The present law provides for ninety-eight clerks in the agency, ranging in grade from the messenger to the superintendent. Of this number, those employed in handling money are divided into two forces, under the direction, respectively, of the receiving teller and the assorting teller. The business of the former force is to receive the shipments coming from the various banks and sub-treasuries for redemption, count the money, and report the amounts for return remittances; that of the latter force is to assort the notes and prepare them for delivery to the Comptroller of the Currency for destruction or to the banks for reissue. This double process may seem at first sight very simple and easy; but in fact it is extremely complex and difficult; and the division in which it is carried on may fairly be counted among the most thoroughly organized and systematically conducted parts of all the machinery devised by the Government for the transaction of the manifold public business. And no wonder, when it is recollected that there are now in circulation nine denominations of national bank notes, the issue of twenty-three hundred and forty individual institutions, amounting in the aggregate to three hundred and twenty millions of dollars; and that every one of these notes, and every dollar of this total, must ultimately, by those ninety-eight clerks and their successors, be separated from the mass, and assigned, under the proper description, with unerring precision, each to the bank by which that particular unit of this vast volume was emitted and must be redeemed.
The bulk of the currency sent in for redemption comes through the Adams Express Company, who have a contract for making all shipments of money for the Government, and who for convenience have an office in the basement of the Treasury. The agency occupies four rooms on the main floor along the west wall, and one on the opposite side of the passage. Early visitors to that part of the building may have noticed a wooden box, much resembling a carpenter's tool chest, trundled along upon a cart by a porter, and followed by a man with a book under his arm. The box contains the day's delivery of national bank currency for redemption, ranging ordinarily from half a million to a million and a half of dollars, and the book contains a receipt for the amount, to be signed by the receiving clerk of the agency. The money comes in perhaps a hundred or as high as two hundred and fifty packages, from as many places throughout the country. On being opened these packages display a miscellaneous aggregation, of which the following items may be mentioned: Thousands of notes of all the denominations and all the banks, perhaps a little soiled, but perfectly sound, and for all the purposes of currency in as good a condition as when they left the printers' hands; a somewhat smaller bulk of others in every state of mutilation and uncleanliness; hundreds, clean, crisp, and unwrinkled, that have not been counted three times outside of the division of issues; scores torn, cut, ground, burned, charred, boiled, soaked, chewed, and digested, until a skilful eye is required to recognize that they have ever been intended for money; and scattered singly through this mass, counterfeits, stolen notes, "split" notes, "raised" notes, and now and then a stray greenback.
The packages, after an entry of them has been made on the books, are distributed singly among women counters, each of whom gives her receipt. A counter, upon receiving a package, takes it to her desk, breaks the seals, and first takes an inventory of the money to see whether the aggregate of the sums called for by the straps around the various parcels of notes corresponds with the amount claimed for the whole. Should she find a discrepancy, she makes a certificate of the difference for return to the sender. Next she proceeds to count the money, carefully keeping the notes and straps of each parcel separate. If she discovers an error of count, she notes upon the strap, over her initials and the date, the sum which she finds the package to be "over" or "short." Spurious or other notes, for any reason excluded by the rules, are thrown out, pinned to the straps in which they came, and returned. After finishing her count she makes a statement of the amounts of "overs," "shorts," counterfeits, and other rejected notes, and of the amount for the credit of the sender, and from this statement return remittance is made. The next duty of the counter is to assort the notes into the two classes of such as are unfit for circulation and such as are fit, and into the various denominations. When a hundred notes of one denomination and class are counted she surrounds them with a white strap, on which she pencils her initials and the date. Straps printed for full packages of a hundred notes of the different denominations are provided. Less than a hundred notes make a package of "odds." The "odds" arising from a day's count are delivered to "odd" counters, who mass them into full packages. Each counter, having finished this portion of her work, enters, in duplicate, upon a leaf of the blank book furnished her for this purpose, the various items into which she has divided her cash, and delivers this with the money to the teller. He takes an inventory of the amount by straps, and finding the counter's statement to be correct, tears off the half leaf on which the duplicate account is made, and signs the original as a receipt. After all the full packages resulting from the day's count have been delivered in this manner, the teller makes them up into bundles of ten, or one thousand notes, keeping each denomination and class separate, and in this shape, on the evening of the day on which the money was received, they are ready for delivery to the assorting teller's room. Here the amount is inventoried and receipted for, and the money is locked up for the night in the iron portion of one of those wonder-waking safes.
