The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-02-08
FRAUDULENT COINS.
The Use of Electricity In Doctor
ing" Gold Pieces.
Gaivan:c batteries Employed In the Proc
css of Removing Gold from Coins
The Immense Loss Through
Abrasion.

adclphia Inquirer. Bankers and others
are frequently coming across light
pieces. The discovery u few days ago
of nearly $500 In light 2.50 gold pieces
rendered in payment of custom duties
by prominent importer has led to the
detection OF numerous pieces short in
weight, showing that there is in opera
ton systematic scheme for robbing
the government by means of stealing
metal from coins. Officers of the
United States secret service are now
mt work in this city cntlcavoring to
trace the coins through different hands
nn,i find the Offenders.
The process of robbery, which is f,-
military known us sweating" coins,
was formerly practiccd to II large en-
tent but of late years few instances of
it have come to the attention Of the nu-
thoritics. 1t is not highly profitable,
and Mt best, under the old methods of
extracting the metal, it did not afford
much more than IL living.
From IL careful examination of the
light pieces which are now being found,
1t is evident that the thief is not doing
his work by the old hand method Of
shaking the coins in IL bag and then
gathering the dust by means of quick
silver, but that he has brought into
requiSition the rapid agency of cleo
! trlcity. The service of an ordinary
galvanic bhttcry and some cheap acid is
all that Is necessary to conduct the OBJ
Grafton hy the electric process. Tho
scheme is similar to that employed In
plating with gold by electricity. The
coin is placed i'll the fluid, and attached
to 1t are wires from the poles to the
battery leading 10 another piece of
metal prepared to receive, in the
form of plating, the metal to
he removed from the coin.
The battery being set in motion
sufficient gold to form II plating is quick
ly transferred, and as it is removed
uniformly from all parts of the coin the
liability OF Disagreement is reduced to
minimum. The only effect is TO blur
the characters Slightly.
An authority ut tho mint has csti-
mnted that about ~ cents worth of
gold can bc removed in this way from a
SO gold piece without exciting the s,,s-
picion of the casual observer. TO the
skilled eye of an expert, however, tho
effect is generally apparent Mt n glance,
and 1t does not always require tho
scales to determine whether the coin is
corrrct or not. In the New York sub
treasury there is one man, Tandy by
name. who, by year., of experience in
the handling of coin, has become 50 cx-
pert i'll his judgment that he can tell hy
mere touch with closed eyes whether II
piece is of spurious metal or whether it
is ii genuine coin that has been tam
pcrcd with In this respect he is not
approached BY any other person in tho
world.
The electric process Of stealing from
coins is not altogether IL now scheme.
The Government officials few years
ago captured in Northern New York u
| band of Italians who were operating
extensively TN this plan. Few but for
cigners practice sweating" in this
country. 1t is an institution of theft
much more common III Europe than on
this side Of the Atlantic. md those who
operate here are usually persons who
have been driven from their country for
the same reason. The enterprise does
not yield sufficient induccIncnt in the
way of easy labor and large returns
to tempt the average Eativc- born
swndlcrS. and it tx mostly monopolizcd
by class content to live on little and
Hot-rt Siuilll savings
Some idea of the readiness with
which gold can he removed from coins
IS found i'll the result of Il series of in
vcstiSationS made some years ago in the
mint. IL WAS shown that 81 was lost by
abrasion every time 81 ,O0O,0 in gold
coin was handled. The experiments
were conducted with bags, containing.
$4,000 each, and it was shown that the
mere lifting of the 200 bags making ND
81, 900, 00n to Il truck to be removed to
anothcrvault resulted in the loss stated,
and that their transfer from the truck
again made Il second similar loss
Gold while in circulation is ham
died less than any other medium.
1t is usually kept III the vaults of banks
for demand rarely made, and for this
reason the loss by abrasion is but one
half of per cent. III twenty years. In
so gold piece. the standard wcight,of
which is SO grains. the Government
allowance Cor loss by abrasion is Us
grains, but Except in cases where the
coins have been tempered with by
Sweaters" the loss rarely exceeds this,
limit
l'y an order issued some Zinc AFRO by
the Treasury Department at Washing
ton the light $50 coins found the
other day were stamped with a."
indicating that they were light
Shortly after the late Daniel NJ.
Fox was appointed superintendent
of the mint in this city the Secretary Of
the Treasury issued similar order. a
stamp was procured, but protest being
made superintendent Fox's attention
was called tO the matter and he decided
that he had no authority in Justice To