Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-02-20
yos Suseles Aerald.
Counterfeit Note Engraving.


A Detroit Nei0s reporter has con-
versed to the following effect with
the Assistant United States DIS.
trict Attorney upon the subject Oh
counterfeit bank bills:
t'It Is much easier to pass coin
now y-a-days," said Mr.. Finney,
uand 80 spurious bank bill engrav-
ing has gone somewhat out Of fash
ion. You must recollect that it is
q crime against the Government to
counterfeit any bank bill, whether
State or national. The penalty is
. terribly severe one, and the ex-
pense and labor of getting up a
GOOD counterfeit are very great.
The plates must be made with ex-
treme 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 ma
chine which leaves them exactly
like an old, flimsy, brownish, yell
low bill.n
II should think,n said the re-
porter, "that bin might be made
so exactly like the genuine that
the cheat would never be discov-
eredn
"Well, they sometimes come
very close to it,n replied Mr.. Fin
ney, "but all human beings are fal-
lible, and ditto the bank bill coun-
terfeiter. There is always some
little defect which escapes his eye
"a tiny number left out, an ln-
finitessimal flaw in the scroll work,
aslight change in the signature,
SO very slight that a microscope
would hardly reveal it. The bill
will sooner or later get to the bank
and fall into the clutches of an ex-
pert.
ssHowever, there have been cases
where the bad bill could not be dis
tlnguished from the genuine with
out the greatest difficulty, even by
the expert himself. Three or four
years ago the Traders National
Bank of Chicago was compelled to
call in its entire issue of So notes
because such counterfeit had been
discovered. 1 have in this scrap
book, as you see, Sl00 bill which
caused the arrest and conviction OF
certain Detroit physician, several
years ago. This bill was such a
splendid piece of work that it went
through the bank without difficulty
until the question was raised as TO
its genuineness, and even then 1t
had to be sent to the United States
Treasury and studied by Govern
ment experts before its true char
acter could be ascertained.
"Several years ago a counter
feiter named Ulrich was unearthed
in Ohio, and among his effects the
officers found a plate for one side
of a $500 bank bill-just finished.
The spurious plate was run through
the government press, with gov
ernment ink and paper, and turned
out bill which absolutely deied
detection by government experts.
Tue 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. If it had been,
perhaps UIrich would have died a
millionaire instead of going to a
felon's cell.
"There are very few engravers Of
counterfeit bank bills in the United
States, and they are all related tC
each other by marriage. Four Of
five gangs or families comprise
the whole number. The members
of the different gangs intermarry
for purposes of mutual safety, an(
they all hold them selves aloof from
the vulgar herd of coin counter
feiters. They may in fact becallet
the aristocrats of the profession
Arrests for forging bank notes ar
very rare, aud conviction is alway
followed by a sentence that cause
q mans hair to assume the perpen
dicular. 1t is long time sine
any such case has been tried i
Detroit"