The Republican journal., 1869-08-12
TROuRL WITH THE CURRENCY.

/
! The vast amount Of irredeemable paper
money allcat in the country encourages
rogucry Of every description. Hitherto the
dishonest practices have been chiefly confined
to government officials, and those employed
i'll and about the vast machinery which pro-
duccs this currency Our readers will re-
member that last winter the fact was wrllno
out OF the keepers Of the currency bureau,
that no regular and reliable account had been
kept Of the issues of the bonds, and that, for
all the officials knew, there might be millions
entirely unauthorized ailoat
Recent important discoveries Of countcrteits
lead to the belief that there is vast quantity
of spurious trash abroad including coupons
and revenue stamps as well as treasury notes
day OF two ago the telegraph informed u
of - cent tobacco stamps had been received
at the Revenue Bureau from keokuk, Iowa
More recently there was received at the
Treasury Department a counterfeit coupon
for three dollars pulportin@ to belong to q
one hundred dollar tiye-twcntv bond, which
had been sent from Germany to New York
cashcd there and forwarded to Washington
for collection. The counterfeit was litho-
graphed and when compared with the ~cnu-
inc coupon it could be easily detected by the
most inexperienced person; rs the execution
is rough and inal'tiStic, the paper thin and com
mon, and is 4 t,ic shorter than the genuine
coupon. 1t assumed to belong to the live
twentics Of 1867, fourth series, and bore the
stamp of some German house on the back.
but too indistinctly to Dc deciphcrcd fully.
But far more dangerous counterfeit, a ten
dollar grcenback, was examined recently
by Treasurer Spinner and several Treasury
experts, who pronounced il the best executed
counterfeit that ever came under their notice;
indeed there WIS some difference Of opinion
as to IFS being Il counterfeit, even after IFS
surface had been closely scanned with Il
powerful microscope. The counterfeit is
more dimly printed than the genuine, giving
sions of large number. but in all other re-
spects it is difficult to distinguish il from a
good note, with which the comparison Was
made. Gen. Spinner adhered to the opinion
thai the note was counterfeit. while the other
experts affirmed ii to Ge genuine The note
has been sent to W. u. Shepherd, President
Of the National Note Company in New York,
to be examined there BY experts Of his Com
pany. and of the American Bank Note Com
pany, who are TO report their opinion upon if
In comparing il with the genuine, Mr. Spin
nrr claims to have discovered several tliecrrp-
ancies. The plates OF thc genuine notes are
all engraved al the right angles. 50 that by
folding Il note once. and bringing the two
ends together, the engraved edges will cover
each other perfectly. When this test was APP
piled to the alleged counterfeit it wae found
that one of the sides Wa one sixteenth OF IN
inch shorter than the other. Then. too. the
dots or periods after f f." in Spinncr,S
signature do not appear on the counterfeit,
while in the genuine they are very distinct,
These severe and intricate test confirm Spin
ncr in the belief that the note is spurious but
how are the people TO know whether they
handle the counterfeit or the genuine if the
former is close M imitation of the latter aS
to defy the ability OF experts and even resist
the test Of powerful lenses Possibly one
half the currency in circulation may be conn
tcrleit. but which half the innocent and trust
inc public may never know