East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1865-11-29
THE COINERs.
From tho Diary of q Detective.


a During the year 1S47 the West was
flooded with counterfeit coin. 1t was
so well manufactured that it passed
readily. The evil at last became so
great that the United States authcri-
ties requested that n skillful detective
might be sent to ferret out the nest Of
coiners. / was fixed upon to perform
that duty.
had nothing TO guide me. The
fact, however, that Chicago was the
city where the counterfeit coin was
most abundant, led me to suspect that
the mandatory was somewhere with
in its limits. 1t was, therefore, TO the
capital Of the West that proceeded.
l spent five weeks in the city without
gaining the slightest clue to tho coun-
terfeiters.
/ began to grow discouraged, and
really thought / should be Obliged to
return home without having achieved
any result. One day / received let
ter from my wife requesting me to
sond oorno mao"e;', shn WAS ont of
funds. / went TO the bank and asked
for a draft, at the same time handing
sum of money to pay for it, in which
there were several half dollars. The
clerk pushed three of them back to
me, saying, Counterfeit"
"What!" said /, "you don't mean
to tell me those half dollars arc coun-
terfeit z"
81 do"
Are you certain ?"
Perfectly certain. They arc re-
markably well executed, but arc def
cient in weight. See for yourself"
And he placed one of them in the
balance against a genuine half dollar,
and the latter brought up the former.
"This is tho bestcounterfeit coin l
ever saw in my life exclaimed, ex-
amining them closely. Is all the
counterfeit money in circulation here
of the same character as this 7"
40 dear, no" the clerk replied, ait
is not nearly so well done. These are
the work of the famous New York
counterfeiter, Ned Willett. 1 know
em-well, for l have handled a great
many in my time. Here is some OF
the money that is circulating here"
he added, taking half dollars from q
drawer. "You see that the milling
is not so vel. done as Ned Willett's,
although this is pretty good too"
i compared the two and found that
ho was right. l supplied the place OF
the three counterfeits with good coin,
and returned the former to my pocket.
A few days after this l received in
formation which caused me to take n
journey to small village about thirty
miles from Chicago. 1 arrived there
at night and took up my quarters at
the only tavern in the place. 1t was
a wretched dwelling, and kept by an
old man and woman, the surlicst
couple, i think, it has ever boon my
lot to meet. In answer to whether /
could have a lodging there that night,
l noticed that the host gave particu-
lar look at his wife, and after some
whispering / was informed in the most
ungraciops manner possible that /
could have bed.
1 have frequently in the course OF
my life been obliged to put up with
wretched accommodations, so / did not
allow my equanimity of temper to be
destroyed by the miserable sleeping
apartments into which l was ushered
after / had finished my repast.
The chamber was of small size, and
certainly well ventilated, for / could
see the stars through the roof The
bed was simply bag of straw, thrown
into ono corner of the room, without
sheet or covering Of any kind. This
last fact, however, was not much con-
sequence, as it was summer and op.
pressively hot.
/ stood for moro than an hour gaz.
ing out of the opening which served
for window. Before me was an i'm.
mense prairie, the limits Of which
could not see. The tavern in which
I had taken up my abode appeared tc
be isolated from oil other dwellings,
and save the croak of the tree-toad
and the hum of the locust, not sound
reached my ear. IL was a beautiful
moonlight night, SO bright that / could
sec to read the smallest print.
! At last began TO grow weary, and
throwing myself on my pallet l was