Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-09-05
A QUEER BILL.
1t Was Not a Counterfeit. but it
Looked Like ii.

1t Was Not a Counterfeit. but it
Looked Like it.
Among the many incidents of my fiftsen
years experience in hunting down coun-
terfeiters of United States currency, says
Detective Greenlees in the st. Louis Globe
Democrat, the rarest find was in a small
towE in Tennessee several years ago. In a
country store one day man showed me
$40 bill-a note ON the Third National
Bank of Nashville, Tenn.-and remarked
that that was very odd piece of paper
currency. l looked at it and saw nothing
wrong about it; but, on turning the bill
over, l found that the denomination was
$40 on that side. l then gave
the bill the most careful scrutiny,
for had found rarity, sure enough,
but much to my surprise, learned that 1t
was genuine bill and not a counterfeit, as
the man supposed. The fine lines in the
lathe work in the engraving showed that it
was genuine bill. After some reflection
l solved the apparent mystery of how the
bill happened to have the denomination of
$40 on one side and $50 on the other very
satisfactorily to my own mind. The riddle
was explained in this manner: One side
of the bill had been printed by the Ameri-
can Bank Note Company and then it had
been sent to Washington City, where the
other side was printed by the government.
The custom of the government has always
been to have the paper money printed in
sheets composed of four bills, three of one
denomination and one of the next higher,
and arranged one below the other. Thus
in the $40 notes sheet con-
tains three $40 bills and
500 bill at the bottom. The Tennes.
see bank note had been one of a sheet
containing three $40 bills and one $40 bill,
and they had been printed all right at the
establishment of the American Bank Note
Company. But the particular sheet, in
this instance, had by some accident been
turned upside down in running off the
other side at Washington, placing the $40
impression at the top of the sheet over the
$40 end of the plate. making bill with
denomination of $40 on one side and $50
on the other. Of course the other end of
the plate struck off bill with $40 on
one side and $40 denomination ON the
other, but the sides reversed from the first
named bill. Only one of the bills has been
found. and that is the one found by me-
The two $40 bills in the middle of the
sheet, of course, were, were not changed.
gave the old Tennessean $50 for the bill.
1t was worn from much usage, and
hand evidently passed sometimes for
$50 and at other times for $40, but
nobody had discovered it before. A few
days later l was in Nashville, Tenn, and
concluded l would have some fun with the
/bill. l stepped into the Third National
Bank, on which the note was issued, and
showed the bill with the $40 side up,
through the grating and aske for change
in silver. The cashier threw the bill
down quickly and gave me the proper
change for $10 said:
'See here, you haven't given me the
proper change; gave you $40 bill"
The cashier replied:
'Oh, we are too old in the business for
any body to work u.s."
He did not know that / was an officer,
and took me for a crook, presumably, who
was trying to work" him.
"Give me that bill and I'll show you," I
said.
He gave me the same bill, and / handed
it back to him with the $40 side up. But
when he turned il over he saw that it had
two denomination. The bank president
and all the clerks gathered about to
see the two faced bill. then divulged my
identity as United States officer and told
the bank president that I thought this was
a case that would bear investigation, as l
believed that the bank had been issuing
spurious bills with 500 designated on the
one side and $40 on the other, and had
been passing them over the counter on the
$40 side but would only take them in ON
$40 side, thus making big profit annually.
The bank president protest ed his innocence,
but as he was at loss to explain the bill
he was nonplussed. After 1 had worried
them for some time by pretending to be-
lieve that something crooked had been 60
ing on, made myself known, and there
was general explanation.