San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-24
COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
METHODS THE BANK TeLLERS HAVE
FOR DETECTING 1T.

Inferior Quality II Characteristic of All
Bogus Money-In 1850 There Was $780,
OOO,O of Poor Money Adoat.
To the casual observer it is always a
wonder that cashiers, bank tellers and
others who handle large amounts of paper
money are able NJ II glance to throw out
bad note. Speaking on this topic an old
bank teller said; 1T must be remembered
that in the first place the men who handle
money Us Il business are compelled to have
a very thorough familiarity with the APP
pearance Of every genuine note. Counter
feits do not appear until after the genuine
has been some time in use and every part
of it is well known
lit Is not so wonderful then that after
his daily familiarity with the appear.
ance of a note the first deviation from it
should attract attention. Exactly what it
is that does expose the counterfeit the best
experts find it difficult to tell. They say
they know it instinctively. They judge
not only by the looks of a note, but by the
feel of it,
sit is obvious that counterfeit note
must he widely circulated to make it
profitable No sooner does a counterfeit
appear than its description is widely pub
lished Those who are likely to suffer by
taking counterfeit notes make it their
business to he on the outlook for new
counterfeits, which are soon distinguish.
able by some easily discovered mark A
teller knows just what denomination of
notes has been counterfeited, and Just
where to look for the tell tale marks. He
notices the counterfeit as easily as a reader
notices mispelled word. 1t is no particu-
lar effort. 1t is a habit, and becomes a
second nature.
INFERIOR QUALITY.
lone and the main reason why counter.
feits are easily detected is because in some
feature they are almost uniformly of in
ferior quality. This is, indeed, the main
protection of the public Genuine notes
are engraved and printed almost regard
less of cost and the very best materials
are used in the engraving and printing.
1t is done in large establishments with
costly materials and the best workmen.
1t is practically impossible for counter.
feiters to do work AS well. They must
work in secret and at disadvantage, and
of necessity cannot have the experience to
produce such perfect work.
"if they get the engraving done nicely
engraving and printing done well. they fail
in securing the proper paper Of late years
there has been good deal of care taken to
get paper manufactured expressly for the
notes issued by the government. The ua-
tional bank notes are also issued by the
government, so that the sources of supply
for exactly that kind of paper are con.
trolled
tla
cult than it is now to detect bad money
There were then many kinds of bad mo.
ney. There were wildcat banks whose
notes were of no value of the same name
as good banks, and the wildcat notes were
of the same form as the good notes Then
there were many altered notes from lower
to higher denominations.
"The use of greenbacks, or any backs at
all, was rare, so that the counterfeiter had
but one side of a note to counterfeit. or
late years the paper is covered front and
back with the figures of the denomination,
so that alteration from a lower to higher
denomination is rare. Before the war by
actual computation four-fifths of the bank
note issues were counterfeited
BOGUS MONEY IN 1850.
There were in circulation in 1860 actual
y,
it was estimated that about $50. 1000. 900 of
it was ahoat
when the necessities of the war led to
the government issue of paper money all
these old banks went out of existence, and
the old counterfeits went out with them.
1t was great boon to the business com.
munity to have the old stuff wiped out
and the new, clean currency put into cir
culation that was current all over the
Union. 1t was some years before success
full counterfeits appeared
THE first issue of the national bank notes
of the denomination of s. was practically
not counterfeited for fifteen years Even
taking all the denominations of national
bank money and all the varieties of money
issued by the government, the number of
these varieties is trifing compared with
the immense number of banks before the
war whose notes were all different.
sit is true we have more banks now but
it must be remembered that the notes of
each denomination issued by all the ma
tional banks, or for them, are all alike ex
cept the titles. The changes have been few
and many years apart. When q teller
learned the appearance of the first notes of
the denomination of 81 issued to the ma
tional banks it was some years before he
saw counterfeit, and Of course he de
tected the counterfeit almost by instinct.
when it is considered how many mill
ions of dollars of the same sort are issued
by the government il is wonderful that
the genuine plates are not oftener used for
the purpose of printing unauthorized is
sues. OF course it is pretended that the
safeguards Of the bureau of engraving and
printing are so great that no such wrong
could be done.