14. 



THE STATE REVIE\V. 



HOW BILLS ARE KEPT FRESH 

 AND CLEAN. 



Every working day of the year there is printed 

 at Washington an an average of more than three 

 million dollars of new papt T money. Every day 

 there is destroyed practically the same amount. 

 The presses in the mints at Philadelphia, NY -A 

 Orleans and San Francisco daily stamp into form 

 about eight hundred thon.-and dollars of shining 

 coin. We have then a total of almost four million 

 dollars of new money created every dav at the 

 money workshops of the Government. 



But good money cannot he had even by great 

 governments merely for the making. The sources 

 of this great stream of fresh bills and bright coins 

 are carefully guarded. '1 hey an- governed by 

 fixed financial principles that are above legisla- 

 writes E. A. Vamk-rlip, formerly Assistant 

 Secretary of the Treasury, in the Youth's Com- 

 panion, and by laws which congress has tried to 

 frame as nearly as possible in conformity with 

 those higher financial laws which must ultimately 

 govern the currency of all nations. 



An active printer, with the aid of a young girl 

 assistant, and working on a simple handpress of 

 a type that has hardly varied since the Govern- 

 mcnt began to print money, or. indeed, since one 

 or two centurie- before, can turn out eight hun- 

 dred sheets of finished bills in a dav. each sheet 

 containing four bills. There are 050 printers at 

 \vork in the Go\ eminent Bureau, of Printing and 

 Engraving, s< me upon bond,, stamps or other 

 form-, of Government securities, but most of them 

 printing money. 



Among all the interesting sights at Washington 

 there is perhaps none more interesting than the 

 intensely active Bureau of Engraving and Print- 

 e are 2,988 employes there, whose ex- 

 perience in handilng and counting the sheets of 

 bank note paper and turning out the finished bills 

 has given them a dexeterity that i, fascinating to 

 see. 



Of quite as deep interest as the bureau itself 

 would be a study of those principles that are back 

 the printing of each piece of paper, 

 of this rushing manufactory principles, laws and 

 regulations which govern with absolute certainty 



At first glance one piece of paper money looks 

 very much like another. Each is an example of 

 the finest steel engraving, more skilfully made 

 and more difficult to counterfeit than the notes 

 of any other government. 



There arc five kinds of paper money printed. 

 The sort that people are most familiar with is 

 the silver certificate, for almost all the one, two 

 and five dollar bills are in tint form. They are 

 printed chiefly as a matter of convenience to the 

 public, for the public prefers paper money to the 

 silver coin. The amount of paper currency out- 

 standing is between eighteen and nineteen hun- 

 dred million dollars, and of that amount there 

 are about four hundred and seventy million dol- 

 lar- in silver certificates and four htnrlred and 

 \en million dollars in gold certificates. 



Although the Government prints gold and sil- 

 ver certificates so freely, there are only two ways 

 by which they may be issued and become a part 

 of the m nicy stOCK of the contry. If any person 

 deposits with the Government gold or silver coin, 

 "id bullion. i\\? Government may issue silver 

 certificates for the silver coin, and gold certifi- 

 cates for the gold coin or bullion; or if any one 

 returns worn certificates, like certificates may be 

 i--ued to replace them, the old ones in turn being 

 oyed. 



A dollar bill has an average life of about fifteen 

 mom! dollar bills, not being quite so 



actively u , ,n the average more than six 



teen n \ five-dollar bill lives on an 



age two \ - it i- worn out and the Gov- 



ernment is cal'ed upon to replace it. Ten-dollar 

 bills last about three- years and twenty-dollar 

 bill- mor than four years. 



The amount of money that goes to the Govern- 

 ment for rede; :he purpo-c of 

 securing fresh, clean bills or for conversion into 

 some other form of money, reaches a total almost 

 too great to comprehend. In 1904 the Govern- 

 ment received ?i>l:J,000,000 of paper money to be 



exchanged for new bills or bills of some other 

 form or denomination. 



Xext to the gold and silver certificates in point 

 of volume are the national bank notes. They 

 constitute between one-fourth and one-third of 

 the total amount of the paper money outstanding, 

 and although they are printed tinder the Govern- 

 ment's supervision their volume depends, subject 

 to the provisions of the national banking law. 

 upon the judgment of the officers of the nalional 

 banks of tin- country. 



There are 5,883 national banks in existence and 

 their capital forms an aggregate of $si> N :;:.!s.i;.-,-. 

 I he law provides that any national bank may is- 

 sue its notes in the form of money to an amount 

 equal to its capital. There could be, the', 

 under the provisions of the law. a great many 

 more than the pr< .i.iiou.ooti of national 



bank notes if the officer.- of national banks found 

 it sufficiently profitable to issue their notes in this 

 form. 



In order that this kind of money shall be per- 

 fectly secure it has been provided that each na- 

 tional bank wishing to issue notes must .1 

 with the Treasury an amount of United 

 Government bonds equal to the notes which the 

 bank proposes to i- 



Wheiicvcr the bills are worn out new ones 

 must be i.-sued in their place. Therefore, when- 

 ever a new I'nited States note is printed it means 

 only that some other note of the same kind has 

 been worn out and has been sent into the Treas- 

 ury to be exchanged for a new note. The Treas- 

 ury ha- no power to is.-ue a single dollar of ad- 

 ditional United State- mite-. It can OIK 

 change new one- for old one-:. 



