Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-11-12
Counterfeit Coins.
From the New York telegram


A silver half-dollar was yesterday
shown to Mr.. J. F. Tandy, the coin ex-
pert of the sub-treasury. with the
question: "Is that counterfeit? ?" I
was larger than the halt-dollar coins in
circlation, thinner, felt much lighter,
and had peculiar ring unlike that of
the genuine coin. Mr.. Tandy, however,
pronounced it to be the coinage of the
United States mint.
"I have one very much like it," he
said, and producing a little box filled
with various counterfeit gold and silver
coins, he picked out half-dollar re-
sembling that shown him. when /
got this" he continued, II was puzzle d
to account for it's peculiarities. We
finally sent it to the mint and asked
them to look at it. The Superintend-
ent wrote back that it was a genuir g
coin, but that it had been in the hands
of counterfeiters."
They had placed piece of lead over
this coin and hammered it until a pei
feet impression was made in the softer
metal. In this process the half dollar
was spread out to it's present size, and
was made correspondingly thinner as
you see. AS to the oddness of it's ring,
perhaps the hammering changed the
molecular construction of the metal,
causing it to vibrate differently when
rung. The difference in its size and
thickness would also change it's sound"
The little box from which Mr.. Tandy
produced his half-dollar contains bad
coins detected at the sub-treasury from
time to time. There are counterfeits
of various characters and of various
pieces, from silver quarter to gold
double eagle. The bad pieces best cal
culated to deceive are those in which a
genuine coin has been altered or tam
pered with. leaving the impression of
the die intact. Among them is Mex
lean silver dollar, the face of which was
in some way sliced off. and the body of
the coin all dug out until nothing but a
of lead was nicely fitted to give it
weight and the thin disk of silver being
replaced like the lid on a blacking- box,
the coin was ready for circulation. The
result of all this work was only the value
of the silver extracted from the coin,
and, unless the operator had fine ma
chinery and drove trade in the whole
sale line, it is difficult to see how he
made laborer's wages.
There are in the collection some Amer
lean silver dollars the edges of which in
dictate that deep furrow has been plowed
out in lathe, the gutter thus made be-
ing then filed up with white metal.
There are a number of out and out
counterfeit quarters and half dollars,
most of them poor in appearance and
very light in weight. Some gold dollar
pieces are better made, and would be
taken by most persons without hesita-
ton. The "gem" of the collection, how
ever, is twenty-dollar gold piece which
it is difficult to believe is not all it
should be. This Mr.. Tandy explains
has been treated in the same manner as
the Mexican dollar already described.
The impression on both sides is genuine,
but the gold has been scooped and it's
place filed with base metal. This coin
came over in a shipment of double
eagles from London. A number like it
were caught at one time or another. On
cutting them up it was found that the
shell contains S. worth of gold. The
operators therefore got $14 out of every
coin so treated which they succeeded
In passing.