Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-02-06
Counterfeit Bank Note Engrayior
Rhe RMsiness Dying sluI

A Detroit Ne,rs reporter has conversed. tn the
iol.o"ing effect, with the Assistant United
counterfeit bank bills:
at is much easier to pass coin now-a-davs.-
SAID Mr.. flnney, land so spurious bank bill en-
craving has gone somewhat out of fashion You
must rec0llect that il is a crime against the
government to counterfeit any bank bill.
wiener state or national. The penalty Is a
terribly severe one, and the expense and labor
OF getting up good counterfeit are very great.
me plates must be made with extreme care
and require months Of hard work They are
worth about $500 each. Then comes the max
Ing OF the paper-a very difficult matter-and
the printing. After the bills have been finished
they must be made to look Old and dirty so as
the more readily to escape observation This
Is done by sleeping them in strong coffee and
running them through machine which leaves
them exactly like an Old, fiimsy, brownfsh vel
81 should think" said the renorter stbata
bill might lie made so exactly like the genuine
that the cheat would never be discoyered?"
Wen, they sometimes come very close to it."
replied MIR. Finney, .'but all human beings are
Iallible. and ditto the bank bill cOunterfeiter
There is always some little defect which es-
capeS his eye-a tiny number left out, an infini-
,esimai law In the scroll work, slight change
IN the Signature, so very slight that micrOs-
cope would hardly reveal it. The bill viii sooner
or later get to bank and fall into the clutches of
an expert.
However. there have been cases where the
pad bill could not be distinguished from the
genuine without the greatest difficulty. even by
tht expert uitlSeI. IDree or four years ago
the Traders National Bank of Chicago was
compelled to call in It's entire issue of S. notes
because such counterfeit had been discovered
nave IN THIS scrap DOCK, as you see. a 300 bill
! winch caused the arrest and conviction OF GER
taln Detroit physician, several years ago. This
bill was such a splendid piece OF work that 1t
went through the banks without any difficulty
until the question was raised as to its genuine
ness and even then it had to be sent to the
| nted States Treasury and studied by govern
ment experts before its true character could be
aSCertained,
several years ago a counterfeiter named
tIlich " as uueaftled in Ohio, and among his
effects the officers found plate for one side of
:, 5000 bank biil-IuSt finished. The spurious
plate was run through the government press
WITH government ink and government paper
and turned out bill which absolutely deiied
detection by government experts The latter
were unable to detect one Of the counterfeits
When placed among number OF genuine bills
The other half OF the counterfeit was never
finished. II II had been, perhaps UIrich would
nave died millionaire instead OF going to a
teien'S cell.
''Theie are very few engrayels OF counter
ielt bank bills in the United States and they
are all related TO each other by marriage Four
or nve gangs OF families comprise the whole
NUMBER The members OF the different gangs
intefnarfy Tor purposes OF mutual safety. and
they all hold themselves alOof from the vulgar
herd OF coin counterfeters. They NAV in fact
he called the ariStocratS OF the profession. Ar
rests for forging bank notes are very rare and
conviction is always followed by a sentence
That causes a mans hair to assume the perpen-
dlcular. 1t is long time since any such case
has been tried in Detroit