There remains one more kind of money, and 

 that a comparatively insignificant amount the 

 Treasury notes of IS'.to. There are less than 

 i.OOO of them now, although at one time 

 there were S'I.VI.IIOO.IMMI. They were issued by the 

 Government to pay for silver bullion bought dur- 

 ing the time when the law was in force which 

 provided that the Government should purchase 

 4.500,000 ounces of bullion each month. Silver 

 certificates have taken the place of the Treasury 

 notes retired as rapidly as the bullion was coined. 



With all the activity of the -Bureau of Engrav- 

 ing and Printing it will be seen from wh 

 been said that nearly all the work is for the 

 purpose of keeping clean and fresh our supply of 

 paper money. 



Xo additions to the outstanding United States 

 I notes or Treasury notes may be made. Xo new 

 1 gold certificates or silver ccitilicates can )>,: print- 

 ed except in exchange for gold '.and silver coin 

 placed in the Government vault. The only really 

 new money that can be printed, therefore, is na- 

 tional bank notes. 



The supnly of national bank notes is subject to 

 the provision that the bank asking for them must 

 deposit Government bonds equal to the amount 

 of notes received. '1 here is. therefore, nothing 

 like creation of monev value in all the printing 

 that the bureau doe-. In the main it is simply 

 putting in convenient form value that the Gov- 

 ernment holds in its vaults. 



Active as are the presses in the Bureau of En- 

 graving and Printing, they furnish only part of 

 the stream of fresh money. There are coinage 

 mints at Philadelphia, Xew Orleans and San 

 Francisco. In 1904 tht presses of the three mints 

 stamped out more than ! pieces of mon- 



ey, in value amounting to $:3JO, 781,000. 



In our present coinage there are four denomi- 

 nations of gold coins struck and a like number of 

 silver coins. In the minor coinage there are two 

 oiilv. the penny and the live cent- piece. 

 The half-dimes and the twenty cent nieces are no 

 longer coined, nor are the gold dollars and the 

 three dollar pieces, all of which in former 



truck off in small am ami-. In value about 

 three-fourths of th< old. 



We have in the United States what is known 

 as free and unlimited coinage of gold. Standard 

 gold bullion may be deposited at the mints 1,\ 

 any person, in any amount, and will be coined 

 tor the benefit of the depositor without charge 

 for the coinage. 



If "standard bullion" is taken to the mint that 

 is to say. if it is in just the proportion of pure 

 gold and copper allov that is used in making our 



gold coin-- the person taking the gold to the 

 mint will receive back exactly as many ounces 

 and 'grains in the form of -lamped coins as he 

 took the mint, and there will be no charge made 

 In the Government for turning the bullion into 

 coin-. Standard gold i- nine hundred parts pure 

 gold and one hundred parts copper alloy. If the 

 gold which is taken to the mint must Lie refined 

 and base metals eliminated, there is a charge for 

 that operation which varies with the actual ex- 

 -es. 



The production of gold from the mines of the 

 United Stale- amounted in 1'.' 



amoutn of gold which is brought to the 

 mints is refuu-d until it is standard bullion, and is 

 ! then melted into bars with the exact weight and 

 fineness stamped upon each bar. 



When gold i- wanted for export it is usual to 

 obtain bars and ship the gold in that form, rather 

 than to ship our coined money. A large amount 

 of coin i- shipped, but there is ahvay- a small 

 loss in doing that, a- th. re u-ually worn 



more or less, and will not weigh exactly as many 

 ounces and grains as when new. 



The stamp of the mint adds nothing to the 

 value of the gold. At soni" seasons we import 

 large amount of Id which i- brought to the 

 rm of coin- of Great Britain. France or 

 other European countries, and sometimes in the 

 form of bar gold. In whatever form it comes, ii 

 is taken by the importers to the assay office, and 

 is melted down and carefully a--. 



The pcr-on bringing it will receive gold coin 

 in return in the same way that he would if it 

 were new g >ld which had been brought directly 

 from the mine; or if he wishes he may, and 

 usually doe-, ri d certificates. 



oiiu- time the Government coined from ten 

 to twenty million silver dollars a year. They were 

 coined from bullion which was purchased under 

 the law passed in IMio, providing for the purchase 

 of 4..")00.00(( ounces of silver bullion each month. . 



All the production of our own mines and all 

 the gold which we might import in the settlement 

 of trade balances can be converted into gold coin. 

 But we depend mostly on gold from our own 

 for notwithstanding enormous sales of our 

 products and manufactures abroad, we retain per- 

 manently little gold in settlement of the great 

 trade balances. As a matter of fact, we have ex- 

 ported about $-40. 000, 000 more gold than we have 

 imported since 1->'.n;. 



The -year ]9o:;-o4 was the banner year in the 

 history of our mints. The gold coined in 1904 

 amounted to $233,000,000. Of course the larger 

 part of this great sum was from bullion accumu- 

 lated in previous years. 



Perhaps the most important thing to remember 

 in studying about sources of the simply of money 

 is that real money is not a thing that can be cre- 

 ated merely bv running Government presses, and 

 that not a new dollar e^me- into the circulation 

 of the countrv which has not corresponding value 

 behind it. 



$1.00 

 per year 



tate 



the 



$1.00 

 per yeai 



I Can Sell Your Real Estate or Business 



NO MATTER WHERE LOCATED 



Properties and Business of all kinds sold 



quickly for cash in all parts of the United 



Don't wait. Write today describing 



what you have to sell and give ea-h price on 



same. 



If You Want to Buy 



any kind of Business or Real Estate anywhere, 

 at any price, write me. your requirements. I 

 can save you time and money. 



DAVID P. TAFF, 



The Land Man, 



415 Kansas A"nue, 

 TOPEKA, KANSAS. 



