Article Text
YEARLY LOSS OF PAPER MONEY. To the Editor of the San Francisco Call-SIR: In order to obtain the annual percentage of loss of paper money in circulation I have searched through the reports of the Treasury Department from 1867 to 1897 for a record of National banks which have failed and have had their circulation withdrawn and canceled as the law requires. In no report have I found any reference made to the annual percentage of loss. On page 27 of Comptroller Knox's report for 1883 we find groups of failed banks with dates of organization. By going back through the record of the department to the volume for 1875 we find the dates when receivers were appointed for the fifteen banks which had failed prior to 1870. With the date of organization and date of failure thus found we are able to determine how long these fifteen banks were in existence, and having the percentage of the lost notes given at the last date named (1883) we can calculate the annual percentage of loss. I have selected eight of these fifteen National banks as a fair average of the whole fifteen, which are thus reported: Attica, N. Y.; Farmers' and Citizens', Brooklyn, N. Y.; First National, Bethel, Conn.; Rockford, III.: Austin, Nev.; Merchants', D. C.; Memphis, Tenn., and New Orleans, La. They may be numbered and grouped as follows: