The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-20 00:00:00

C 0 UN TERFEIT- NOTES- _TY AMERICA.

Out of 1,389 banks in the United States, only
253 have escaped the attempts at imitation by one
or other of the many species of frauds ; and, out of
this 253, at least 143 are not worth counterfeiting ;
so that, in round numbers, out of 1,300 bank-notes
issued but 100 are not counterfeited. The rule is
that the better the bank the more the counterfeits.
All the New York City notes are counterfeited ex-
cept three, and of these two are closing institutions,
and one does not issue any notes ! The only State
(besides lowa, which has but one bank) whose bank-
notes are not counterfeited is Florida. The reason
is plainly because the genuine notes of the four
banks in that State are all of doubtful value. So in
all the Seceded States, where the paper currency is
much depreciated, counterfeiting is at a low tide.
Maryland has only four bank-note issues not coun-
terfeited out of 33, and of these four one is at a
heavy discount. The great State of Massachusetts,
with her 182 banks, has only seven whose issues are
not counterfeited. And yet Massachusetts is the
only State where there is an association for the
prevention of counterfeiting. Of the 295 banks in
New York State the issues of only 45 are not coun-
terfeited. After deducting from the list of banks
whose issues are not counterfeit the " wild-cat,"
the " shaky," the closing, the closed, the worthless,
those not yet in operation, and those which are
new, the list of uncounterfeited bank-notes grows
small and (not beautifully) less. The total num-
ber of kinds of counterfeits in circulation is
5,902, so far as those most interested in keeping
the record can determine. How many thousand of
each of these kinds, or of many other kinds, are in
circulation, is known, of course, only to the origi •
nators of the frauds.

But the analysis of the different species teaches
us a wholesome lesson as to the facility for frauds
which our paper money presents to the counter-
feiter. But a very small portion of our bad bills is
composed of "imitations," or bona fide counterfeits
of the genuine notes. This is accounted for by the
difficulty of producing counterfeits in the same
way that the originals are manufactured. Even of
the 461 " imitations" out of 5,902 different kinds of
fraudulent notes, the great majority is set down as
badly done, poorly executed, engraving coarse, &c.
The frauds are, however, effected in many other
ways—viz., by alterations from one bank to ano-
ther, or from a lower to a higher denomination ;
by spurious notes, well engraved, but unlike
genuine except in name, by photography, litho-
graphy, &c. The alterations number highest on
the list, and count up 3,039 varieties out of the
total number of 5,902 frauds, or more than half of
our bad bills consist of altered notes. One cause of
this multiplicity of altered notes is the remarkable
similarity of names occurring among the banks in
this country.
We find 24 Union banks, of which eight are in
New York State; 23 city banks, of which four are
in New York State ; 23 farmers' banks, of which
seven are in New York State. There are eight
people's banks, six traders' banks, 14 farmers' and
and mechanics' banks, 10 market banks. Then we
have mechanics' and manufacturers,' mechanics'
and traders,' mechanics' and farmers,' meehanics'
and merchants', mechanics' and planters' banks ad
libitum, and all those titles transposed. Likewise far-
mers' and citizens', farmers' and manufacturers',
farmers' and merchants', farmers' and mechanics',
farmers' and exchange banks, all tending to con-
fuse by the similarity of title, especially since the
name of the State is often placed in an obscure
corner of the note, so as not to attract attention,
and give a poor bank the benefit of the circulation
of a good bank of the same Name. Thus, when a
New Yorker sees the Orange County Bank, his
mind will naturally revert to our land of milk and
butter, and he may take the note, not thinking there
is an Orange Bank in New Jersey, and an Orange
Bank in Vermont, or perchance an Orange Bank in
Washington, D.C. So, in the palmy days of the
Washington shinplasters, bogus banks were started
with names similar to our best city banks, by which
means many citizens «ere swindled, they having
supposed, on taking the bills, that they were tak-
ing city money. The evil was greatly heightened
by the fact that the same engravers who engraved
the good money engraved the bad, so that in many
cases it required the closest scrutiny to distinguish
the good from the bad ; so close was the resem-
blance, in fact, that when some of the bogus banks
collapsed, the bad money was easily altered so as
to be more like the good by simply changing the
name of the State. This is indeed one of the most
fruitful sources of altered notes, the bad notes of a
popular name being available for frauds of good
banks of the same name in other States. The beauti-
ful and apparently secure style of engraving bank
notes generally adopted in this country in reality
facilitates counterfeiting, because the small de-
nominations can be easily erased and larger
ones substituted. The practice, which has prevailed
to a great extent, of using parts of bank-notes for
other purposes, has enabled counterfeiters to obtain
possession of denominational figures, which are
readily printed into any required spot of a note to
be altered.

