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

beside large amount of national bank
note, funded loan bond, and old fraction.
al currency paper; of the latter, part is be-
ing used for 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 i; 10 stored is in
the subbasement Of the building; the
corridors leading there.o are poorly
lighted, and seldom tisited, except by
workmen employed in shops on the same
iioor Six persons have access TO this room
at any time during working hours, and
any one OF the six C; Il open packages of
this paper that have been counted end
stored, abstract from so to 100 sheets at
time and place the bundles so tampcred
where they would not be reached for
years.
A man SO disposed may, by the with
| drawal OF small quantities at time, be-
| come in the end a dishonest possessor of
n large stock Of this paper Nosurvei-
iHncc is kept on the movements Of these
men, and the theft would remain undis-
covered till count was made Or the
supply exhausted
What has been said Of the paper, ap-
plies also, only with a still greater force
to the custody Of the dies, rolls, ped
pieces, and plates from which tn secu-
rites are printed in the burcaL The
purloining of these is especially to be
guarded against. The Government has
not placed such checks upon them IA to
render their abstraction impossible, nor
can they, by the present arrangement
for doing the work.
i u ,tntn r ,I
OF the note or coupon, etc, tC eprintcd,
having the entire Of such no,r, ctc.. ci
gravcd on its surface and this being
finished, the piece is hardened.
A roll is "A small cylindrical piece of
steel having on lis surface, in relief, the
entire engraved work that is on the sur
face of the bed piece; this also, after re-
cciving tile impression, is hardened. 1t
is made while the steel is soft by being
run over the hardened bed piece, 80 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, aud 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 tie
| face and one for the red seal.
heretofore, to insure security, it was
deemed necessary to have these separate
dies, etc., and the several printinga on
such note, made by different institutions,
but John Sherman saw iit 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
i'll one vault. The custodian TO this
vault and his assistants alone have nc-
cess to it; in the course of their daily
duties they go i'll 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 denomination of notes. from
one dollar to one thousand dollars, or all
| of them, are printed, and make from
| them rolls IAN operation of but n
few minutes), by which m unlimited
number of plates can be prepared.
These bed pieces are rarely called into
use after the roll hns been made, the set
of three could be conveniently carried in
an inside pocket, and MS the preparation
OF roll requires but short time, these
bed pieces could be taken away Mt the
closc of work, and restored in the morn
| iag, 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 n time TO any
one who could get into tho 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
ailoat In 1869 the whole issue of legal
tenders was withdrawn and replaced, on
the ground that they had been largely
and skiltully counterfeited In 1873 the
whale Issue CT SjG1 Ereenbhchs-ubout
s$335 ,01H ,160-was Withdrawn and re-
placed in the same way. In 1877 II
counterfeit 81 900 note was announced.
One Of the oldest cngrayers in the coun
try testifics that when IL note is so Like
the original that it cannot easily be de-
tectcd-as these and other "counterfets"
are said by Treasury officials to bet
cannot really be counterfeit, but must
be genuine note surrrptitiousy printed
from genuine plates, or from secret re-
productions of these plates. Other cx-
perts testify that II genuine plate, after
being secretly made, can be altered with
gravcr in small details enough to make
1t seem counterfeit to any non.expcrt.
In 1865 Hank Hall, n noted counter
feiter in New York. hired two nlste
printers named Lankton, to 70 to Wash.
ington, get employment in the Printing
Burean, and there steal copies of cverV
note plate the Government was using
they did steal copies iby printing on
iead sheets instead Of paper) of several
notes, and could have stolen all had not
quarrel sprang up.
A brief inspection of the Treasurer,s
books revealed the fact that $4,000, 900
OF notes were ut one time secretly atloat
Tor 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 falsiiied, and q balance forced to
conceal this secret issue, by untruly
stating that $l9,OO0,000 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
S3h6, ,00O,0 ,0G0, he Treasurer's books re-
veaicd the fact that repeatedly the
amount aiiont 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 tho month
In t,Nt,. h. II 50.