Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

THE United States notes, known as “greenbacks,” are paper currency of a character quite different from the gold and silver certificates previously described. Their basis is very different, and the history of how they came to be placed in circulation is a story that has to do with the preservation of the Union. It has […]

BEFORE the currency-redemption problems are discussed, it is appropriate to describe the several classes of paper currency, the significance of each class, and how it occurs that each kind is regarded as of equal value to each of the others. The Federal currency is the closest tie between the citizen and the Government. Every individual […]

THE GOVERNMENT PURCHASES ALL VIRGIN GOLD THE law provides for the purchase of the gold production of the country. When the metal has been mined and milled, the owners transmit it to the assay offices and the Government purchases it at its actual value-$20.67 an ounce. A nominal charge is made, however, to cover the […]

KEEPING the country supplied with paper currency is a large task for the Government. There is, of course, a sizable amount of it in circulation—on June 1, 1931, there were just about 884,000,000 pieces with an aggregate face value of $5,275,000,000. THE ELEVEN DENOMINATIONS There are eleven different denominations of the paper currency in current […]

PAYMENTS BY WARRANT ALTHOUGH the law requires the payment of the revenue to the Treasurer of the United States and forbids payment except on the countersigned warrant of the Secretary of the Treasury, it is perfectly manifest that those requirements cannot be met by an actual manual delivery to the Treasury of each item of […]

MAGNITUDE OF CLERICAL AND ROUTINE OPERATIONS THE actual operations of each of the various Treasury bureaus are conducted under the immediate observation of the chief of the bureau responsible for executing the tasks relating to the particular class of service his bureau has assigned to it; but the regulations governing the operations of the bureau […]

THE NEED FOR A NEW PLAN THE huge debt in which the nation found itself as a result of the Great War made it absolutely imperative that attention be given to reductions in the expense of running the Government. While the war was in progress, the great thought was “win the war” —expense had been […]

INCLUDES MUCH MORE THAN THE TREASURY PROPER THE preceding chapters have referred almost entirely to matters pertaining to the Federal cash transactions—the currency, bonds, checks, their clearance, etc. Other Treasury matters have not been alluded to except when essential to a clear explanation of those topics. Receiving, paying, and accounting for the Treasury cash are […]

DELIVERY AND RECEIPTING SYSTEM THE question is often asked how the Treasury is able to protect the money that flows into and out of the Treasury and how it is possible for those responsible for the safe-keeping of the public funds to be assured that the currency is, in fact, present in the vaults as […]

THE PROCESS A DESCRIPTION of the means of protection and the pathway of a particular bond will substantiate the assertion that if a spurious bond were presented for redemption the fact that it was not a valid instrument could not escape detection. Let us inquire into the reasons that warrant that statement and begin by […]