San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-03-01
COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
Inper Money E,siiy Counterfs3ted mn.
Easily Detected. Wv"
[From the New York SUM-

When the exigencics of the war
caused the old state banks to 60 out Of
existence, and the new notes of the ma.
tional banks and the greenbacks took
their place, n general relief was expert.
enced by the absence of counterfeit
spurious and altered notes. The forms
of fraudulent money had become 80 mn.
merous that the counterfeit detector
had got to be almost rs large as the fam.
lily Bible. A long period elapsed after
the issue Of the new notes before the
counterfeits made their appearance, and
so great was the relief in this respect
that the new notes found few oppo.
nents. But the security against coun.
terfeits was short lived. The enormous
quantities of each denomination of the
new issues proved an irresistible temp.
tation to tho counterfeiters, so that now
the annoyance from fraudulent notes is
almost as great as it was during the is.
sue of the old state bank money. This
is signally illustrated by the growth Of
the counterfeit detectors. For q short
time these publications almost went
out of existence, but now they are flour
ishing, and present an appalling exhibit
of the extent of counterfeiting. In
Underwood's Counterfeit Detector for
December table appears showing that
500 different kinds of counterfeit mon
ey have been received. Every state in
the union is represented in this list,
and so great have been the numbers of
counterfeits ON some banks that in
some cases the issue has been entirely
called in and further issue of like de.
nomination has been suppressed. Some
idea of the extent of these counterfeits
may be obtained by the fact that the
same counterfeit is found in circulation
in many places. Thus the counterfeit
fives on the Merchants National Bank
of New Bedford were sent to the bu-
reau of redemption from 141 places.
The counterfeit fives on the Hampden
National bank of Westfeld, Massachu.
sets, appeared at III places, including
places in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota,
Iowa, Florida, Oregon, South Carolina,
Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and
Maine-in short, all over the United
States. Under the old state bank sys-
TEN counterfeits were somewhat circum-
scribed in circulation; but now they go
unsupported from one end of the coun-
try to the other. The similarity Of SO
many good notes makes it profitable
for the counterfeiters to pay enormous
sums to procure one good plate, know
ing that when once obtained they may
use this one plate, with but slight alter
atoms, for many counterfeits. The
fortunate fact that the counterfeiters
have omitted to notice the slight varia-
tons in the genuine notes.-the differ
ent styles of numbers and check letters
has been the principal means for the
detection of counterfeits. Thus the
counterfeiters often put on the. name OF
United States register or treasurer
who was not in office when the note
was issued. Underwood publishes GU
rious list of about $50 notes OF various
denominations that were stolen from
banks before they were signed by the
bank officers. In such cases the notes
would be properly numbered, and would
defy detection. But, in the case OF
most counterfeit notes, the chances Oh
getting the right numbers and chech
letters are very remote. One metnou
of detecting fraudulent United STATES
notes is very simple. Tt is as follows
United States notes are printed III
sheets of four notes OF one denomlha-
ton on each sheet Those notes are
lettered, respectively, in the upper anu
! lower corners, diagonally opposite A.
3. C and d. Each United States nole
has n distinct number, and the notes are
always numbered in their order on the
sheets: thus all notes of letter a VIII
be /, or number which, if divided W
1. would leave l remainder; Il, =; ~
and d, 4, or the number will be dlVioeu
by 4 without a remainder. Inns 1e.,'
while not by any means certain, WIFI Lo
able any one to detect one-third OF Nv
counterfeits in circulation. Any I'm
te1 States note upon which the numuei