None but the most experienced and skilful counters are employed in this first process, the responsibility both to the Government and the employee being too great to be imposed upon any but experts. It will readily be seen not only that correctness of count is of vital importance, but also that the knowledge and skill necessary to detect irredeemable notes are indispensable. A counter, when she puts her initials upon a package of notes, assumes the responsibility for the correctness of the amount as shown upon the strap; and any differences, if against her, will be made good at the end of the month out of her salary. The degree of accuracy reached by the present force is surprising considering the bulk of money handled daily. Counterfeits which, like the fives on the Traders' National Bank of Chicago, the Hampden of Westfield, Massachusetts, and the Merchants' of New Bedford, Massachusetts, have passed current all over the country, and become so worn that some unsuspecting village banker thinks proper to have them redeemed, are laid aside without a second glance. All the tricks practised by operators in "queer" are discovered instantly.
Among the means known to these gentry for expanding illegally the value of genuine currency, that most frequently resorted to is known as "splitting." Nine notes, for example, of a single denomination, are taken, and of the first one-tenth is cut off from the upper portion with a sharp knife by a line parallel to the margin. From the second two-tenths are cut, and so on, the divisions being made successively lower by tenths of the width, until from the last note the lower tenth is cut. The upper portion of the first note is then joined, by pasting, to the lower portion of the second, the upper portion of the second to the lower portion of the third, and this plan being carried out with all the others, the result is the production of ten notes, each of which lacks one-tenth of its face, but which will pass with little question, among the inexperienced, at full value. The original notes being, however, very likely of different banks in several States, one effect of this operation, in the cases where the lines of division pass through the titles, is the creation of banks not found on the lists of the Treasury. When a note of this composition is presented for redemption the joined portions are separated, and being genuine are treated as parts of notes, and redeemed accordingly. The rules of the department applying to national bank currency are that notes lacking less than two-fifths are redeemed at their face. When more than two-fifths are missing the amount allowed for is proportionally reduced. The only exception to this rule is in cases where there is satisfactory evidence that the missing portion has been destroyed and can never be presented for redemption.
Another trick of counterfeiters is that of "raising." The original numerals and letters denoting the value of the note are carefully scraped off with a sharp instrument. By this means the paper is made thin, and over the places are pasted the figures and words of a higher denomination, often so neatly as to defy detection except on critical examination. Fives are in this way often converted into fifties, and ones into hundreds. Of course the alteration will readily be discovered by any one in the habit of handling money. Such notes are redeemed at the original face value.
But of all irredeemable notes those which appeal most strongly to the ill feelings of counters are of the description known as "stolen." Readers of newspapers will doubtless recollect accounts of a heavy robbery perpetrated not many months ago upon the Northampton National Bank of Northampton, Massachusetts. Among the booty there secured by the burglars were one hundred and forty-five new five-dollar notes, of the issue of that bank, unsigned, which had never been paid over the counter. The cashier had taken the precaution to make a memorandum of the numbers printed on the faces, and was therefore enabled to describe each note as he would his watch taken from his fob by a pickpocket. Notice was given to the department, and though the notes came in shortly after by the dozen, it is safe to say that not one has been charged to the account of the bank. The notes are perfectly genuine, excepting the signatures; the most skilful expert would hardly discover anything suspicious in their appearance; the only irregularity connected with them is the way they were put in circulation. The fact of their existence renders necessary to every counter who would secure herself against loss an examination of the numbers printed on every five-dollar note of that bank passing through her hands; for the bank, never having issued those stolen, cannot be made to redeem them. Other banks have currency in circulation upon a similar basis, the number of notes varying in different instances from one upward. Occasionally a straggler of this description makes its way some distance into the agency, but it is sure to be detected sooner or later by some of the many vigilant eyes under which it must pass—eyes perhaps made all the more vigilant by costly experience of the consequences of carelessness. Such notes when discovered to have been redeemed become the property, in exchange for a like amount in greenbacks, of the person last concerned in their redemption.
