Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-04-05
ALL ABOUT QUEER MONEY.
SOME OF THE METHODS OF coUN-
TERFEITERS EXPLAINED.

to Deceive the Unwary-A Few OF the
Most Dangerous Specimens of the Bogus
Note-How to Tell Spurious Coin.
Since the day when Isaac detected the
counterfeit ring in the voice Of the pretender
who tried to pass for Esau there has been no
lack of counterfeits in the world, Ii the
great third patriarch however, lived in these
later days, and if he undertook, as one of his
daring and moral obliquity doubtless would,
to utter counterfeit coin as well as counter
felt pretentions, he would run up against one
of the shrewdest and ablest branches of pri-
vate service ever employed by human gov
ernment. He would not, as would have hap
pened few generations ago in "Merrie Eng
land" be hanged, but he would languish
within prison walls for a considerable time,
almost beyond question, for almost inevitably
counterfeiters are caught and punished in this
| country.
As long, however, as men think they can
| make money more easily than they can earn
| it, so long will unscrupulous men probably
brave the perils of the law and continue to
make spurious coins and bills. There never
has been, and probably never will be, time
when this country, or any other within civ
ilization, is free from the curse of counter
feiting.
In the counterfeiting of paper money,
however, so much skill and labor and such
bulky and costly tools and machinery are
necessary that considerable ''plant" has to
be established before any damage is done.
| Nevertheless the counterfeits in actual cir
culation are numerous enough to necessitate
the publication of Dickerman's United States
| Counterfeit Detector and Bankers and Mer-
chants Journal. Themonthly magazine which
exists nd thrives in spite of all this name is
indorsed by the government and is recog-
nized as reliable by banks, bankers, the sub
treasures and the treasury department.
There have been good many ways of max
ing "queer" money. Like all other experts
the showers of the queer have made great inn
provement in their art within the last ten
years. First came the Photographic bank
notes. They were made in two ways, known
to experts as the 'old" and the "new" meth
DDS By the 'old" Photographic process the
letters, numbers and sometimes the whole
back of note were copied in black. Then
they were tinted by pen and brush and by
hand in order to exactly reproduce the colors
on the original. This method Of "queering"
money has about disappeared. By the ''new"
method the seal, numbers and color on a
bank note are first removed. negative is
then taken from the black which remains,
and from this photographs are printed on
sensitized paper In order to get the colors
en- engraved plate is used for all the tinted
parts of bank note. Thus the numbers are
printed, as in the genuine, in colors from an
engraved plate.
Another process of "queering' money is
known as 'piecing." This consists in cutting
a counterfeit into eight or ten pieces. One
Of these pieces is pasted into genuine note
by cutting out a piece of the good note.
By pasting, for example, nine good bills in
this way, nine other pieces are obtained
which with one piece of the queer" will
make tenth note.
There is again the process known as "rais-
ing" This is done by scraping good note
until it is very thin and then pasting in figures
and letters of higher denomination. In this
way S. bill was speedily raised to a $50
Perhaps the most expert 'raiser" of money
ever in the United States is Pete Mccartney,
who was arrested i'll New Orleans for raising
81 bills to $50 He has been engaged in coun-
terfeting for forty years and is now a man
over CO. Out west he is called the king of
Koniackers,n and the account of his advent
ures, as given in the secret service records
reads like a romance.
change the figures of a note by the use of acid;
a higher number of figure is printed in the
place from a plate 1t is very difficult for
the counterfeiter to keep the acid from stain
ing or bleaching the paper. If the chemicals
spread, then the surrounding letters present
more or less of damaged appearance.
OF course engraved counterfets are usually |
the most dangerous of all. A very fine coun-
terfeit $50 bill was issued some years ago
from series of plates by the celebrated |
Charles T.. Ulrich. The hundred bills printed |
from IA series of plates engraved in Brooklyn |
by Charles Smith for William E. Brockway |
we're but little less perfect than genuine.
But the finest counterfeit from every point
of view was $500 United States note of the |
series of 1869 1t was about equal to the gem
uine in skill and workmanship. So dangerous |
was the counterfeit that the treasury depart
ment decided to retire all the notes of that |
issue, and today only few of the genuine |
remain in circulation, and the banks receive |
them only for deposit.
These great obstacles have thus far stood |
in the way of the cleverest counterfeters:
the fiber paper, the geometrical lathe work.
and the paper known as the Crane patent,
with the silk threads running lengthwise |
throughout the note, So, too, the lathe
work has defed the most persistent ef
forts of the counterfeiter, and consequently
lathe work is the chief feature in all bank
note engraving By the simple turning of
screw patterns are arbitrarily formed and |
certain figures are madeSvhich can be repro
duced only with the greatest difficulty, even
by the operator a second time. The borders,
corners, oval and circular forms on bank
notes are all formed by the geometrical lathe.
Those who are in the habit of handling much
money always pay close attention to these
points.
In counterfeit coins there has been ire
mendous business done especially since the
resumption of specie payments after the war
The varieties are almost endless, owing to the
ease with which the work can be done by
workmen of an inferior grade of skill. The
easiest method is by the use of plaster of
paris mold, and the coin most frequently
initiated is the five cent nickel 1t is not
miled and there is little difficulty in imi-
tating the metal. The counterfeiters of this
coin, the secret service people say, are mostly
Italians. The nodded counterfeits, however,
can generally he detected by their appear
ance and therefore the most skilful criminals
use die, and strike off com that it is difficult
to detect
For detecting counterfeit coin, compare
the impress, size, weight, ring and general
appearance with the genuine coin of the same
period and coinage, and if we take the three
tests of weight, diameter and thickness, it
will be found almost impossible for the coun-
terfeiter to comply with these three tests
without using genuine metal.
With coin the game Is generally played in
one of three ways. They are either sweated,
plugged or filled The sweating is done by
taking off from TO 10 per cent. OF the coin
with file acids To plug a coin is to
bore hole in it and fill the hole with baser