The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-01-21 00:00:00

THE FORGED BANK-NOTE BUSINESS
"BUSTED!"

Recent New York journals give an account of the
capture of some of the swindling firms who have been
deriving large profits from offering to send supplies of
forged zintes at the rate of 100 dole, for every 5 d•ds.
of cash remitted to them. Their offices having been
invaded by the police, it was found from their books
that they had sometimes made profits at tho rate of
1.:800 per day. It was their custom to obtain from all
parts of the countrythe names of the mostlikely dupes,
and to tempt them with circulars, stating that the
forgeries were such as to defy detection, that
the orders for them, accompanied by a remittance,
were to he addressed to the firm as if for so
many hundred cigars and that the required
quantity would forthwith be forwarded by express.
In return nothing WWI sent but boxes of rubbish, and
the victims were obliged to remain quiet or avow their
own criminality. Many of the letters of tiese parties
were found on the premises of the firms, and are pub-
lished, with the names in full, by the New York Sun.
Among them is one from an agent of an express conre
pany, offering to aid the swindlers in their operations;
another is from a writer who states himself to be a
member of the Tennessee Legislature, who ts anxious
to he a customer ; another is from a resident in the
State of Georgia, who is confident he can pass off a
great many among the negroes ; another is from one
of the keepers in a State prison, and another is from
an 'attorney and councillor at law" in the State
of Georgia, who describes himself as a member of
Congress, and consequently an "honourable," and
who gives a reference to a New York mercantile
I house. The business was carried on in the most re.
gurar manner; there was a "correspondence depart-
ment," a "mailing department," &c., and in one
of the establishments at the time of seizure there
were sacks containing, according to estimate, about I
10,000 letters from persons in all parts of the Union
desirous of this method of making their fortune.
Within the last few months firms of a similar de-
scription have addressed circulars from New Yerk
to this side offering to sell sovereigns made of alu-
minium from a vein discovered in the Perconck
Valley in the Rocky Mountains, of which they
had obtained exclusive possession. These would
be found precisely similar to gold in every re-
spect. except that the aluminium, being one-twelfth
leen ima weight, they were obliged to be made a little
thicker than the genuine coin. Their manufacture was
superintended by a person who worked in the British
Mint fer eighteen years, and they could be offered at
the price of £'2 for twenty sovereigns, or, if a quantity
were taken, at something less. Orders were to be
accompanied by a remittance, which must be in Bank
• of England notes, and were to be written as if for so
' many pounds of tobacco. Nothing appears yet to have
; been divulged as to the success of the experiment here,
but if any dupes have been found, there will now be a
great probability of their names and addresses being
. published to the world.

KING MOB AS KING RICHARD.
The diplomatic and punctilious Gladstone
No more shall be the Premler for our counsels :
liath be so long held out with us untired,
And stops he now tor breath? That halt's no R..
—Punch.