Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1867-11-25
The c.un.erte. On. Thousand Dollar

CAPTURE or PLATES.
Colonel William r Wood, chIef Of The secret
Service at the Treasury Department. with his
Efficient corps Of officers, has been actively eu
gagged for some weeks past In searching for the
counterfeit ers OF the s. 900 seven-thirIy NOES
which were discovered to be In circr ,ation a
snert ume sGo, and last week sue ceedsd In Sc
curing three electrctype plates from which the
spurious notes were made, and arrested sew
eraI persons upon the charge OF being engaged
ic the count.'rfeitipg, as noticed IN the SrAR OF
Saturday. The plstes have been brought to
this city. and sre nov at the Treasury Depart
nent Tney are as near fac sissiieS of tue
or gina plates " 10 possible to make electro.
types, but have been considers bly, defaced by
scratching and bauering; but thsFe is uuQues-
ilonasie evidence that they are the plates from
winch the spurious notes were made.
These plates have undou btedly been electro
typed from lead impressions taken OF the orig,.
al engraved plates. such impressions could
oe obtained oy any plate printer engaged upon
the work, by preparing sheets of lead the size
OF the notes, and seizng an opportunity to take
an impression Just as Ii il were on paper. The
minutest cuts ana marks of the engrave plate,
and produces q negative, from which, by the
ordinary process Of eiectrefypins, fac simiie
OF the ORIGINAL plate can be easily produced.
The peculiar process OF rolling does not, on &C.
count OF the ie.diDg and spreading OF the lead,
always leave upon the sheet lie ad precisely the
same impression as upon paper, but It Is in
general appearance so nearly the same in every
experts. TPs. AR, tim. mi. ,ro.... ,.r.,,...
plate printer there. since deceased. by the name
OF Frederick p. Gorb am, " as engaged In print
ing notes for one Of the New Haven banks
one On OF his workmsn stole lead impressions Of
were made, and the spurious notes printed
ieerefrom were go exactly like the originals
that with the exception of the counterfsited
signature they were believed by the officers of
the bank TO be genuine. unit. the electrotype
plates were put in their possession.
Subsequently Edwin M Laneton, a printer
CRAVING Company. stole q lead impression of
the i've dollar national bank note plate. The
elee rotyPe made from this impression was
afterwards secured and delivered to Mr.. Dun.
bar, then president of the Continen; al Com
pany, by an officer Of the secret service diyi-
sion of the Treasury Department This man,
ployed in the Printing Bureau fthe Treasury
Department, and while there stole impressions
of the backs of the twenty, one hundred, and
i've hundred dollar compound interest notes.
But one OF these. the one hundred dollar spu-
rIous note, was ever put IN circulation. Lane.
ton was subsequently killed, as it is supposed,
oy the procurement of his confedera,es.
1t has been stated that these notes were
printed at the Treasury Department, but such
is not the fact On he genuine plate the notes
are lettered A, b, T., and ID, and numbered.
consecuuvely, one. two, three, four, &c, 90
that the odd numbers appear only on the let
ters and g, and the even numbers on the
letters Il and ID. and the numbe of all the
notes lettered ID are invariably multiples OF
four. The spurious notes are lettered only A
and X, and their numbers do not correspons
win the rule OF numbering in the Department.
The capture OF the electrotype plates, however.
sets a. rest the question of their beicg entirely
spurious
During his investigation, Cot. Wood cap
tored complete steel plates for engraving the
fronts and backs of one thousand dollar Fl We
twenty bonds. They are scratched so as to
prevent their use, but are excellent pieces of
engraving.
1t has been definitely ascertajned that only
>icV,NO OF the spurious seven thirtles were put
IN circulation and the rest that were printed
were destroyed. so that no lders OF seven-thirty
notes VINO had them in possession previous 10
august, 1907, may be sure that they are genu-
Inc. as the spurious issue was not put out un-
M afterwards-as nearly as can De ascsrtained,
between the 18th and Goth OF September These
were then passed only by professional .sshov-
ers, IN large amounts, upon bankers and
brokers.
Col. Wood is still after the counterfeiters
and no doubt important arrests Will be made
il the course Of few days.