Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-12-18
BRANDING coUaTERFsITs.
why Counterfeit Notes Are Not Brand
ed-The Law and the PraetIea

why COunterfeIt Notes Are Not Brand
ed-The Law and the Practice.
WASHINGTON, December 1.-THE atten-
ton of the Secretary of the Treasury has
been called to the following paragraph
credited to the New York Herald:
Every prominent bank teller will say
that there is hardly q day during which
some counterfeit is not presented to him
in the course Of regular business or by a
chance seeker of change" 1t is almost
the universal custom to politely hand it
back as counterfeit and it remains in cir
culatiOn. Were il branded it would be done
with forever. Were mistake made as to
a genuine issue there is an existing proyis-
ion for the redemption at par of the mutt
lated bill. Were the Treasury officials to
secure the cooperation of the banEs-aud
it will be given gladly-the work in which
the secret service fail would be speedily
and etfectually accomplished. After lit
tie there would be no counterfeits in ex-
istence.
In reply to these suggestions Secretary
FOlger calls attention of bankers and others
to the following extract from the recent re-
port Of Mr.. J. J. Brooks, chief of the Secret
Service Division Of the Treasury Depart
ment:
In view OF these facts il has been asked
why there are 80 many counterfeit notes
afloat. A leading metropolitan Journal re-
Gently severely criticised our service for
its failure to institute measures looking to
the gathering up of the spurious notes now
in circulation, and it suggested the enact
ment of q law compelling the branding of
counterfeit notes by bankers and brokers'
expressing also its conviction that mean
while these gentlemen need but their atten-
l,-n,t,1 10 hn 20 ha
adoption of the practice of branding.
l reply to the foregoing that in 1876
law was enacted which read as follows:
That all United States officers charged
with the receipt or disbursement Of public
moneys and all officers of national banks
shall stamp or write in plain letters the
word counterfeit altered or worthless
upon all fraudulent notes issued in the
form of and intended TO circulate which
shall be presented at their places of busi-
ness, and If such officers shall wrongfully
stamp any genuine note of the United
States or of the national banks, they shall,
upon presentation, redeem such notes at
the face value thereof In
1878 this office sent print
ed circular TO every national bank
in the United States, calling attention to
the section quoted, and respectfully ask
ing its aid in thus diminishing the circu-
latioA of counterfeit money. To what ex-
tent it was rendered am not prepared to
state, but inquiry and observation have
convinced me that the law is practically
nullifed, and two reasons are given by
bank officers for noncompliance there
with-frSt, to brand a counterfeit note
offends a depositor-"I will not do it
unless other banks in our town do it-or,
second, L will brand the note only when
the law attaches a penalty for not doing
it,"
A receiving teller of a Western bank
conversing on this subject recently, stated
that he received counterfeit one hundred
dollar note from and returned it to four
different depOsitors in one week, and this
conduct suggests why so many counterIeit
notes remain in circulation.