THE STATE REVIEW. 



13 



CLIPPING BOND COUPONS. 



Expert Can Go Through About $500,000 of 

 Bonds an Hour. 



It is estimated that at least $50,000,000 changed 

 hands in the big financial institutions of New York 

 City on July 1 through the payment of interest on 

 bonds. 



To the ordinary man, who if he's lucky may 

 have one or two bonds to clip on July 1, it is al- 

 most inconceivable what an amount of labor is 

 involved in the collection oi coupon interest by 

 big institutions like the Equitable, the Mutual or 

 the New York Life Insurance Company, each of 

 which counts its bond investments almost by the 

 hundred millions. 



In the Mutual Life, for instance, six men were 

 kept busy for two weeks prior to July 1 getting 

 the bond coupons ready to be cashed. Two hours 

 a day for the entire two weeks were spent by the 

 force doing nothing but clipping the coupons from 

 the bonds, and one man in the Mutual, Cashier 

 William P. Sands, has spent a large part of his 

 business life cutting coupons. 



The coupon cutting force of the Mutual had to 

 handle bonds of a total face value of $50,000,000. 

 From these it had to pluck the coupons. Each 

 pluck on the average represented about $22.50, 

 and all of them something like $1,200,000. 



The coupon clipping force carried on its work 

 in the anteroom of the big steel vault, where is 

 stored a large part of the Mutual's assets. It is 

 on the second floor. 



The anteroom, as well as the vault, is enclosed 

 by a heavy steel grating. In this grating is a 

 door, made of steel bars and fitted with power- 

 ful locks. At that door is stationed at all times, 

 night and day, a uniformed guard. 



Only properly accredited officials of the com- 

 pany are allowed in the anteroom under ordinary 

 circumstances. When the bond clipping harvest 

 begins five trusted employees in charge of Cash- 

 ier Sands are admitted. 



A long table covered with heavy green felt is 

 in the room, and around that the five employees 

 take their places. The heavy steel door of the 

 anteroom is locked and two uniformed guards 

 are stationed inside the grating. The table is 

 hidden from the main corridor by a screen. 



Before any of the bonds can be taken from the 

 vault, or rather before the vault itself can be 

 opened, at least three persons must be present. 

 No one person is permitted to know the combina- 

 tion to the outer and inner doors of the vault. 

 Besides, when the vault is opened by the treas- 

 urer and his assistants the president, vice-presi- 

 dent, financial manager, comptroller or secretary 

 must be present. 



The vault is said to be absolutely burglar and 

 fire proof. It is more than 13 feet in length, 21 

 feet wide and 10 feet high. It weighs 100 tons. 

 Its steel door is a foot thick and weighs between 

 10 and 15 tons. 



In the vault the bonds are stored in metallic 

 boxes about four inches deep, 14 inches wide and 

 22 inches long. Each box contains about $500,000 

 in bonds. 



The clipping of the coupons requires great ac- 

 curacy. The men are called clippers, but as a 

 matter of fact they don't clip at all. What they 

 really do is to tear the coupons off. 



That is a good deal quicker than clipping with 

 scissors, but it wouldn't be advisable for the green- 

 horn bondholder to try that method, especially if 

 he's in a hurry and has a big pile of securities to 

 go through. There is a knack of doing the job 

 fast. 



It is remarkable how quickly an expert worker 

 will go through a half million dollar pile of bonds. 

 The coupon is torn along both sides with one mo- 

 tion, and while it is being dropped into the cou- 

 pon box with one hand the ruler or bond square, 

 as it is called, with the help of which the clipper 

 works, is h^g laid over another bond with the 

 other bane" ~t is estimated that an expert clip- 

 per will go "'rough about $500,000 of bonds in 

 an hour. That would b2 about 500 bonds ordin- 

 arily. 



As soon as the clipper has waded through the 

 pile assigned him he arranges the coupons in 

 front of him in little stacks and checks them back 



carefully. Then they are handed to somebody 

 higher up, possibly the cashier, who in turn goes 

 through another checking process to verify the 

 returns. 



Then the coupons are placed in a tray in the 

 center of the table. This tray is about nine inches 

 square and three deep. 



When the whistle blows for the day that is, 

 when $3,000,00 or $4,000,00 of bonds have Uv-en 

 clipped, the harvest in the tray on the center of 

 ihe table is stored away in the vault. New York 

 Sun. 



THE MOST VALUABLE GOLD COIN. 



When $2,165 was paid the other day for a five 

 dollar gold piece of 1822 that coin took its place 

 as the rarest of American coins, eclipsing the 

 1804 dollar, which for many years had that dis- 

 I tinction. The price surprised coin dealers and 

 collectors, for it exceeded by more than $1,000 

 the greatest sum previously paid for a specimen 

 of this denomination and year. 



A curious phase of the history of this gold piece 

 is that even those well informed about coins did 

 not know of the rarity of the 1822 half eagle until 

 about twenty years ago. It is a matter of record 

 that the last owner of the coin bought it from a 

 New York dealer in old coins for $6. Yet at that 

 time only three specimens were known of. 



No one knows why there are so few left, for 

 the mint records show that 17,796 half eagles 

 were struck in 1822. One of the two other speci- 

 mens is in the coin cabinet at the Philadelphia 

 Mint, while the private collection of Virgil M. 

 Brand contains the third. 



The half eagle is the most popular coin with 

 the collectors of all the American series of gold 

 coins, and it, leads all the rest in the number of 

 varieties. Some 250 varieties of this denomina- 

 tion have been issued. Of other gold coins there 

 have been issued 177 varieties of the eagle, 132 

 of the double eagle, seventy-nine of the gold 

 dollars, sixty-five of the quarter eagles and forty- 

 seven of the three dollar piece. 



