Show BURNT I 1 I 1 how it Is restored by the government ingenious identification of aill Du Dt stroyd belh aunce sams biz bit profit C correspondent in boston transcript tho the parlor stove ie is a considerable cone idera source of income to the united states treasury at this time of year though the contributors to the fund accumulated by ita its means are invariably roost most unwilling ones of all ways of boarding paper money none appears in auch such universal favor es that of biding it away in an unused sitting room stove during the summer time when the fire is lighted in the autumn tho the cash goes up in smoke and then the owner makes application to have bave the ashes re refe teemed the chief of the redemption division eald said yes berday that not less than cases were submitted to him every fall sometimes the remains are not tou too far consumed for identification but as a rule this method of destroying money is is fa found aud to bo singularly effective and hopeless there was received yesterday at the treasury in the shape of a small quantity of ashes packed in a thimble from texas the woman who owned the had bad drawn the sum from a bank and deposited in a stove for safer he keeping with the usual result unfortunately the ashes were indistinguishable from any other ashes and so sho she will lose the amount it is a most interesting fact that nearly all the paper money destroyed by accident meets its I 1 fate ate on the rail whenever a rail railway wity disaster occurs fire usually en the express car is burned now an express car almost invariably carries a safe with more or less money A in it among other valuables the eafe unless ss it is one for transporting government money is a apt t to bo be of the portable kind and nt not fireproof thus it is an almost every day occurrence for one of these safes to arrive at the treas sury here with balkits half its cash contents in the shape of more or less leas hope lees legs ashes for example take the accident that occurred in kentucky only the other day two trains met in a tunnel one loaded with passengers and the other a freight carrying coal and iron for thirty hours the wreck burned and such was the heat beat generated that the iron iron W was as melted and flowed like water in the express car of the passenger train was a safe with 1600 cash in it besides a lot of jewelry it was all paper money and was reduced to ashes is all that the redemption division has been able to get out of it in condition for fur purchase with fresh united slates states notes thie this the authorities say ia is the worst ordeal through which an express safe haa has ever passed you Y ou would be astonished to se eee e bow how little in the way of remains is re required hau ia cd when passed under the hands d of the treasury experts to proc procure ure identification and redemption ot of burned paper money A few bite bits so charred as to seem to the ordinary eye buts but a small accumulation of asnes may be redeemed for thousands of dollars in bright new bills at the pay ing tellers desk all that is required is sufficient evidence that the originals of the notes have been really destroyed morsels no bigger than your fingernail finger nail arc are every day redeemed for the face value of the bills they represent As to this it is largely a matter of chance if the morsel were merely a corner it would not be likely likel T to suffice for the identification ot of the note supposing the ease aso is that of a bank note it is absolutely essential that the bank should be determined ter mined else 1 payment cannot be made B but u t let the bit pre presented dented show the name of the bank its number or even a portion of one of the officers signatures and it goes goe s until very recently portions of old notes sent in have been redeemed on the discount principle of a 10 bill bring bringing ipg 89 9 and eo so on but now tho the law li insists that the smallest portion is is redeemable at full face value if only it is is accompanied by satisfactory affa affidavits davits as to the fosa loss of the remainder borne some few attempts have been made to swindle the treasury in this way by false affidavit but the department believes that it has always disc discovered overe d them uncle sam has made a good deal of money by his cash that has been destroyed of course cours e every penny of it that is not handed banded in in at the treasury for his redemption 13 is so much in his big pocket in this way he be has bus found his fractional currency most profitable these small notes for 5 cents 10 cels 25 ceata cents and BO 60 cents were easily lost and destroyed especially during war timea times the first issue was made mude in 1863 and of the five cent notes then put forth nearly one half more than 45 per cent accurately speaking have never been asked payment for the same thi thing n g ia is true of 30 percent per cent of the 10 cent notes 20 per cent of the 25 cent notes and I 1 11 1 per cent of the 60 cent notes it is shown by the figured treasury total that of the worth of the little notes first issued more than thin still re remains mal i ns in in i the clothes of the gov government ern ment there were four more subsequent issues issue of fractional currency some of their output in band 15 cent notes aagre aggregating abing and of this lump lump sum more than has not been called for this leaves uncle sam on velvet to the extent of so far as bis fractional notes are concerned in other words he seems to have made about that amount of money clear on the five issues now what his become of all this email change in 1879 a treasury commission not appointed by law in any proper form ina made d e up its mind that had been lost or destroyed and congress accordingly turned that amount out of 00 originally appropriated for the redemption of the fractional notes over for the payment of pensions since then three experts in the department making ma k ing their calculations independently one of them accountant cou litant ceuz 1 auz of the national banking division have bave arrived approximately at fit the same conclusions that not more than of the fractional currency has been destroyed or lost and that yet remains outstanding according to their estimate 0 this great sum is at present entirely in the hands of collectors large and find small it requires nearly of each fractional fractional issue to satisfy their appetite for curiosities not liot merely do dealers hold considerable stock of these notes but nearly every private individual has one or more of them just for fun As for the gain of the tile government on its notes of large denominations through their loss or destruction the treasury is only able to make a guess estimating it at considerably less than one per cent while the discounts dis discounting counti ug of paper currency by paying proportionately tio tiona tely for fractions of bills was legal the treasury cleared through the industry A good deal of money in in paper is hoarded boarded by persons who die without reveal ing its whereabouts and much of it is never found sums in this shape are often dug up on the persons of corpses exhumed for other purposes only the other day the body of a mur murdered man was die dis coveted iu in tho the woods near an ohio town badly decomposed and with a pocketbook filled with green backs the latter were sent to the treasury here liere for redemption which did not prove in ia this instance a pleasant task |