Another aid to alterations of bank-notes is the
repeated and frequent use of the same devices on
the notes of different banks, and often of different
banks of the same name. A counterfeit of one note
is a counterfeit of parts of many others, so that the
labours of the counterfeiter are greatly simplified.
These peculiarities of the present system of bank-
note engraving were strikingly illustrated in two
of the most successful counterfeiting operations
ever known.
In the first instance a United States Treasury
note was actually engraved by the engril°51.0 who
d
executed the original, who were, without Suspicion
on their part, employed by the counterfeiter to o
the counterfeit. The same dies or stamps were,
i
therefore, used to do both the original and counter-
feit. In the second instance (the great Austrian
bank forgery of 1858),
soinceiotrtbe unknown to
most respectable
and capable artists of the y were,
executing the counterfeit.
themselves, engaged in
e o f r
elxnacbtloyththattheosfethiensfitrasnt
onn
cecsthtefeit er
plan
pursued was
the Bank
of England note,
more than 100 years ago, In all
three cases the
counterfeiters were not artists.
Jerry Cowsden, the most successful of
From the time of Vaughan, who was a linendraper,
counterfeiters, the greater number and
down to
American
most dangerous counterfeits have been produced
by men who were not artists.
Next in number to the altered notes come the
spurious, and it is curious to observe the relations

PRICE..... ~..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

which these two species of fraud have to each other
as compared with their relations in past years.
Spurious notes resemble only in name the notes for
which they are intended to pass. The counterfeiter
relies upon the ignorance of the public as to the
appearance of the genuine note. He uses ' rolcpri
and bogus bank plates, sometimes carefully altering
the states and signatures so as to have the fraud
present the semblance of goodness. While only
about two-thirds of our bank-note issues were coun-
terfeited in 1856 about four fifths are counterfeited
now. There is a decrease of imitations or real coun-
terfeits, because the facilities for alterations have
increased to such an extent that, instead of 1,119 in
1856, we have 3,039 different kinds in 1862. The
spurious notes have also increased from 224 to
1,685 varieties, and the miscellaneous frauds from
142 to 717 varieties. The total increase in the
number of banks was only about 72, while the in-
crease of counterfeiting of all kinds was nearly
3,000 varieties. How many of each variety was
issued, as already remarked, is known only to the
counterfeiter. Making the moderate estimate of
1,000 dols. of each variety in circulation, we have a
total amount of nearly 6,000,000 dols. (and possibly
60,000,000 dols. are afloat) of bad money constantly
passing from hand to hand, destroying confidence
in the circulating medium, embarrassing trade, and
presenting an appalling evidence of moral turpi-
tude.—New York Times.

71TE BIGHT OF FREE SPEECH VINDI-
CATED IN NASSACTIUSETTS.

We take from the Boston Courier the following
full report of tho trial mentioned in our New York
correspondent's letter. It will be found extremely
interesting, and certainly the speech of the prisoners'
counsel was " free" enough :
" At the examination of the Gordons for treason
in Boston, R. H. Dana, juu., the District Attorney,
appeared, and said in substance that there was no
statute of the United States under which the
Gordons could be held merely for expressions of
hostility to the Government, or for receiving intel-
ligence from the South ; that such things were not
actually treason, there being no overt acts proved ;
that the line must be drawn somewhere, and that,
although the conduct of the Gordons was pretty
close up to it, he must enter a none proscqui in the
case.