The design of the rare 1822 five dollar gold 

 piece was not different from the other dates of 

 the period. The design on the obverse has the 

 head of Liberty, of about the same character as 

 that used on all the silver coins up to the 

 time of the change of general design in 1836. A 

 cap surmounts the head, on the band of which is 

 the word "Liberty," while around the border are 

 thirteen stars. 



The first time this coin was offered at public 

 sale was in 1890, when the specimen owned by 

 Lorin G. Parmelee, of Boston, brought $900. 



The half eagle is the oldest of the gold coins, 

 having first been issued in 1795, the second year 

 of operation of the United States Mint. From 

 that date it was issued steadily until 1801, in 

 which year none was issued. Their coinage was 

 resumed in 1802 and continued until 1816, during 

 which year and 1817 none were struck. In 1818 

 their coinage again began, and they have been 

 issued regularly each year ever since. 



A great many varieties and dates of the half 

 eagle are held in high esteem besides the 1822 

 issue. There were two varietis of the 1795 half 

 eagle. Recently these varieties in superb con- 

 dition brought $160 ach. 



Three varieties were produced in the year 

 1797. Two varieties of this date sold not long 

 ago for $320, but they looked as if they had come 

 direct from the coinage press, which accounts for 

 the very high premium. Those in ordinary con- 

 dition are worth a great deal less. 



In 1815 only 635 coins of the five dollar value 

 were coined, and up to the present time this 

 price has been regarded as the rarest of the gold 

 coins. The King of Sweden, who owns one of 

 the world's greatest coin collections, made the 

 record for this coin some years ago when he paid 

 $2,000 for a specimen to complete his series of 

 American issues. At a recent sale $1,050 was 

 paid for a specimen of the same date, which 

 makes the 1804 dollar now rank third in point of 

 rarity. 



Only five of the 635 coins originally issued are 

 now known. The value of this coin also was not 

 appreciated until recent years, for it was not very 



long ago that a good specimen could be bought 

 for $50. 



A remarkable coin in the five dollar series is 

 that of 1819. The mint records show that 51,273 

 were struck, and yet a single one brought $550. 

 The scarcity of this coin presents another prob- 

 lem hard to solve. 



The 1821 half eagle has brought $300, which is 

 still another source of wonderment, for 36,641 

 were issued. Another rarity is that of 1826. which 

 brought $100, yet 18,069 were coined originally. 

 New York Sun. 



The technical changes alone in the methods of 

 street car operation have be"n of tremendous im- 

 portance. Animal traction has nearly gone out, 

 for less than two hunarerl m les of horse car 

 line are now in use in th" United States. The 

 cable systems, too, which at one time were so 

 popular in many of tne rities of the country, 

 have become well nigh OD?"lete. They were first 

 introduced about 1873; 'before 1898 they had 

 virtually disappeared in t?vor of overhead or un- 

 derground trolley systen">. 



Just such tireless enervcy as is now being ex- 

 pended upon the problem of nav gation of the 

 air was spent for man} vears by experiments in 

 electric traction, who o'fr.n seemed to their con- 

 temporaries to be hope'-s visionaries. 



The pioneer work of Thomas Davenport, Pro- 

 fessor Moses G. Farmer. Professor C. G. Page 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, Thomas Hall of 

 Boston, Henry Pinkus, Stephen B. Field, Thomas 

 A. Edison, Leo Daft, Charles J. Van Depoele, 

 John C. Henry, Professor Sidney H. Short, of 

 the University of Denver, Dr. Wellington Adams 

 of St. Louis, and almost innumerable other in- 

 ventors whose names deserve to be enrolled in 

 the industrial Hall of Fame, contributed to the 

 total result which was first brought to cnmmer- 

 cial fulfillment at Richmond, Va., by Frank J. 

 Sprague, in 1888, and which was put into opera- 

 tion in a large city system for the first time in 

 Boston in the year following. Between the earl- 

 iest crude electric cars, often the size of toys, 

 shown as curiosities at expositions, summer re- 

 sorts and country fairs, and the finest type of ele- 

 vated trains or interur'ban street cars today, there 

 is, of course, an immense difference such a dif- 

 ference as that between Dr. Bell's queer 1 ttle 

 telephone of 1876 and the perfected instrument 

 of today. The electric dynamo had to be de- 

 veloped in order that electric traction should be 

 more than theoretically possible. A method of 

 overhead contact had to be devised, for the third 

 rail type, in the perfection of which the Germans 

 also had a hand, is open to grave practical ob- 

 jections which made it unsuited for ^ordinary 

 American condit ons. Only the "trolley," a name 

 which originated with a 1'ttle experimental line 

 in Kansas City run by John C. Henry, or the 

 "broomstick train," as Dr. Holmes quaintly dub- 

 bed it, has proved to be exactly adapted to our 

 national needs outside of the most congested 

 parts of our greatest cities. 



ONE CAR ENTIRE ROLLING STOCK. 



Though entirely new in its pattern, the Great 

 Northern motor car that recently arrived in St. 

 Paul from Aurora, 111., is not the first steam 

 motor car that the city has ever seen .'1 lie first 

 locomotive that was ever possessed by the old 

 St. Paul and Sioux City Railway, now part of the 

 Chicago, St. Paul Minneapolis and Omaha, was 

 a motor car. the combination of a locomotive, 

 baggage car and coach. 



This car was, in fact, all the equipment that 

 the road had when in 1865 the roadway was first 

 completed between Mendota and SaVopee. 'I In: 

 front end of the car rather resembled on ordinary 

 steam locomotive, with its pilot, boiler and smoke 

 stack all projecting out from the rest of the car. 



$1.00 

 per year 



$1.00 

 per year 



live 

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