The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-12
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
LOST MONEY.

one mans loss is another mans gain,
| to whom, do you suppose. does the
profit accrue when you forget to take
your package of bills from its hiding
place in the parlor stove before light
ing the fire in the fall? If you drop
a dollar bill and it blows into the gut
ter and is never recovered, who prof
it's? If you fall into the river and
/ drown and your remains take their
| place permanently in Davy Jones's
! locker who is to the good to the ex-
tent of the modest roll in your vest
pocket?
| The answer to one and all of these
questions is, Uncle Sam. Every piece
of paper money that goes out from
the treasury and fails to return. prof
it's the government to the extent of
| it's face value. If it is a gold or sill
YER certificate the metal which was
placed in the treasury for its redemp-
tion is never called forth. If 1t is
| federal reserve note or a national bank
note. the securities that have been de-
posted as guarantee at the time OF
\ its issue. or their equivalent, remain in
the treasury. So is there so1ace to the
| patriot who so loses his wallet that If
it is not found by another its contents
are applied to the expenses of govern
ment.
At the treasury department it is i'm
possible to determine from the records
/ just how much money has gone out
that will never return. There are,
however, certain facts available upon
which to base an estimate.
ShinpIaster Profits.
| During and Immediately following
! the Civil war the government issued
about $40 million dollars in fraction
| currency, called at the time shinplas-
ters, of denominations below a dollar.
| Now, sixty years later, there are still
fifteen million dollars worth of them
! unredeemed. 1t is believed that much
1 -f.,1 y
who died in battle. The bills were of
such small denominations that they
were carelessly handled. Anyway the
| government profited to the extent OF
| $15,000,00O from the shinplasters that
were lost.
| Between the dates of 1853 and 1887
the government issued one-dollar
United States notes to the amount of
$1SS,000, 900 and then discontinued
them. 1t has been thirty-three years
since any of them were issued. In
I19O7 $4,000 worth of them came in
for redemption. In 1915 $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. Ninetenths of one per
| cent of them were lost. If the expert
ence of these dollar bills be taken as
| typical it may be estimated that nearly
| one per cent of the dollar bills put out
never return.
| bills about the same size that went
| forth during the same period. The
| percentage of them lost is less than
of the dollar bills because the larger
the bill the more careful is it's pos
SCISSOR with it. Seven-tenths of one
per cent of the two dollar bills never
came back and because of this fact
| the government profited to the
amount of 81, $4,000.
Eight Million Dollars Profit.
From figures available it is esti-
mated that bills of larger denomina-
ton are less frequently lost. Probably
not more than three-tenths of one per
cent of them fail to return. Taking it
all together it is estimated that. aside
from the shinpIas ters that were lost,
there have been about 100000
worth of paper money that 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
put out by the national banks. The.
| federal government guarantees this
money, and to it and not to the bank
of issue comes the profit from a bill
that is never presented for redemption.
The national banks have about a third
as much paper money in circulation as
is issued by the treasury and it is
probable that the government has
made three or four million dollars out
of lost national bank notes.
Federal reserve currency is so new
thing in the monetary life of the ma
ton that none of it's issues may yet be
written off as lost. Federal reserve
banks have a stupendous amount of
currency out, however, and, basing
judgment on the experience of the
past, there are certain amounts of it
that will never come back.NT There ar e
some three billions of federal preserve
paper now in existence. If one-half
| of one per cent of that money never
returns, which seems reasonable per-
centage. the government will find itself
in possession of a velvet from lost
money of that variety aggregating
SIS. 00O.O 900.
Fires Fill Federal Golfers.
Certain occurrences have added ma
terially to the governments profit on
money that never comes back for re-
demption. There is an item on the
| books of the treasury deliberately
charging off a million dollars as de-
stroyed in the Chicago fire. The
treasury admits that it profited to that
| extent 1t undoubtedly saved itself
! the necessity of redeeming much more
! fire of any considerable size there is
sure to be a direct profit to the gov
eminent on burned money. The San
Francisco and Baltimore fires were
| directly profitable to the governme nt.
| When the Titanic went to the bottom
| of the Atlantic unknown amounts of
currency went down with it. There
was American paper money in the
strong boxes of the Lusitania when
the German submarine sunk her and
there was American paper money in
the pockets of most of the people on
board. The same was true of many
ships that went to the bottom during
the world war. All of this that re-
mains unrecovered is profit to the
government.
When the Chicago fire occurred and
subsidized, many people scrambled thru
the enIbers to find the safes in which
their money had been put away. With
impatient hands these safes were
opened to see the condition of the
| contents In ANY instances this