e opened in the ordinary course of business. Along
the interior of the walls are compartments in which are stored redeemed
notes, those of each group by themselves, until they shall be removed
for assortment by individual banks. The vault usually contains about ten
millions of dollars. The money which we have followed thus far is packed
into a cart and hauled into this place, where it is deposited group by
group with the rest.

It is customary to assort the currency of from one to four groups by
banks each day. Let us follow rapidly one of these groups through the
remainder of the processes. The money of a group accumulated from day to
day in the vault is in the morning transported to the assorting room,
where it is delivered to the second assortment teller. By him the
bundles are opened, the inventory verified, and the packages separated
by denominations, reference being had in this process to the upper note
of each package. The packages of each denomination are then strapped
together by means of cardboards and rubber bands, and the group number,
the denomination, and the amount marked upon each bundle. Next morning
the money is delivered in this shape to the second assorters.

It will be understood that each of these persons thus receives notes of
a single denomination issued by from forty to sixty banks. The second
assorter first counts his money to be sure of the amount, and then
assorts the notes into his till in the manner already described,
putting, however, only the notes of one bank into a box. For his
guidance each assorter is provided with a printed list of the banks
composing his group, the number of the box assigned to each being set
opposite to the title. For convenience of handling about the tills,
these lists are mounted upon thick cardboards. The existence of stolen
notes or counterfeits on a bank is noted upon these lists, and special
directions for assortment are conveyed in the same manner. When a bank
is in liquidation or is withdrawing part of its circulation, an "I,"
denoting "inactive," is set opposite the title. The notes of such banks
are thrown together into box 52, and from this circumstance are known in
the nomenclature of the office as "52's." These are counted together and
put up in packages by means of orange-colored straps, properly marked
for delivery, through a regular channel, to another division of the
Treasurer's office, where the money is assorted and destroyed and the
amount reti