Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1883 — THE POSTAL NOTES. [ARTICLE]

THE POSTAL NOTES.

What Provision Has Been Made for Sending Small Sums of Money Through the Mail. * [Washington Special.] The law authorizing the 8-cent “postal note” directs that its provisions shall be put into operation by the Postmaster Genera) within six months after the date of its approval by the President The act was signed on March 3, and the postal notes must, therefore, be ready for the public by Sept 3, 1883, at the latest The department officials are not ready to state precisely the time at which they can be issued, but there seems to be do good reason why they should not be available at the opening of the new fiscal year, July L as the new law requires little additional machinery, home time will be consumed in advertising for proposals for the new blanks, etc., that are necessary, which, however, are to be furnished by the Public Printer and t'.e Bureau of Engraving and Printing, if their estimates are below those received from private persons. A model of the proposed postal note is printed on the back of the reports of the committees of both houses. It is about as long as a greenback. At the right hand are two columns giving the months of the year, and the dates of twelve years beginning with the present,At the left hand are three columns of figures. One, representing dollars, is numbered up to 4; the second, representing dimes, is numbered up to 9; the third, representing cents, is also numbered up to 9, and each series ends with a cipher. The note is for sums less than $5. The Postmaster at the office issuing the note will punch the month and the year, the number of dollars, number of dimes and number of cents. in their respective columns, thus preventing any alteration of the amount or date. By this system the postal notes can be issued for any sum from 1 cent up to $4.99. No written application will be necessary. The note will be bought like a postage stamp and will be payable to the bearer at any time within three months from the last day of the month of issue. The body of the note IS a form stating the office at which it is issued a-..d the office to which it is sent When paid the person obtaining payment puts his signature upon the note. It is not claimed that the" postal note furnishes the same elements of security as the postal order now in use, where the sender’s name is privately forwarded to the office where the order is to be paid; but it is believed that its convenience to all classes of people will be so great as to render the decrease in security of trifling importance. It is expected that it will take the place for transmission of money through the mails of the old fractional currency. Since that was withdrawn there has been no safe and agreeable way of transmitting small sums except by postage stamps, which are not regarded with favor as currency, or by the cumbersome process of the postal order. The postal note system has been in use in Great Britain just two years with great popular acceptance. The last annual report of the British Postmaster General shows that 4,462,9*A) of these postal orders, amounting to £2,000,917, hadi been issued in one year. The average time they were in circulation was six days, ehow-i ing that there was no foundation for the idea that they would be devoted to permanent use as currency. The United States, postal note is, however, better adapted to' public use ia several respects than the) British postal note. The note, costing three ; cents, can be issued, as already stated, sor 1 any sum from 1 cent up to $4.99, while the British notes can be issued only for ten fixed amounts from 1 shilling to 20 shillings, no provisions being made for intermediate sums. Our postal note will require only a single blank form, while the British system calls for ten different blanks for the ten grades of orders The fee for the lowest British postal note is a halfpenny; for the highest, 2 pence. The fee for United States postal note will be the same in all cases up to $5 —3 cents. The new rates for postal orders, which are to some extent reductions on existing rates, are as follows: For orders not exceeding $lO, 8 cents; between $lO and $15,10 cente; between sls and $30,15 cents; between S3O and S4O, 20 cents; between S4O and SSO, 25 cents; between SSO and s6o,3ocents; between S6O and S7O, 35 cents; between S7O and SBO. 40cents; between SBO and SIOO, 45 cents No money order is to be issued for a greater sum than sllO.