Case ID: va_40/html/0430-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CTJRIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

*The Commonwealth v. Scott.
    June, 1842.
    Counterfeiting-—Indictment—Sufficiency of.—An indictment on the statute of 1834-5, ch. 66, charging that the prisoner did knowingly have in his custody, without lawful authority or excuse, "one die or instrument” for the purpose of producing and impressing the stamp and similitude of the current silver coin called a half dollar, (no further describing the die or instrument) is insufficient.
    In the circuit superior court of Ohio county, at October term 1841, an indictment was found against Thomas Scott, charging that he, on &c. at &c. “one die or instrument for the purpose of making, producing and impressing the figure, stamp, resemblance and similitude of the lawful silver coin current within this commonwealth, called a half dollar, did falsely, feloniously, without lawful authority and without lawful excuse, knowingly have in his custody and possession, against the form of the act of the general assembly,” &c. The indictment was founded upon the statute of March 10, 1835, Acts of 1834-5, ch. 66, p. 47.* After a verdict *finding the prisoner guilty, and ascertaining the term of his imprisonment in the penitentiary to be five years, he moved the court to arrest the judgment, because of the insufficiency of the indictment; and the court, with his assent, adjourned to this court the question, Ought the judgment to be arrested for insufliciencj7 of the indictment?
    
      
      See monographic note on “Forgery and Counterfeiting” appended to Coleman v. Com., 25 Gratt 865, and monographic note on “Indictments, Informations anc Presentments” appended to Boyle v. Com., 14 Gratt. 674.
    
    
      
      “If any person or persons, without lawful authority, such as is hereinafter mentioned, shall engrave, cut, etch, scrape, or by any other art, means or device make, or shall cause or procure to be engraved &c. or shall knowingly aid or assist in the engraving &c. in or upon any plate of copper, brass, steel, iron, pewter, or upon any other metal or mixture of metal, or upon wood or other material, or any plate whatsoever, for the purpose of producing a print or impression of all or any part or parts of any bank note &c. or of any coin current within this commonwealth, whether made current by law or usage, or shall use any such plate so en - graved &p. or shall use any other instrument or contrivance, for the making or printing any such note &c. or any such current coin, or if any person or persons shall, without law ful authority as aforesaid and without lawful excuse, knowingly have in his, her or their custody any such plate or instrument, every person so offending in any of the cases aforesaid, and being thereof convicted according to law, shall be adjudged a felon, and, if a free person, shali be punished by confinement in the public j ail and penitentiary for not less than five nor more than twenty years.”—Note in Original Edition.
    
   PER CTJRIAM.

The judgment ought to be arrested for the insufficiency of the indictment.