Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1894 — ODD THINGS ABOUT CENTS. [ARTICLE]

ODD THINGS ABOUT CENTS.

Among Other T.hrW« They Are Quite Kx. teuelvely Counterfeited. From time Uptime one sees reference in the daily papers, referring to the difficulty exjierienced by the ferry companies, oar lines, etc., in disposing of enormpus accumulations of ordinary copper cents. The reader is very apt to rertfember this, particulary if in exchange for a dollar bill he is returned pinety-flve one cent pieces by a conductor* „ As a matter efijfact, there is no excuse for the item, much less for a car conductor or change taker iD unloading his weight iff coppers upon the always more or less abused passenger. The Uni red States Sub-Treas-ury, at Wall übd Nassau streets, makes, and has,made it a practice for years, of exchanging minor coin for United States money of large denomination, and it has many regular customers who are so served. There are a of curious things about qcjjts as they come tc the Sub-Treasury. In the first place, they are quite qjtensively conterfeited. This may,6eem strange, as the profit in a counterfeit cent is necessarily small. 4V is true, however, nevertheless, arffj is supposed to be the work of Italians; who, more largely than any other‘nationality, seem to favor ithc Imitation of < ur minor and subsidiary co'n. The Brooklyn ’and New Jersey ferry companies, thb elevated railroads of both New and Brooklyn, and the various slot-machine companies, are regular customer? for the exchange of cents,for other money at the Sub-TreasHiy, At times they turn in enormous quantities the slot companies alone ranging between $125 and S7OO a Way. As might be iixpectcd, all sorts of oddities in the Way of coin come in with the quantity tqken in the machines. In addition to the counterfeits are “not one cents” of war times, meital discs and foreign copper, AustriarMnouey predominating. As the dofifier cent is simply a token, no matter wliat its condition is, it is redeem Mat par if it can in any way be identified as United States money. / The popularly of the slot machines a year oo:so ago brought about a curious condition of affairs in the country. This was nothing short of a “cent famine." The headquarters of the company,ls in New York, and all agents send their cents here for redemption, wbj,sh drained the country of its suppiy-and overstocked the minor coin vaults of the Sub-Treas-ury here with* cents. New York Herald. •"