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
costl