The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-07
FEDERAL CLERKS
 FINISH INVENTORY
 OF MONEY VAULTS
Check of Treasury Wealth, From LoWy Copper to S10,- 900 Bills, Is Made for
 First Time Since 1909
By Associated Press

Washington. February IA complete count of the governments cash has just been made for the first time in 12 years.
 The total approxibated s13.5oo, 900 900 and. included all cash and securities held as reserves against currency outstanding The count was made by special conn mittee of three, assisted by eight &C., countants and by 15 laborers who were used to move around the heavy sacks of gold and silver. The men delved into great vaults in the treasury building and took stock of gold, silver and paper money and securities. many of which had not seen the light of day since shortly after William Howard Taft was inaugurated President and new treas uler of the United States appointed in 1e09 4 The accountants in entering the vaults passed grimvisaged guards who day and right ''sit on the lid" to prevent any possible attempts at an unauthorized raid on the treasury. The vaults them selves are supposed to be burglar-proot and are of massive concrete and steel construction. The storage sections are
 kept under seal and this was the frst time that some of them had been opened in f2 years, for when John Burke De- came treasurer after President Wilson was inaugurated he accepted the count of cash in the storage sections which had not been opened since the previous count in 1909.
 The accountants handled money o6 ev- cry possible denomination from the lowfy copper to $10O00 bills. Many of the bilis Iparticularly those of the large denomira- tions, such as s1,oo0, were in sheets or four each and held as reserve against currency of smaller denominations Tn circulation. Thousand dollar bills in cir ,,Io fAuT oI.A n The country is kept supplied by the treasury with a list of them with their numbers so that if perchance any are extracted from the treasury illegally the holder will have extreme difficulty in realizing or them.
 COUNTS BY MACHINERY ! The count just finished was made nec- essary by the retirement of John Burke as treasurer and was completed in the remarkable short time of three weeks through the use of electric counting ma chimes. Loose coins passed through these machines instead of being counted | by hand as was necessary in the olden days Paper currency was counted py | the piece but stored coins and cur
 rency were counted by the sack or pack age in cases where the wrappinGs were un broken and the seal on each intact. | The main supply of the government | 1 there are a number of smaller ones m 1 the various divisions of the departments, as well al in the cash rooms where cash payments are made by the government. l Gold coins stored in the vaults were counted by weight. The gold is kept in sacks, sealed with the treasurer's wax
 seal and containing s5.0oo each, weigh | ing IS pounds and ounces. First, one
 sack was weighed and then the others were examined If both the seal and
 covering were found intact. they were weighed against the first or test sack
 and if the result was the same were
 passed and counted. However, if seal
 was broken or the sack torn. or there
 was appreciabie difference in weight, the
 contents were counted by the piece
 Standard silver dollars were counted
 lin the same way as the gold coin. They
 are stored in sacks containing 1000 ano
 weighing about 60 pounds. Work on the
 silver coin was 1essened. officials saio
 by the governments melting lW,cWo'
 silver dollars under the Pittman act foi
 sale to the British government to re
 Ilieve the silver famine in India durins
 the war
 1 COINS ARB WEIGHED