St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-06-23
COIN FOB ORNAMENTS.
a Fad That May Make Trouble for Those
~. Devoted to It. -

a Fad That May Make Trouble for Those
Devoted to 1t.
Captain Porter of the secret service
took steps a few years ago to suppress
the manufacture of ornaments from
coins and succeeded in several instan-
ccs. The effort was discouraging, but
he notified the Treasury Department
at Washington of the fact that the
market here was stocked with coin
lockets, which could not be discerned
from good coin, although entirely
worthless for their original purpose.
The chief of the secret service ordered
him to stop their manufacture, but
Captain Porter learned that the arti-
Giles were manufactured in Newark, N.
j., and 80 reported The Government
took the Jersey people in hand and the
Chicago dealers promised to stop their
sale after getting rid of the supply on
hand.
However, the manufacture from for
eign coins continues, and the business
in bangles and the engraving of coins
goes on as usual. The secret service
officers have detected several dealers
and prohibited them from in any way
mutiiating coin.
Captain Porter said yesterday: elf
man has silver dollar he can destroy
it, but he must not mark or mutilate it
in manner that will decrease it in
value. 1t takes very little to do that
There are SIG grains in double eagle
and 2.5S grains only are allowed for
the natural abrasion in fifty years. BY
tscooping out one for locket fully
half the weight is lost, and an innocent
person might judge the coin solely by
its appearance and be badly swindled.
The danger in it lies right here. A
man may have coin engraved for
pocket piece. After awhile he needs
the coin for its legitimate uses and
finds it easy to pass by presenting the
side not engraved in sight The man
who gets it is swindled. If hepalms it
off on some one else he swindles an
other person. And so it goes. We
are bothered more by complaints of
this kind than any one imagines- 1t
ought to be made a dangerous thing to
fool with United States coins, and if l
only received the proper orders l would
sadden the hearts of tlose who do it.
Nothing would please me better than
to be ordered to seize all the mutilated
coin in sight"
''But that would include tearing nu-
merous adornments from the threats of
many fair young women
The secret-serrice mans features
softened trifie. but he answered.:
well, I'm inclined to believe that
there are innocent possessors of such
artic es, and / would hardly care to
modest them. But l would prevent
jewellers from displaying articles made
from coin in their show-windows, and
from changing money from the appear
ance and weight with which it leaves
the mint r.s s5.t
District Attorney Ewing said that
while his attention has been called to
the traffic IN mutilated coin, which is
clearly an offense, he has never under
taken any prosecution of offenders, for
the reason that it is almost sanctioned
by custom; it has no fraudulent intent,
and that it is no more common in this
than in any other Federal district A
reform in the matter should be started
at Treasury headquarters, he thought.
The amount of coin used for orna-
mental purposes in Chicago would
furnish enough capital for q National
bank. It took three hundred silver
dollars, split and inserted in the floor,
to make q Monroe street barber shop
sufficiently gorgeous for man to en-
Joy fifteen-osnt shave and hear the
latest tips on horses and base ball from
the artists in charge, while in bar
rooms and many other resorts coin
is cut into sections to increase attrae-
TONS g % 4 &a8
1t is the boast of lone young south
side belle that her collection of money
ornaments represents 81. 500 in the
original value of the different coins,
each individual coin coming from a
different admirer. She prefers coin to
any other. jewelry. She has pin-cases,
musk boxes, mirrors. lockets, BRACE
lets, fan-chains, necklaces. earrings.
and other articles innumerable and
made of gold and silver, coins. - CHI
,eago Nesos.
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