Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-06-10
Lost Money
By Frederic ]. Haskin

SilhSfTlDt 10 tut fu'eo'thf
mans loss is another mans gain. to
whom. do YOU suppose, does the proht
accrue when YOU forget to take your
package of bills from its hiding place IN the
narlor stove before lighting the fire IN the
felIp If YOU drop dollar bill and 1t blows
into the gutter and is never recovered, who
nro6ts? Ii YOU fall into the river and drown
and your remains take their place acrma-
pently in Davy Jones locker who IS to the
GOOD TO the extent of the modest roll IN
YOUR vest pocketl
The answer to one and all ot these
questions is, Uncle Sam. Every piece OF
papcr money that goes out from the
Treasury and fails to return, prohts the
government To the extent of ITS face value
If II IS a cold or silver certificate the metal
which was placed i'll the Treasury for ITS
redemption is never called forth. II 1t Is a
FEDERAL reserve note or a national bank
note. the securities that have been de
posited Is a guarantee at the time OF ITS
issue. or their equivalent, remain In the
Treasury. So is there Solace to the patriot
who so loses his wallet that If it is not
found bv another, its contents are applied
TO the expenses of government.
At the Treasury Department it is I'M
nossibIe to determine from the records Just
how much money has gone out that VIII
never return. There are, however GER
tain facts available upon which to base an
estimate.
sHrNPLAsTER PROFITS.
During and Immediately following the
Civil War, the government issued about
37O million dollars In fraction currency
called at the time shinplasters OF denomln-
ations below dollar. Now, 6u years later.
there are still Is, million dollars worth oi
them unredeemed. lt is belleved that
much of this money was buried with men
who died in battle. The bills were OF s'lch
small denominations that they were care
lessIv handled. Anyway the government
nrofited to the extent of SIS. 900 600 from
the shinplasters that were lost.
Retween the dates of 1862 and 1881
the government issued one-doilar United
States notes to the amount Of SlSS,OO0 UOo
and then discontinued them. 1t has been
33 wears since any of them were ISSUED.
In 1907 $4,000 worth of them came IN Tor
rademption. In 1916 $4,000 came IN.
There are still 100000 OF those dollar
bills that have not come back, and it does
not seem probable that they ever Will.
\ine-tenths of one per cent OF them were
lost Ii the experience OF these dollar hllls
he taken as typical, it may be estimated
that nearly one per cent of the dollar blllS
put out never return. :, -
There was an issue OF two-dollar pilis
about the same size that went iorth dur
ing the same period The percentage OF
them lost is less than of the dollar bills be-
cause the larger the bill the more careiui
is its possessor with IT. Seven-tentns OF
one ner cent of the two-dollar bills never
came hack and because Of this fact the
government prohted to the amount OF
81 $50, 900.
EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS PRoFlr.
From figures available it is estimated
that bills Of larger denomination are less
frequently lost. Probably not more than
three-tenths of one per cent Of them tan TO
return. Taking it all together, 1t IS es-
tImated that. aside from the shlnplasters
that were lost, there have been about -,
100000 worth OF paper money tnat Went
out from the Treasury and never came
back. These were United States notes
and gold and silver certificates.
In addition to this there are the bills
nut out by the national banks. he
Federal government guarantees tins mon
ev. and TO it and not TO the bank Of issue,
comes the profit from bill that Is never
nresen1ed for redemption. The national
banks have about third as much paper
money in circulation as Is issued by the
Treasury and it is probable that the gov
ernment has made three or four million
dollars out Of lost national bank notes
Federal reserve currency Is so new a
thing In the monetary llfe Of the nation,
that none Of its issues may yet be written
of as lost. Federal reserve banks have q
stupendous amount of currency out, how
ever, and. basing judgment on the ex-
perience Of the past, there are certain
amounts Of il that viii never come back.
There are some 5000, 10000 Of Federal
reserve paper now IN existence. II one
half OF one per cent OF that money never
returns, which seems q reasonable per-
centage, the government Will ind itself N
possession of a velvet from lost money OF
that var ETY. aggregsting SIS, 900, 600.
FIRES FILL FEDERAL GOLFERS.
Certain occurrences have added ma
teriaIlv to the governments profit on
money that never comes back Tor re-
dernption. There Is an item on the books Of
the Treasury, deliberately charging of
million dollars as destroyed IN the Chicago
FIRE. The Treasury admits that II prohted
To that extent. It undoubtedly saved itself
the necessity Of redeemlng much more
than a million. Wherever there Is q tre Of
any considerable size, there is sure TO be
direct profit 20 the government on burned
money The san Francisco and Baltimore
fires were directly profitable 10 the gov
eminent. When the Titanic went to the
bottom Of the Atlantic unknown amounts
OF currency went down with II There
was American paper money III the strong
boxes Of the LuslJanla when the German
submarine sunk her and there was Amerl-
can paper money In the pockets OF most
OF the people on board. The same was
true of many ships that went 70 the bot
tom during the world war. All Of this
that remains unrecovered is profit to the
government.
When the Chicago fire occurred and sub
sided, MANY people scrambled through the
embers 10 find the safes III which Their
money had been put away. With lm-
patient hands these safes were opened 70
see the condition of the contents. In many
instances tins haste was expensive, Flames
were not able 10 penetrate these sales to
consume the contents. Being alright
there was not enough oxygen ii them to
create blaze. But In many OF them there
was still heat When the air was let into
these safes, they burst into flame and the
contents were consumed. Had they not
been opened until they were entirely cool
ed, the contents would have been intact
BURNED BILLS REDEEMED.
By the time the Baltimore and San
Francisco fires came, such safe owners as
banks had acquired more wisdom. Ample