SCRAP FORTUNE IN CASH
EVERY DAY IN WASHINGTON
Treasury Department Officials
Mutilate Old Greenbacks and
Turn Them Into Pulp.
Nearly every week day there leaves
the Treasury department under heavy
guard a wagonload of greenbacks,
ranging in denomination from $1 to
$100, to be destroyed. The money is
taken to the bureau of printing and
engraving, where it is mutilated and
then pulped.
Most of the money thus destroyed is
greasy and grimy from age and rough
handling. All of it has reached the
stage where it must be withdrawn
from circulation. On rush days the
load that leaves the treasury to be
destroyed weighs as much as 10,000
pounds.
The money to be destroyed is generally
picked out by treasury employees as they count it. The bills
are gathered and placed in bundles
of 100 and mutilated. First four big
holes are punched in every bill and
then they are cut in half.
"All of the work is done with the
greatest care," said a treasury official.
All identity of the various bills is
completely destroyed. When the work
of mutilating the bills is completed
there is not the slightest recognizable
thing about them.
"The pulp to which the bills are
transformed has value. It is used for
making cardboard. A consignment of
pulp sold was worth about $3. In its
original form as currency it was worth
$2,500,000. 