Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — LIGHTNING CHANGE MEN. [ARTICLE]

LIGHTNING CHANGE MEN.

Wonderful Expertness in Handling Coin at the Cashier’s Desk. There are men and women in New York,writes a correspondent of the Pittsburg Dispatch, who handle money in small quantities from fivo to ninety-five cents who,acquire a skill and dexterity absolutely marvellous. They are cashiers of restaurants, popular dining and lunch rooms,where,the rush is very great at certain hours during the day, * and where everything in, the shape of payment comes along in what is called “change," that is, in amounts less than 81, and never uniform. It maybe a young girl, or a young man, who never Imd any former experience in handling coin and notes, but lie, or she, becomes so expert that it makes an ordinary- business man’s head swim to watch them. One of thoso lightning change artists, a rod headed young limn named Hayward, who is hi a big lunch room near the post office, has a long standing wager of $lO,IKR) that he cun beat anybody making change, bar none. And thut young man is certainly wonderful. He has the touch of instinct. Like those of many women in tho Redemption Bureau of the Treasury at Washington, his motions are too swift for tho ordinary eye to count, saying nothing of tho money feature. But the work of the Treasury woman expert counters is with round numbers and bills alone; This involves constantly varying amounts of minor coin and lulls together. Certain hours of every day will find an unbroken line of customers with lunch chocks and money passing tho cashier's desk. To see young Ilayward manipulate those checks and coius and bills is a curiosity. “Bad money? I can tell a bad coin at tho touch,” said ho. “Dimes aro the most common counterfeits. Anybody oun tell bad money, time enough, but I've bocomo able to detect at the touch—not rubbing—l haven't tin# for that—in a flash too quick for the eye. I couldn’t explain it—and to know anything is quicker than to see it. There are bad dimes passed hero every day, most of thorn by our regular customers and with unquestioned innocence. No, we'd rather lose motley than call a man buck before the crowd and charge him with passing a counterfeit. And thore'd be twenty people blocked up here in front of mo in two minutes. It wouldn't pay. Range? I havoovorythingnndevery combination, from a two cent piece to a SSO note every day of t||n year wo run. It must bo done instantaneously. No bank note doted* to s or consultations or comparison or any of that sort of thing. A mostly from a lot of people you never know anything about. It ought to mukn a man export, anyhow."