The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-07-17
Counterreiters ana their Tricks.

Counterfeiting the currency of the
than is generally supposed. There is q
large number Of men, women and chill
dren engaged In the business. 1t has
almost become national industry.
Two causes combine to make 1t so eX-
tensive--one, the difficulty Of capturing
counterfeiters, and the other, the small
number of men who are specially en-
ployed III the detection Of that class Of
criminals. Every coin issued by the
government has been counterfeited and
every issue Of legal tenders and almost
every issue Of national bank notes has
been similarly dealt with. There are
more counterfeit coins made than coun-
terfeit notes, and more counterfeits
of national banks are put OH the mar
ket than Of legal tenders. The rcadi-
ness with which coins can be counter
feited and the small capital required to
enter into the business Is the cause of
the magnitude Of such operations. Five
or six dollars is enough to set man up
In the business of making spurious
attention chiefly to the quarter and
half dollar silver pieces, though they
by no means contlne themselves there
TO. The outfit for the work consists of
few genuine coins, some antimony,
lead, type metal, pulverized glass, Il
small galvantc battery, a crude milling
machine and n moderate supply Of
ri or nf Do nix A. or
Paris they make the moulds--very per-
feet ones-of the coin, Sometimes in
one mould there will be cavities exactly
the size Of all the silver coins, with the
Imp esslon Of one side on one-half Of
the mould and the other bearing the
fac smile OF the reverse. The base
metal, antimony, lead, type metal and
pulverized glass-though tin Is some
times used-is melted and poured into
the mould. When sufficiently cooled
the metal Is taken out. The coin has
dingy, rough and not at all deceiv
Ing look. 1t Is smoothed with n knife
As far as possible, the rough edges be-
Ing cut off. 1t Is next run cdgewise
through small milling machine,
which generally consists Of two small
cogged-whecls. This makes the
notches around the edge. All that is
now left to give the coin pretty de-
cent appearance as genuine Is a coating
of silver. This the counterfciter Sc
cures from genuine coins. The genu-
inc coin subjected to the action of the
battery, soon looses some Of It's silver.
Before It Is sufficiently dissolved to
totally deface 1t, the coin Is taken out.
Enough genuine silver Is In this way
procured from single coin to plate
dozen counterfeits, and the original
looks after the operation, as If 1t was
but little worn, and can readily be
passed. This process Is called "swcat-
ing" The work Is very simple. a
good hand at the business can make
his moulds of plaster Of Paris and be-
gin turning out spurious pieces all in
two or three hours. In counterfeit
gold coins the same method Is pursued,
genuine gold coin substituted for the
silver one in the sweo ting, being the
only change. 1t Is much more difficult
however, to get decent looking gold
counterfeit than 1t Is one Of silver;
therefore there Is not much doing In
that line Of business. The use of pull
verified glass In the composition Of
counterfeit coins is for the purpose Of
giving them "ring" something like
that possessed by the genuine metal.
They can always be detected, however
by their weight, never being as heavy
as the genuine.