Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1875 — THE STORY OF A BANK-NOTE. [ARTICLE]

THE STORY OF A BANK-NOTE.

The Washington correspondent of the Chicago Inter-Ocean gives an interesting history of the manufacture and manner of redemption of National Bank notes, from which we take the following: The paper on which bank notes are printed is manufactured by two Pennsylvania firms, and has none of the distinctive qualities of the fiber paper used for legal tenders. These notes are of the following denominations: sl, $2, $3, $5, $lO, S2O, SSO, SIOO, SSOO and sl,ooo—s3’s never having been called for have not been issued. Let it be stated now, and remembered throughout the whole of this description, to save repetition, that every note is counted at least twice by every person who handles it, when he receives it and when be delivers it. Take a national $5 —half the national circulation is in ss’s —and examine it carefully, face and back. You will see on it what is technically called two printings, black and green. The green is simply the margin of the back, made by the local and national escutcheons and the denomination. The black (on the back) is an engraving of VanderLyn’s Columbus landing in America, which is hung in the rotunda of the Capitol. Above is a description of the note’s functions, and below a warning to counterfeiters. Now turn to the face of the note. In the right-hand corner is an allegorical picture of the European tr aveler being introduced to the American native races; in the left corner Columbus Sighting land. Between these the Treasurer and Register of the United States assure the public over sac similes of their signatures that the Government holds securities for the payment of this note; beneath this is the promise of the bank to pay the bearer five dollars Directly in front of Columbus and over the other are some red figures—l,(lls, say—signifying that 1,015 five dollars have been issued by that bank. All the work up to this point has been done by the Continental Bank Note Company, of New York city. That on other denominations is divided between the American and National Companies. Our five dollars, in sheets of four notes each, placed perpendicularly and lettered A, B, C, D, are now expressed to the Comptroller of the Currency in the Treasury Department and delivered by him to the Superintendent of the Printing Bureau. This very interesting bureau is in the garret of the Treasury Department, and thither we pursue our five dollars through long, narrow halls, whose oily, stifling atmosphere vibrates with the whirr of incessant machinery. At last we find a young lady slipping it through two great rollers, which leave a new red number and letter in the top right-hand corner —say A 31894. This is the Treasury number and is alike on every four notes; it begins A 1 and runs to A 10,000,000, then 81, etc. In the room opposite a second lady stamps on the note with a pretty little machine the Government’s red seal, and a third lady consigns it to a third machine which prints at Columbus’ feet the number of the bank’s charter. Thus numbered and sealed, these notes are returned in packages of a thousand sheets each to the Comptroller of the Currency, and hence in the demanded aipount sent to the banks. There the manual signatures of President and Cashier are affixed, and, clean, smooth and untarnished, the national bank note begins life for itself. Of its worldly career none can tell; we may but infer hardship from the forlorn plight in which a new prodigal it returns to its father’s house, knowing that there only shall it find redemption. The National Bank redemption agency occupies the rooms on the first floor along the north half of the western facade of the Treasury Department. Its exterior is truly impressive. Fancy a row of six massive doors, stretching down a long hall, whose heavy lucks and bolts are further barricaded by outside doors of iron net-work, and colored messengers stationed sentinel-wise' at intervals. The messengers might be handcuffed to make the situation impregnable. The opening of these formidable fates goes like kissing, by favor; none ut a few privileged officials know the sesame, and the public at large may leave all hope behind of entering there. Supposing that you are admitted, however, it implies a jangling of keys, a grating of bolts, a clicking of locks, a creaking of hinges that is perfectly appalling. Inside there is a general manifestation of hard work—men and women, some at

