The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-07-31

ing used tor national bank notes and
legal tenders. 1t was found that the
stock of paper had been counted but
once (about five years ago) in ten years.
The room in which it is stored is in
the subbasement of the building; the
corridors leading thereto are poorly
lighted, and seldom visited, except by
workmen employed in shops on the same
floor. Six persons have access to this room
at any time during working hours, and
any one of the six can open packages of
this paper that have been counted and
stored, abstract from so to 100 sheets at a
time and place the bundles so tampered
where they would not be reached for
years.
A man so disposed may, by the with
drawal of small quantities at a time, be-
come in the end dishonest possessor of
a large stock of this paper. No surveil-
lance is kept on the movements of these
men, and the theft would remain undis-
covered till a count was made or the
supply exhausted.
What has been said of the paper, ap-
plies also, only with still greater force
to the custody of the dies, rolls, bed
pieces, and plates from which the secu-
rites are printed in the bureau. The
pnrloining of these is especially to be
guarded against. The Government has
not placed such checks upon them rs to
render their abstraction impossible, nor
can they, by the present arrangement
for doing the work.
A bed piece is plate of steel the size
of the note or coupon, etc., to be printed,
having the entire of such note, ETC., er.
graved on its surface, and this being
finished, the piece is hardened.
A roll is small cylindrical piece Of
steel having on its surface, in relief, the
entire engraved work that is on the sur
face of the bed piece; this also, after re-
ceiving the impression, is hardened. 1t
is made while the steel is soft by being
run over the hardened bed piece, so that
the entire engraved work on the surface
of the bed piece is transferred to its out
side surface by pressure.
The plates are large pieces of steel
from which the notes bonds, stamps,
etc., are printed, and vary in size from
that of four notes, each, as legal tenders,
to coupon bond, and are made by hav-
ing the work from the roll transferred to
their surface by pressure. There are
three (3) bed pieces (also called dies)
and three (3) rolls, from which the plates
for each denomination of notes are made
viz: one for the green printing on the
back, one for the black printing on the
face and one for the red seal.
Heretofore, to insure security, it was
deemed necessary to have these separate
dies, ETC., and the several printings on
such note, made by different institutions,
but John Sherman saw fit, contrary to
law, to bring this entire printing into one
bureau, and, to have the entire engraved
stock of dies, bed pieces. rolls and plates,
for printing legal tenders, bonds, and
the backs, faces and seals of each, held
in one vault. The custodian 10 this
vault and his assistants alone have ac-
cess to it; in the course of their daily
duties they so in and out at pleasure,
and there is no difficulty securing for
unlawful purposes the bed pieces from
which the back, the face, and the
seal of any denominations of notes, from
one dollar to one thousand dollars, or all
of them, are printed, and make from
them rolls ian operation of but q
few minutes), by which an unlimited
number of plates can be prepared.
These bed pieces are rarely called into
use after the roll has been made, the set
of three could be conveniently carried in
an inside pocket, and as the preparation
of roll requires but short time, these
bed pieces could be taken away at the
close of work, and restored in the morn
ing, until one of each denomination had
been obtained, and by them plates pre-
pared for printing millions of dollars of
genuine notes. The vault containing
this material has often been left open
and accessible for hours at time to any
one who could get into the Bureau.
| 1t is strange that each of the last three
Presidential elections has been followed
| by Treasury announcement that large
amounts of "counterfeit" notes were
ahoat. In 1869 the whole issue of legal
tenders was withdrawn and replaced, on
the ground that they had been largely
and skilfully counterfeited. In 1873 the
whole issue of $500 greenbacks-about
$35, 900, ,000-was withdrawn and re-
placed in the same way. In 1877 q
counterfeit 81 900 note was announced.
One of the oldest engrayers in the coun-
try testifes that when note is so Like
the original that it cannot easily be de-
tected-as these and other "counterfeits"
are said by Treasury officials to bet
cannot really be counterfeit, but must
be genuine note surreptitiously printed
from genuine plates, or from secret re-
productions of these plates. Other ex-
perts testify that genuine plate, after
being secretly made, can be altered with
a graver in small details enough to make
it seem counterfeit to any non-expert.
In 1865 Hank Hall, q noted counter
feiter in New York, hired two plate
printers named Lankton, to 60 to Wash
ington, get employment in the Printing
Bureau, and there steal copies of every
note plate the Government was using.
They did steal copies (by printing on
lead sheets instead of paper of several
notes, and could have stolen all had not
a quarrel sprang up.
A brief inspection of the Treasurer's
books revealed the fact that S19,000,000
of notes were at one time secretly atioat
for several months, the Treasury state
ments being false during that time to
that extent; and the fact of that secret
issue remained unknown till lighted on
by the Glover committee. The books
were falsifed, and balance forced to
conceal this secret issue, by untruly
stating that S19,000,000 had been depos-
tied as temporary loan, when no such
deposit took place.
From 1867 to 1873, while the amount
of grecnbacks authorized by law was
$3.50, ,000,0 900, the Trcasurer's books re-
yealed the fact that repeatedly the
amount ahoat was $2,000,000 above the
authorized amount in the middle of the
month, enough being turned over for de-
struction on the last day of the month
| Al @1t,l Joo,,, IN COCK nm Q00