The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-01-29

!: COUNTERFEITERS' WORK.
The Trade Of Counterftiting-How Notes
are C0unterftited and Altered.
u Washington Star! go
The redemption of national bank
notes and United States legal tenders by
the treasury department. is often the
medium of communication to the pub
lie that a new counterfeit OF 81 note is
extant; and more often the place where.
alterations Of notes come to their final
grief. Counterfeit notes are frequently
found in the mutilated currency that
comes in from banks and individuals
in search Of good money. Cases where
notes have been alter d, with fraudu-
lent intent, come to light in redeeming
battered currency, almost every day. 1t
is notorious that the work OF counter
letting is carried on as trade-or per-
haps profession It is lot we'll known
that men make q business of altering
notes and cutting off pieces of them and
patching them together, to make more
notes than the originals. The number
of notes that have been dealt with in.
this manner shows that a regular pro-,
fession in this line exists. The old prac-
tice of cutting ten or twelve notes into
ten strips and making therefrom one
more than the original number, has
been discontinued. It got to be too an
Gent trick, and one too readily de-
tected. The work of the latter day art
lists in altering notes is somewhat M ore
elaborate.
One way is to raise the figures on the
notes. The bodies of nearly all the
notes are identical. The operator will
take one dollar bill and two dollar
bill. He will cut the figures denoting
the denominations Of the two-being
careful to avoid cutting away too much
Of the note to render it irredeen4able at
less than its full value and carefully cut
the figures of the one and substitute
the figure two therefor. He thus has a
two dollar bill for his one, and his
original two dollar bill probably, be-
cause not more than one-tenth of it has
been destroyed. This is a very cunning
way of doctoring notes. AS people
generally count money by picking up
the right hand corner of each note,
detection of changed notes is in the
ordinary course of business not very
easy. All the counters in the redemp-
ton division are excellent detectives of
crooked money. The other day one of
them had q package of notes from q
bank to count. She made out one dol
lar more than the figures on the pack
age denoted. She counted them over
again and again, but brought out the
same result. She told Mr.. Davidge. the
chief of the division. That officer
counted the package and found q
raised" two dollar note thus account
ing for the dollar over. The bank send
ing in the package evidently knew that
it was worth but dollar, and did not
count it as more. The figures used in
raising the notes of higher dcnomina-
tons are generally taken from the old
fractional currency, as they are inden-
teal or very nearly, so.
Another way Of changing notes is to
manipulate ten dollar and hundred
hote by splitting off the body ofthe fos-
!mer. Then by FASTING it on the tea
and changing around, there come from
the 800 the sum of $210 in pretty good
deceptive shape. This plan of working
things has been but recently developed.
The first notes received at the re-
demption bureau that had been thus
doctored came in this week.
Another kind of work is evidently
done by one man or firm. The notes
operated upon are tens of the issue of
1869. All the notes are treated in the
same way. They come in from belt
from St. Louis to Memphis, and are
evidently Systematically worked. The
notes are cut from one corner to the
other diagonally in zigzag manner. It
has been impossible to discover exactly
how anything is made out of this opera
ton, but it is evident that the manner
of cutting, the operator succeeds in get
ting enough pieces to make a new
note. The men working up this scheme
are evidently doing large business, as
many notes cut diagonally zigzag are
received by Mr.. Davidge's division.
The alienation of United States notes
is carried on all over the country, but
the West is the section where it is most
extensively in practice. The altered
notes are disposed of to a certain extent
in the same way that counterfeit notes
are Showed" The great field of opera
ton for the altered note industry is,
however, among banks just started. The
officers and clerks of new banking in
situations are somewhat green and natu-
rally anxious to receive deposits. The
man with the altered notes goes in and
makes deposit, and day or two after
draws it out again. OF course, he does
not get the same money that he puts in,
and the bank has to forward the orig
inal deposit, after discovery of its char
acter, to Washington to be redeemed as
multilated currency for what it is worth