Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-05
WHERE MONEY rs MADE.
The Burenn Of Engraving and Printing
FoiIiug n Conspiracy Of Counterfeiteru
Signing Treasury Notes-A Hard Sigma
turc m Eorre.

FoiIiug a Conspiracy Of Ceunterfeiter,
Signing Treasury Notes-A Hard sigma.
ture TO Forge.
tcoRREsPoNpENcE OF THE DIsPATcH.l
| WASHINGTON, August "A little more thar
a week ago a paragraph was telegraphed from
Washington to all parts of the country, detail
| ing a conspiracy which, it was said, had beer
Matched in the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing. The object of this conspiracy wa:
supposed to be the stealing of plates. with
which money is printed, and the issue OF notes
from these plates by the conspirators. After
| this paragraph had been sent out a telegram
was sent recalling it, but the recall did not fol
| low fast enough and the paragraph was printed
| in several papers in the West l cut it from
one Of these papers and showed 1t to Captain
| Meredith the new Chief of the bureau. He
| laughed at the suggestion.
There are, he said, 'such safeguards sur
rounding these plates that If anything were
impossible should say it would be impossible
to steal one of them. 1t is almost an impossi
bility to steal one of them. 1t is almost an i'm
possibility to steal a sheet of paper from the
| bureau Even that would require the CO
| operation of at least half dozen employees In
different parts of the building. It is not SC
much the safety of our vaults as the perfection
of our check system to which we owe our secu
rity from theft and fraud"
Even if it were possible to steal plate from
the bureau-and from personal investigation
I do not think it is within the range of the or
binary possibilities-the thief would have &C.
complished but a small part of his dangerous
work even then. If he stole face plate he
| would have to counterfeit the back plate to
| correspond with it, the seal and finally the pc
| culiar paper which is used in printing bank
notes If the plate belonged to national bank, he
| would have 10 counterfeit the signatures of the
President and cashier of the bank; for, unlike
the signature of the Treasurer of the United
States and the Register of the Treasury, these
| signatures are not made part Of the plate.
Secret Service Supervision.
Assuming that the would-be counterfeiter
| could accomplish all of this, he would still
have the agents Of the secret service to evade,
and he would have to be very acute swindler
to accomplish this, for every employe of the
bureau is under secret service surveillance. It
was by arousing the suspicious Of the agents of
the secret service that the only men who ever
succeeded in stealing an impression of Gov
| ernment plate betrayed themselves.
1t was in 1853 that this occurred. A gang of
| conspirators, headed by a man named Lang
| don, was organized with view to stealing from
tho Government impressions of bank note
plates. One party of this little band was to
obtain employment in the Government Print
| ing Bureau, there to obtain an impression of a
back plate, or plate engraved with the design
that ornaments the back of q note. The other
members of the band were to obtain employ
ment from the American Bank Note Engrav-
| ing Company, which did at that time great
obtain an impression Of the face plate Of the
| same note. Langdon and two of his compan-
ions, one of whom was woman, obtained en-
ployment from the Government, and as luck
| would have it, the woman was assigned to the
press at which Langdon was working. They
| succeeded one day in running sheet of lead
| foil through the press, thus obtaining an
working, which was a $40 compound interest
note plate, containing four similar impressions.
The plate of lead, concealed under the woman's s
dress, was taken out of .he bureau and cast
was obtained from il. The other conspirators
were not SO successful and they found it neces-
sary to counterfeit the face plate. Before they
had issaed many of the counterfeit notes the
agents Of the secret service, whose suspicious
had been aroused by the conduct of Langdon
and his companions, ferreted out the gang and
captured the entire outfit Another effort to
defraud the bureau, which was just as futile,
was that OF an engraver named Smith, who was
engaged on a note plate. At evening when he
returned home from the bureau he reproduced
on q plate there, as well as he could from men,
ory. the work which he had done on the Gov
ernment plate during the day. He did not sue
coed in accomplishing his designs, for the
secret service officers found him out and
placed him under arrest.
The signature of the Treasurer of the United
States and the Register of the Treasury, as
havo said, are engraved on the plate from
which the face of the note is printed. There
was time when the Treasurer OF the United
States signed the paper money with pen and
ink; when each individual note bore his auto
graph. General Spinner who died last year in
Florida, was the last Treasurer to sign these
notes His signature will never be forgotten.
1t is preserved In autograph collections as one
of the most curious ever seen. He was gener-
ally thought to have cultivated this peculiarly
to prevent eounterfeiting. General Spinner
served as Treasurer from March 16, 1851, till
June 30, ls75l All through the early part of his
term he sighed the individual notes issued.
often sitting up the greater part Of the night to
complete the work. He was finally obliged to
seek the assistance of the engraver as the task
grew too gfeat for him. Now whenever a new
Treasurer y appointed the plates in the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing have the signature
of the retiring Treasurer ground of them, the
signature of THE incoming Treasurer engraved
on the blank space and the plate restored to
its former evenness Of surface by system Of
When Mr. Huston took charge of the Office
of Treasurer irecently, although he had not
signed receipt for the moneys on hand at the
time of Mr.. Hyatts retirement, all of the plates
used in printing of Government notes were
changed. 1t was not until last week that the
transfer of theA money In the Treasury was
made from Mr.. Hyatt to Mr.. Huston. 1t was
stated at the time this transfer was made that
there was no deficiency in the cash as counted.
In reality there was deficiency of sl3. 1t is
seldom there is MOT a small deficiency in ham
ding s70O, 600 900 cash for four years or even
less space of time. tGeneral Spinner was prob
ably the most careful man who ever occupied
the position of United States Treasurer. When
his acc ouhts were cast up at the time of his re-
tirement from off1cei the accountants found
that there was smallSum apparently missing.
But General Spinner rSfused to accept this re-
manded a re-examinatiRn. 1t was had and the
result of it was that General Spinner's cash
was found to balance toNthe fraction of cent
Signed by Dfad Men.
It is q singular fact THAI bank notes are now
being issued from the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing bearing the signatures of men
who have not been in Office nor many years and
men who died some years ago. ] saw notes of
national bank in Nebraska bearing the sigma
ture of John c. New as treasurer being printed
at the Bureau of Engraving aed Printing last
Monday. The signatures of} Treasurer and
Register on national bank notes are not
changed with each new administration. They
usually remain the same through the whole of
an authorized issue. This seenAs rather pecu-
liar. However, there is nothington the note to
indicate when IL was printed Ind only the
comparison with the records of the bureau
wonld show that the man who wa3 supposed to
have signed 1t had not been in offfce for yearS.
Destroying the Plates.
When a plate becomes obsolete it is de-
stroyed by order of the Secretary of the Treas
ury under the supervision of a coRmitte ap-
pointed by him. Such committee visited the
bureau few months ago and destroyed about
400 plates. The plates as they are sel6cted are
ground down until their faces are deStroyed.
They are then placed in a box which IS care
fully sealed and taken in charge of the commit