desks, some by tills—everybody busy; but the strongest impression is of money —money in piles and packages and safes, money being taken to pieces or fastened together, money being counted and canceled, money good, bad, and indifferent. Money, money everywhere, But not a cent to spend. Now, to give the account a personal interest, let us suppose the Inter-Ocean has sent $2,000 in defaced National Bank notes to the Treasurer for redemption. The express company has an office in the department, and through its agents there delivers the package to the Receiving Teller of the agency and takes his receipt for it. About 100 packages, aggregating $500,000, are received daily, half of these coming from the city of New York alone. Mr. Underwood numbers the InterOcean package and with the seal unbroken gives it to a counter and takes her receipt. She opens the package, which should be subdivided by straps into bundles of a hundred notes, each strap being clearly marked with the amount contained and the initials of the person who put it up. The counter (say Mary Smith) examines and reports the package as containing, say, one counterfeit five-dollar note; one five-doilar note to be rejected as being less than three-fifths in size, and $1,990 unfit for circulation; total $2,000. Her report is made in duplicate; to one are pinned one of the duplicate InterOcean letters, the two ss’s with their respective, straps, on which the company’s clerk’s initials should be, and then returned to Chicago with an explanatory letter. The other statement and-other Intei'-Ocean letter are filed together, so numbered that they can be instantly referred to. The company having said in the letter what denominations of legaltender notes were desired for those sent, the Cashier of the Treasury Department is now notified by the Redeeming Agent and sends by express to the Inter-Ocean $1,990 in whatever denominations were asked for. Over $1,000,000 per day is frequently sent. Mary Smith assorts carefully in packages of 100 notes each of the same denomination. She straps them with a white strap distinctly marked with the denomination, date, her initials, and the case number which distinguishes them to the end, so that the money can be traced as long as it lasts. She has nothing to do with amounts, except to account as above for the $2,000 delivered to her. Her final duty is to see the completed packages canceled, which is done by a machine that cuts ofl the lower left-hand corner of every note. The fifteen full packages counted and canceled by Mary Smith now pass into the hands of the Assorting Teller. His clerks, about half of which are men, work standing before huge wire-screened tills ranged in three rows down a long room. There are about 2,200 national banks in the country; these are divided into foity-four alphabetical groups. Each till has forty-four numbered divisions lettered according to the above arrangement. John Jones takes Mary Smith’s fifteen packages, breaks the straps, and distributes them very much as a printer would his “pi” among the divisions of his till according as they are issued by one bank to another. The packages of group one go to one counter, group two to another, etc. Whenever SSOO or over of any bank’s notes have been redeemed that bank is notified to reimburse the 5 per cent. fund. Remittances are usually by draft, and the drafts of one day on New York alone amount to $1,000,000. For each draft a certificate of deposit is issued and forwarded to the bank. Every letter sent is copied, numbered, initialed and filed.

The chief deposit of the money that inevitably accumulates with the Agent is in a vault in the second story, accessible only by a little gallery running around the marble cash-room. The vault is fifteen feet square, made of alternate layers, the whole about six inches thick of steel and franklinite, a New Jersey ore, so far impregnable to drills. Two ponderous iron doors and an iron grating guard the narrow entrance. One branch of this work deserves more extensive notice than could be allowed it in its proper place (the Receiving Teller’s room), namely, the detection of counterfeits, pieced and mutilated notes. Every counter is expected to look for them, but their detection devolves especially on the first counters, who are pecuniarily respon-ible for any subsequently found in bundles bearing their initials. Some are exceedingly hard to decide upon, but a good counter rarely misses. All she finds are returned to the senders, branded ,l counterfeit.” The ss’s on Traders’ National Bank of Chicago are the best and most plentiful. All the s2o’s are poor, but the engraving on the ssoo’s of the Ohio National Bank of Cincinnati is better than the original. Pasted notes are made of strips ot different notes, each successive strip a trifle smaller, so that out of five notes six can be made. They are more dangerous than counterfeits, and the truest test is to measure them carefully with a graduated ruler, the pasted notes being necessarily smaller than the genuine. Sometimes the face reads absurdly; as, “First National Bank of Bangor, Holyoke, Mass.,” or “of Providence, N. J., or, as a third, a patchwork of a New York and a Missouri note:

Fiat National Bank, City of Seph, State of ’onri. One note on a Jacksonville (HI.) bank had a SSO face and a S2O back, the combined blunder of the bank company who misprinted and the Treasury clerks who overlooked it. Then there are notes stolen before they have the bank officers’ signatures, and the list of such banks runs up to the fifties. Notes reduced by mutilation to less than three-fifths of original size are rejected; others are redeemed at their proportionate value. —The Mont Cenis tunnel cost about $975 a yard, and at the same rate the proposed tunnel under the English Channel would cost about $38,036,(500. H