Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-12-04
Flooding the Pacific Coast With
Worthless Money.
BOGUS GREENRiCKS And POTMETAl
COINS.
A Large Amount Of Counter,
felt Money in Circulation
In the West.

c"u"trN, aho during the past month
a large amount of counterfeit money
has been placed In circulation. The
Pacific coast is being flooded with
bait for the unsciupulous to jump
ut and aid In the circulation of the
counterieits. No holder gang of
reckless and daring scoundrels was
everorganized. Their headquarters
are supposed to he located in some
one of the Middle western states,
and they have agents at work in
nearly every state In the Unien.
AT intervals during the past sum-
mer several persons in California,
Oregon and Washington received
letters from persons in the East Of
fering for sale counterfeit money at
one-fourth value. The money was
declared to be good" the word be-
ing placed In brackets and under
lined, and absolutely perfect"
The letters sent out stated that
only greenbacks, or as they are term
ed In such transactions green
goods" were for sale. A few vic
Tins were found but the United
States secret service officers had
been aware Of the existence of the
gang and 1t was found to be an ex-
ceedingly dangerous task to try to
circulate the bills. The secret ser.
vice officers who were engaged in
running down the counterfeiters
were overzealous and in consequence
the men succeeded In evading arrest
and throwing the efficers off their
tracks. They became less bold In
their operations and for sometime
nothing was heard of them. Now
1t appears that they have completed
a plan to deluge the West with bad
money. The operations of the gang
are conducted by one of their num-
Der who Is located in Minnesota or
Michigan, but New York City is
made their stamping ground. These
men are believed the originators of
one of the most dangerous counter
feits discovered in recent years.
This is SO note, purport-
ing to have been issued by the
Germanis National bank of New
Orleans, which is 80 nearly perfect |
as to deceive any person except |
experts. In general appearance and |
in length and width the counterfeit |
closely resembles the ordinary $40 |
note. 1u the genuine notes the |
word "and," printed ia small capital
letters ut the end Of the third |
line from the top on the
back of the bill describes q graceful |
upward curve, while in the counter
felt this curve is inverted and lacks |
the freedom of sweep as in the orig
inal. The treasury numbers appear |
to he larger aud heavier in the orig |
inal and are, besides, considerably of |
color. A corresponding difference
can he observed in the bank designa-
tion "l59l--series 1882" and the |
number "44" There are no silk |
threads running through the tex
ture Of the paper on which the coun-
terfieit is printed aud no attempts
appear to have bee, made 10 initiate |
that feature.
About two weeks ago number of .
S. bills which had been raised 10 $50 .
made their appearance In Portland. !
The figures and the same number
spelled out had been cleyerly erased .
with the use uf chemicals and Xxx
aud the word twenty substituted. ,
The Xxx work was well executed,
but the spelling Of the amount was
not no well done. A casual eXami- .
nation Of the bills would be sufficient .
To discern the trick. Secret
service officers Of San Francis.
co were soon Informed OF
the raised notes and n. X. Harris,
Que of the special agents OF the gov
ernmeut In that city, was sent to
Port nd to investigate the matter.
He learned that all tue bills had
been "shoved" In one night by q
handsome young woman Of about
"a years Of sge, man OF about rs
years and gray-haired fellow who
WAS about go. They coufined their
opporations principally among
Chinamen, who they found easy
victims, generally, owing to The fact
that ceIestials are, as Il rule, una
miIiaI with the engrayings of the
various kinds Of bills in circulation.
The trio disappeared after working
the city to their satisfaction. De-
,ectiye Harris pursued his invesiiga-
tions diligently aud fonnd 1t ncces-
sary TO visit this city. lie deci'ped
10 make any statement ia regard 10
the nIutter further than has been
stated. He intinated that "A few
hills had reached this city.
In addition to these bills there ID
=, counterfeit IS gold piece being
gradually placed in circulation. II
hos made ITS appearance In this city
and IA several other parts OF the
STATE. These coins are light, ana
dated lass. They are not goo"
specin,cns of eounieri,i'ing' ana eau
l,e easily detected. While SHOWING
80, ,'..,,i the panp keep lleir