Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-09
MI ABOUT QUEER MONEY.
SOME OF THE METHODS OF COUN-
TERFErrERS 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. If 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
eminent He would not as would have hap
pened a few generations ago in ''Merrie Eng
land" be hanged, but he would languish
within prison walls for considerable time,
almost beyond question: for almost inevitably
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 INSCRIPTIONS 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
lization, 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 a considerable ''plant" has to
be established before any damage is done.
Nevertheless the counterfeits in actual cir
cuation are numerous enough to necessltate
the publication Of Dickermau's United States
Counterfeit Detector and Bankers and Mer
chants Journal. The monthly magazine which
exists and thrives in spite of all this name is
Endorsed by the government, and is recog-
nized as reliable by banks, bankers, the sub
treasures and the treasury department.
There have been a good many ways of max
ing "queer" money. Like all other experts
the showers of the queer have made great i'm
provement in their art within the last ten
years. First came the Photographic bank
notes. They We're made i'll 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 a 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 s'queeringn
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
an 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
counterfeit into eight or ten pieces One
of these pieces is pasted into a genuine note
by cutting out piece of the good note.
By FASTING, for example, nine good bills in
this way, nine other pieces are obtained
which with one piece of the squeer" will
make tenth note.
There is again the process known as trails
ing" This is done by scraping good note
until it is very thin and then FASTING in figures
and letters Of a higher denomination. In this
way IS 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 in New Orleans for raising
81 bills to $50. He has been engaged in coun-
terfeiting for forty years and is now a man
over CO. Out west he is called the ''King of
Koniackers," and the account of his advent
ures, as given in the secret service records,
reads like a romance
Still another way Of "fxing" money is to
change the figures of a note by the use of acid !;
higher number of figure is printed in the
place from 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 a damaged appearance
OF course engraved counterfeits 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 E. Ulrich. The hundred bills printed
from a series of plates engraved in Brooklyn
by Charles Smith for William E. Brockway
were but little less perfect than genuine.
But the finest counterfeit from every point
of view was a $500 United States note of the
series of 1862 1t was about equal to the gen.
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 counterfeiters
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 eff
forts of the counterfeiter, and consequently
lathe work is the chief feature in all bank
note engraving. By the simple turning of a
screw patterns are arbitrarily formed and
certain figures are made which can be repro
duced only with the greatest difficulty, even
by the Operator second time The borders
~ rnr o o a a"d ci,.1ar forn,s ~ he,,1
corners oval ana circular forms on oank
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 a ire
,,ao,,s h,s;,,o dn,o oseoo;sI1,- 800 49,
menoous business ). gone, especiaily since ene
resumption OF specie payments after the war.
The varieties are almost endless, owing to the
ease with which the work can be done by
o.siost nootbod is bv tba nsa of n nl.s+or Of
nars mold and the coin most frenuentlv
initiated is the five cent nickel 1t is not
milled, and there is little difficulty in imi-