It has been seen that the greater portion of the currency received is fit for circulation. Out of an aggregate of $176,121,855, assorted during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, $97,478,700 was of this description, and was returned to the banks for reissue. Originally it was the expectation that none but worn and mutilated notes would be offered for redemption, and for a long while all redeemed currency, in whatever condition, was destroyed, and new issued instead. But the proportion of sound notes became at length so great that the new plan was adopted as an evident measure of economy, and now no piece of paper money is withdrawn from circulation until worn out, unless at the desire of the bank. Many financial institutions within easy reach of the capital make a custom of forwarding for redemption all their receipts of currency for the day, getting in return new notes just from the printers. This method is pursued as an accommodation to the business public, who prefer clean and crisp notes; and while a day's deposits of any large bank must include much currency perhaps just out of the Treasury, the whole bulk is often shipped off to avoid the labor of assorting. Besides, remittances for redeemed notes of national banks being made, if desired, in greenbacks, the agency furnishes a convenient means to city banks for keeping up their legal tender reserves. Under the effect of heavy redemptions the condition of the currency of the country is constantly improving, and the proportion of "fit" notes received at the agency is gradually increasing.
The next process which the redeemed currency undergoes is that of assorting, and is carried on in a large room extending through about one-fourth of the length of the building. Along the walls, on both sides of an aisle, are arranged three rows of assorters' tills, by means of which the labor is carried on. These tills are rectangular in shape, and are divided into fifty-two compartments or "boxes," in four rows of thirteen each. These boxes are four inches in depth, and a little larger in length and width than the surface of a note. The tills are mounted at an inclined angle upon stands, very much like a printer's case. At one end, attached by a hinged support, is a small table at which the assorter, seated upon a stool, does his counting and writing, and which, when not needed for this purpose, is swung underneath the till. A woven-wire folding screen is fastened to the upper portion of the stand, and may be locked down over the boxes, or thrown back out of the way. Padlocks of improved construction are part of the equipment, no two keys being interchangeable. Below the till is a shelf of the width of the stand, for the convenience to the assorter next in front. Each till is supplied with a blank book in duplicate forms for the assorter's accounts, an array of different colored printed straps, a box of bank pins, and all the appliances necessary for handling money with ease and rapidity.
For convenience in assorting, the twenty-three hundred and forty banks are arranged alphabetically, according to the name of their location, into forty-four groups, which are distinguished numerically, there being from forty to upward of sixty banks in each group. The operation of assorting notes into these groups is known as the first assortment; that of assorting the notes of the groups by individual banks, as the second assortment. The bundles of redeemed currency, having been passed to the assorting room, are delivered to the first assortment teller, who distributes them among the twelve or fifteen first assorters, taking receipts. Each of these persons carries his money to his till, and after making an inventory by straps, proceeds to count the notes. He unpins a package and lays the strap flat on the table before him. If the contents of that package are found to be correct, he lays the money upon the strap. The next strap is laid on top of this pile, and so on. By this method the several packages are kept distinct, and if he afterward finds an irredeemable note in his money, he may know from whom it comes. All errors discovered, not only in this process, but in all others, are required to be reported immediately. Should a package be found "over," the assorter makes a memorandum, over his initials and the date, upon the strap, and returns this with the superfluous note to the teller. The note is put in the "cash till" to the credit of the counter whose signature is on the strap. "Short" packages are returned for verification to the counter, and the deficiency is made good out of the "cash till" and charged to the counter. Spurious and stolen notes are in like manner exchanged for genuine. An account is kept of all the "overs," "shorts," etc., of each person, and on pay day the clerk who has a preponderance against him will find in the envelope enclosing his month's salary the superintendent's certificate of the balance "short," and any counterfeit or stolen notes found in his straps, reckoned as so much legal tender. This system is rigidly enforced not only in the agency, but throughout the department. It seems hard that the penalty of accident or inexperience should be so summary; but no other means has yet been devised to secure the Treasury from loss. And after all, the rule is the same as that enforced in some manner in the outside world of business, where every one must trust to his own knowledge and skill for security against loss.