DISCOVERY BAY — The money taken off the walls of Fat Smitty’s cafe in January was cleared by the Federal Reserve in April and will now be distributed to two charities.
“They credited the whole amount,” said manager Casey Carson.
“We weren’t sure because some of the bills were in pretty bad shape.”
Of the $10,316 taken off the walls of the restaurant on U.S. Highway 101 at the intersection with state Highway 20 outside Port Townsend — money on the ceiling was left in place — mostly in $1 bills, $7,000 will be donated to the Boy Scouts and the remainder given to St. Jude’s Hospital.
In the months since January, when owner Carl Schmidt decided to make a clean sweep and help favorite charities, more customers have put up bills, and areas of the walls are completely covered again.
The tradition began in the 1980s when a traveling salesman wrote his name on a single dollar bill and posted it on the wall.
Since then, visitors have scrawled their names or messages on bills until the restaurant resembled a greenback rain forest.
The decorations vary, from personal messages to artistic statements or simple ink spots that make George Washington look like Bozo the Clown.
The intention was always to donate the money to charity.
In January, Schmidt decided it was time to share the wall’s wealth.
The money is all negotiable as long as one serial number can be read in full and another in part, said Kitsap Bank Port Townsend branch general manager Dominic Svornich.
Money that is damaged is credited to the depositor’s account and then shipped to the Federal Reserve, where it is destroyed, Svornich said.
There is a hold period — in this case, nearly three months — where the funds are not available until the Federal Reserve makes its determination.
After the money was pulled off the walls, it was taken to Kitsap Bank’s Sequim branch, where the restaurant has its accounts.
It took two people more than two hours to count the bills, which was done with a combination of a machine and by hand.
“If a bill is in really bad shape, it will choke the machine, so we separated the ones that were going to cause a problem,” said teller Mary Simpson.
“After we finished, my hands were filthy.”
When Carson brought the money into the bank, he dropped off some candy for the tellers “because they were doing something extra.”
Kitsap Bank Marketing Director Shannon Childs said banks routinely pull damaged bills out of circulation but said having a large amount of damaged bills at one time is an unusual occurrence.
The restaurant plans to present a “large check” to the two charities in the next few weeks, Carson said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
