Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1911 — FREAKISH BANK BILLS [ARTICLE]

FREAKISH BANK BILLS

DENOMINATION 18 DIFFERENT ON THE TWO SIDES. —■■■ f About a Dozen Such Are in Existence, Due to Mistake Made In Print- : ing—How Error le Passed. If one had a bill with Hie print of the ten-dollar denomination on the faqe and the five-dollar on the back, should he average the two' and consider the bill to be worth $7.50? This is not an impossible problem, for, says a treasury official, there are several such "freak" bills scattered through the country. One of them came to the sub-treasury at New York not so long ago. It had the imprint of the twenty-dollar note on one side and of the ten on the other. But, a* the face showed the figure twenty, S2O was the legal value of the bill. Occasionally these freak bills slip through the bureau of engraving and printing, despite a careful scrutiny by three or four sets of inspectors. In most cases they have been national bank notes, which, like regular treasury notes, are printed at the bureau in Washington. The face value’ is always recognised when the “freaks" come to be cashed at any branch of the treasury. The Imprint on the back has no lawful status whatever. The notes are printed in sheets at the bureau. Usually there will be one twenty and two tens on a sheet. They are printed on one side at a time, so it can be seen that the printer, fsi turning over the sheet, might get it upside down, end thus put a ten-dollar back on a twenty-dollar note, or a twenty on the back of one of the tens. In the bureau are employees who are supposed to examine all the bills carefully, but occasionally they neglect to scrutinize both sides as carefully as they should, and so the money goes out into circulation. When errors are discovered, the misprinted sheet is laid aside to be destroyed. It cannot be torn up at once, for every sheet has to be accounted for. After a good deal of red tape it Is ground into pulp. Most of the freak hills which have been issued in the past have found their way back to the treasury, there to be destroyed. It is thought that less than a dozen are now scattered about, most of them in the hands of c.urio hunters. No effort to collect them has been- made by the government, for the treasury department does not consider the circulation of the few notes a matter of any consequence, inasmuch as there is no doubt about the values, as Indicated on the face.