF the realm.
II takes seventy-hve nickels TO weigh 3
! mound. A UNDERGROUND bag would con-
/ tain 800 of them and world be worth
/ s375. The nickels that the nation uses IN a
| year would require more than $1,000
such bags and IL would take los four-ton
trucks TO transport them
In those ten wears before 1916 the United
! States had turned out silver subsidiary
coin at the rate of about ten million dol
| lars q year. For the past three years the
demand has been around twenty-five mil
| hon year, and this year 1T promises 10
reach thirty million.
One strange feature IN this manufac-
ture of small coin is the fact that con-
| stand food of it is kept going out, is being
poured into the pockets OF the people, and
almost none of it ever comes back. This
is particularly true of pennies. The larger
| apJ v,onre yalus hle coins come t,aek IN Tho
| treasury for redemption but not the pen
nies. II is supposed that people are care
less with pennies and that they are lost.
So great is the quantity of them that il
would seem, If this thing goes on in
| definitely the prornd would eventually