A Machine That Chews Money 



FI\'E million dollars a day in worn- 

 out papeF money was destroyed by 

 machinery in the Treasury Department, 

 at \\ ashington, during the last fiscal 

 year. Two tons of this redeemed paper, 

 amounting to over three hundred and 

 fifty million bank notes, with a face 

 value of more than a billion and a half 

 dollars, passed through the macerating 

 machinery, new money be- 

 ing issued to take the place 

 of that which was de- 

 stroyed. 



This money, after being 

 sent to the Treasury for 

 redemption, is carefully 

 counted, made into piles, 

 first punched and then cut 

 in half, after which a com- 

 mittee of treasury em- 



money was first issued, is indicated by 

 comparison with figures for the fiscal 

 year 1865, when seventy million pieces 

 of redeemed currency were destroyed, of 

 a face value of one hundred and forty- 

 four million, two hundred and nineteen 

 thousand, nine hundred and twenty dol- 

 lars, which included a large amount of 

 fractional currency. 



The first step in the destruction of worn-out paper 



money is to bind the bills solidly and compress 



them into packages 



ployees sees that it is chewed up in a 

 machine made for the purpose. It is 

 said that the average life of a one-dollar 

 bill is one year. 



The great growth of this work since 

 the days of the Civil War, when paper 



The chief duty of these treasury 



employes is to see that all old paper 



money is thoroughly destroyed 



The government first issued 

 paper money in connection with 

 the Civil War finances, and Sec- 

 retary Chase's regulations for 

 the destruction of notes unfit for 

 circulation were issued as a re- 

 sult of an act of Congress. In 

 Secretary Chase's time paper 

 money and securities were de- 

 stroyed by l)urning. Experience 

 shewed tliat this was not the 

 safest plan in connection with 

 the destruction of distinctive 

 ])aper, because it is difficult to 

 burn bundles of money, and un- 

 destroyed pieces may escape 

 through the chimney. For this reason 

 the act of June 23, 1874, authorized the 

 destruction by maceration. The destruc- 

 tion of these once valuable bits of paper 

 has always been wMtnessed by a joint 

 committee, appointed for the purpose. 



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