The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-11-19
COUNTERFEIT COIN.
How Dies Are Procured-Some Novelties
In the Way of Metallic Frauds.

II
IN. Y. Telegram
A silver half-dollar was yesterday
shown to Mr.. ]. F. Tandy, the coin ex-
pert of the Sub-treasury, with the ques-
tion: SIS that counterfetp It was
larger than the half-dollar coins in cir
culation, thinner, felt much lighter, and
had peculiar ring unlike that Of the
genuine coin. Mr.. Tandy, however, pro-
nounced it to be the coinage of the United
States Mint.
~ have one very much like IT," he
said, and producing a little box filled
with various counterfeit gold and silver
coins, he picked out a half-dollar re-
sembling that shown him. "When got
hold of this" he continued, ~ was pug
zled to account for its popularity. We
finally sent it to the Mint and asked them
to look at it. The Superintendent wrote
back that it was genuine coin, but that
II had been In the hands of counter
feiters.
"They had placed piece of lead over
the coin and hammered 1t until per-
feet impression was made In the softer
was spread out to its present size,
and was made correspondingly thinner
as you see. AS to the oddness of its
ring, perhaps the hammering changed
the molecular construction Of the metal,
causing IL to vibrate differently when
rung. The difference in the size and thick
ness also would change its sound"
N.
produced his half dollar contains bad coins
detected at the SUBJ Treasury from time to
time. There are counterfeits of various
characters and Of various pieces, from a
silver quarter to a gold double eagle. The
bad pieces best calculated to deceive are
those In which genuine coin has been al =
tered or tampered with, leaving the impress
sion Of the die intact. Among them is a
Mexican silver dollar, the face of which
was in some way sliced off, and the body
Of the coin all dug out until nothing but q
shell remained. Into this little cake of
lead was nicely fitted to give 1t 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 ex-
tracted from the coin, and, unless the
operator had fine machinery and drove a
trade in the wholesale line, IL is difficult to
see how he made laborer's wages.
There are in the collection some
American silver dollars the edges of which
indicate that n deep furrow has been
plowed out in a lathe, the gutter thus made
being then filed up with white metal.
There are number of out-and-out coun-
terfeit 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 hesitation. The gem of the col
lection, however, is $40 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 its place filed with base
metal, This coin came over in shipment
Of double eagles from London. A number
like II were caught at one time or another.
On cutting them up 1t was found that the
shell contains 50 worth Of gold. The opera
tors, therefore, got $li out of every coin SC
treated which they succeeded In passing.