Show r n i jer op 4 r i wa t 4 A h 01 3 by eli EL aul wul ve f C WATSON olt OK the second time since alexander hamilton the first seere tary of the treasury established our currency system a radical change Is to be made in the size of our paper money according to orders that have been bedenis be enIs is sued by andrew W mellon present secretary of the tre treasury as the other change occurred in 1801 1861 when the smaller bills of C civil v war chin abin plaster iame were introduced d uce these smaller bills bo however wever were used only a short time and then the regulation size was resumed now the size itze of 0 all bills Is to be reduced again and they will be a third smaller than they are today and some somewhat whaL different in design the present size of paper currency to Is 7 7 10 16 by 3 inches the new size will be 0 6 by 2 weber inches there are am two main reasons for the change in size one Is convenience and the other Is economy the smaller note will generally fit into pocketbooks without being folded a thing which Is not possible with the present bills it will also bo be easier to handle since it will fit more neatly into the hand of the counter with without oat cramping the hand as the present bills do and cau be manipulated more inore rapidly the economical reason la Is a double one the frequent folding and creasing of the present size currency eventually breaks the fiber of the paper and makes it deteriorate snore more rapidly but tire the principal reason Is the saving in manufacture under the present system of printing money the faces or the backs of eight notes are engraved on one plate and printed at one impression the new size she currency will allow 12 notes to be made from one plate and 12 can be printed on the same size elze sheet of paper which formerly printed only eight mr mellon estimates that this will mean an annual saving caving of 2000 in the manufacture of money back of this contemplated change there Is an interesting story for the advantage of the 9 smaller maller size money was discovered by bf accident twenty five years ago when spain celil cedi I 1 the philippines to the united states in the hie treaty which ended the spanish american war it became necessary for our government to furnish the filipinos with a distinctive currency for some gome reason which has never been explained the government bureau of engraving and printing designed a currency in which 12 bills could be printed from the plates from which were printed panted eight of our bills the filipinos were satisfied with this handy bandy currency and it has been supplied to them steadily for the last quarter of a century during the many years of american occupancy of the philippines many of our people who have been sent to the islands civil and military officials school teachers tea chera and the like have handled tile the philippine currency when they returned home and began using the clumsy bills which they found here they were struck by the difference and almost invariably they uttered a protest that the size was better than our own so frequent were these protests that thal at last the treasury department began to take notice of them and two years ago when a treasury committee began a study of cur currency reacy problems the first thing it considered was a change in size bundles of paper were cut up in the philippine size and these dummy notes were distributed to federal reserve resene baals for experiments by teller ers and other officials of the banks the result was that the federal fe re seve se ve banks reported unanimously in favor of the smaller size elze bank notes the bureau of engraving and printing also favored the change because of tile the economy in manufacture already noted the result was the order Is sued by seer secretary tary mellon recently but the change in the size Is not cot to be the only innovation in tile the new sy system stent other changes tie lie cottem plated which will bring ader y jer to our somewhat couf coudding dIng currency cur reny system the government la Is now P pit ing out five different types of currency na lional bank notes gold certificates silver united states notes and federal reserve notes it has been the custom to print all of these in most of the different denominations and as aa a result we now nave live different kinds binds of 10 bills under ur the new plan the national bank notes note win will be done away with silver certificates are to be used for 1 bills only and there will be no silver certificates of any other denomination the united states notes which are the greenbacks green backs of the civil war period will be merged into 5 wa bills of the new currency and there will be only one type of 5 bill gold and federal reserve notes will be used only for the higher denominations the flo 10 bills the and loboa lOO Oa still another change will be in the matter of the pictures used on the bills on many of them are portraits portrait of people unknown to the public store more than that tile the same picture may be on a 1 bill and on a 20 bill this causes confusion and sometimes leads to mistakes under the new system the pictures of presidents only will be used for instance washington Is to 10 appear on the 1 bills lincoln on the 5 bills Jef jefferson femon probably will be on the 10 bill grant nay may get the 20 one cleveland the 50 bill roosevelt the and wilson the 1000 that will not take place however until next summer government manufacture of money la is a complicated process and the dollar bills make up more than half of our paper currency some NO tons of them at present are distributed each year tile the bills of this denomination will be uie the first to appear in the new size next will be produced the 20 bills and the government will work up and down from these two but it will take two or of three years to replace all of the re denominations in circulation treasury expert if state that there are always about a billion bills in circulation on an average these bills last lait a year before they wear out and have to be replaced of course the 1 bills wear out most quickly so that by starting the new system with 1 bilig and sending them out to replace tiie the worn out sl 1 bills the first step in introducing the new currency will br bo taken the treasury has warne warned d 1 the he public that ut advance ivance specimens eri cannot be furnished until the new bills are released simultaneously in all par parts to 0 of t the country |