Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-06-20
THE NEW COUNTERFEIT.
One of the Most Ingenious schemes o
the Age.

The New York journal has an article on
the new counterfeit Of silver coin, composed
Of glass. We quote
"Thats no good" said the clerk, in the
presence of a reporter, as he showed 10
cent piece back across the counter of a
Broadway restaurant.
eyes it is" said the man, who picked 1t
up and again laid it down, ringing it as he
did 30.
The man behind the counter picked the
token up, laid one edge of 1t on the counter,
holding his thumb and forefnger on the
other, and, with quick pressure, broke 1t
in two in nearly straight linc which left
about two even halves. The man looked on
in stupid establishment, and picked up one
of the pieces. The broken edge did not
look like glass, but its texture showed readi-
ly that it was friable and not mallea0le.
"Now, I'll show you" said the man, as he
picked up little hammer and gave the half
lying on the counter couple of quick
cracks. 1t was pulverzed ms if II had been
hammered in q mortar, and showed only
bits of brittle, broken substances, glass like
in all respects except color. The particles
were dead lead color and the still unbroken
half showed a date of 1866, indicating that
the counterfeiters had on account of its
dead color. decided to take an old instead of
recent date,
EThese coins have been made to weigh and
ring 80 like silver that it is impossbleto tell TO
what extent they have been circulated, and
doubtless many have passed through many
hands without creating any suspicion. Mark
hA apti ino
of silver OF all sorts, said they had seen two
samples The coins are made in all grades,
and the samples they saw were both stand
ard dollars. One of the brokers was trailing
a fistful of dollars from his right hand to his
left, when his eye caught the milled edge OF
the coin, which looked thicker than its pre-
decessors and SUCCESSORS,
Picking it out he found that the milling
was not quite SO distinct as 1t should be, and
the coin had dead look, but answered cor
rectly to the touch. He threw it
out and refused to take it, returning
it to his customer. A few days after
ward a,man came in with similar coin, only
hat 1t was already broken into two pieces,
which fell apart as the stack Of coins rippled
over his finger ends. The edges looked like
those OF lump OF MICA or sheeted isinglass,
as they are found by geological field hunters
That there was glass in 1t he conld only guess,
and has never met any one who could sug-
gest method by which base metal could be
combined with glass so as to give true
weight and the right ring. :. The glass is evil
IDENTIFY intended to make the ring correct,
and yet it must be thoroughly mixed with
the metal or it could not be broken with the
pressure of a thumb.
l do not for moment pretend to know
how these glass counterfeits are made, or
how they can be made to weigh and ring,
but the thing do know is the touch and
ring of genuine silver. Nothing else has.the
same touch or the same ring, and on that l
can not be deceived
A reporter visited various silver and glass
men in the city, in the hope of finding out
what were the characteristics of the combina-
ton by which glass could be mixed with
base metals. lie did not succeed. The
secrets of the counterfeiters are not known
to the smclters, nor are they to the glass
workers, and neither can understand how
there can be an amagam or fusing. The
bad metal, according to that, must be some
comparatively new discovery. Glass weighs
only one-tenth that of silver, and no base
metals approach the weight of silver so that
all are puzzled.