" Mr. H. M. Parker replied that, after what had
been said by the Attorney, it was his duty to pro-
test against any disposition of the case, except by a
hearing and determination by the magistrate. He
said that no one of the five Gordons had been guilty
even of improper talk, except Henry, the youngest.
He warned those self-constituted committees that
the community would not tolerate such inferences
as they had been guilty of. He thought the counsel
for the defendants ought to have an opportunity to
vindicate the character of these men. He had not
himself preferred to argue this case, having from
the beginning left that to the junior counsel, Mr.
Sennot. .

"Mr. Dana said that an argument in the case
after Government had abandoned it would be use-
less ; but if anything could be said in vindication
of the Gordons it would be quite fair to allow it.
" Mr. Sennott was obliged to the District Attor-
ney for that. He said that, after what the Gor-
dons had suffered, it would be no advantage to
them to argue their case. What they wanted
their counsel to do was to vindicate their charac-
ter, and to expose the meanness of their prose-
cutors. This he proposed to do now.
"He then addressed the Commissioners in a
speech, from which we make the following extracts:

" THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH.

" ' I declare before God that, as I understand that
right, I value it more than Ido my life ! And I call
this whole country to witness if I have not before
now proved the sincerity of this declaration by my
actions ! And the right I vindicated at the hazard
of my life, before a Southern tyrant, I will not
give up, for the sake of my business, to a Yankee
sneak. Neither shall the Gordons. Their case is ours.
We are tried with them. And in defending them we
defend ourselves and country from a gang compared
with whom Col. Ledbetter is humane, and General
Floyd respectable. Mr. Sumner was once the ad-
vocate of free speech. He claimed to be almost one
of its martyrs ; and in defence of it, or in conse-
quence of it, he certainly was the victim of a cow-
ardly assault, inflicted with a ferocity and endured
with a meekness unexampled in the annals of
cudgelling ! He now changes his opinion, or at
least his language. With that felicity of illusion
which belongs, among the public writers of Ame-
rica, to him and to Governor Andrew alone, ho
advises his friends to put their ' heels' upon those
who differ from them, and who dare to speak out.
The advice is given in a letter to the late war meet-
ing at New York. Is this prosecution an experi-
ment made upon poor mechanics, by a few small
conspirators, in pursuance of an agreement between
the principal Thugs at Washington, in order, if it
works well, to sacrifice more important victims to
the Abolition Kalee ? I do not know. I know
that tne gentlemen of the Republican party do not
countenance it, and that it will fail here, because,
to reach their political opponents, they must cat
down their political and personal friends. If free
speech is treason here, our excellent Governor would
speedily be known as the late unlamented John A.
Andrew, for his speech is exceedingly free and easy
—quite loose, as you may say. Then, what would
become of Mr. Phillips ? Does he speak in favour
of the Government ? Has he ever said anything in
favour of any Government except that of Hayti ?
Did he not lately advise a large and patriotic as-
sembly not to give a man or a dollar to the Govern-
ment of the United States ? And did not that
patriotic society applaud that liberal suggestion ?
Shall we prosecute Mr. Phillips, therefore ? Not
with my goodwill. Not without my active resist-
ance_ I should violate the very first principles of
Democracy, which is greater to me than anything
r
but the Word of God himself, if I did not fight
who
to
Mr. Phillip's right to talk treason to 5339 fool
wants to hear him."
Taoor S ON
" WHAT WAS SAID OF THE IRISH
LEAVING BOSTON.
When the regiment of the late Colonel Cass
•
battalion,
went off, without an escort even of the 2d
it was not actually hissed in State-street, as was the
Massachusetts regiment on its return from Mexico,
but the agreeable remark was made and heard that
the departure of the Irish would he a great relief to
our poorhouses and gaols. The Governor or his
friends may SO' 6°
about Colonel Cass's countrymen
the
Irish, without committing treason or even giv-
ing We are notw accuse talking so badly
ing offbout en
Mr. Andre's countr d of
even a Yu:len—the negroes
—yet we are prosecuted!'
WHAT MR. SENNOTT THINKS OF SECRETARY