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BALTIMORE
—
Christine Dorr
of
Brooklyn Park, Md.
, unhappily discovered a corner piece of a
$100
bill on the floor near her border collie's bed earlier
this year. A bank envelope containing three bills —
two
$100
notes and one
$50
— had fallen on the floor, and 12-year-old Sayde's
guilt-ridden looks told the story.
"The
dog likes to eat paper," said Dorr, a researcher
with a commercial real estate information company.
All that
remained were three pieces of the
$100
bills. The
$50
was gone, although Dorr for days checked the
"deposits" in the yard just in case.
Many
people would have written off the
$250
as a loss. But Dorr took the remnants to her bank, which
advised her to try the
U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
, which produces our paper currency.
Within
the bureau is the little-known Mutilated Currency
Division, where examiners piece together shredded,
charred and soggy dollars. And if they can verify the
money is authentic and determine the value, the Treasury
will send the owner a check. Last year, the division
processed more than 22,000 claims and redeemed about
$46 million
.
Dorr's
story isn't unusual, said
Lerleen Jones
, who has been an examiner in the division for more than
six years. She recalls a case in which a dog swallowed
$900
and the owner waited for it to come out the other end to
mail the remains to the division.
Animals
are a common cause of mutilated currency, along with
fire, water, explosives, petrifaction, chemicals and
deterioration from being buried.
Examiners
have worked on cash destroyed during the
Sept. 11, 2001
, attacks and are still receiving claims of waterlogged
notes from Hurricane Katrina.
Sometimes
it's not disasters that destroy money but rather the
owners themselves. For example, people try to dry out
wet bills in the microwave and end up burning their
money, Jones says. And some people squirreled away money
underground for fear that bank computer systems wouldn't
work at the dawn of 2000; those buried remains have been
found spoiled since
Y2K
came and passed without incident.
Generally,
the bureau requires that you have more than half of the
original bill so there's no chance that you'll be
reimbursed twice, said
Tiyonna White
, a Mutilated Currency Division manager. If you have
less, examiners will need to verify that the rest of the
bill is truly destroyed.
The
bureau only redeems destroyed U.S. paper money, but
other agencies reimburse you for ruined coins. Change
that's worn thin can be turned in to the Federal Reserve
banks for full value. The U.S. Mint redeems mutilated or
fused coins — a one-pound minimum — for the value of
the metal. (Bills that are merely worn out, defaced or
dirty can be exchanged at your local bank.)
White
says it takes six weeks to 20 months for
mutilated-currency examiners to process a case.
As months
went by and Dorr didn't receive any reimbursement, she
figured the pieces she sent in might have been too small
for examiners to verify. Eventually, she forgot about
it.
Then
recently, a check for
$200
arrived from the U.S. Treasury. The only indication it
was replacing the chewed currency was a notation on the
check: "Mut. Curr Refund." That's "mut"
for "mutilated," not "mutt."
Dorr
wasn't taking any chances with this paper. She kept the
check away from Sayde and deposited it in the bank.
———
GOT
MUTILATED MONEY?
Mail the
remains of paper money along with a letter on how it was
destroyed to the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
at MCD/OFM, BEPA, Room 344A, P.O. Box 37048,
Washington, D.C.
20013. Send it via registered mail, return receipt
requested. Make sure it's packaged in a way to prevent
further deterioration.
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