The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-08
Only the Work of the Most Accom-
plished %Engravers to Be
Feared.
Few Co~unterfeits That Deceive
ANY Except the Most
Ignorant.
Much Harm Done by Sensational Reports
Only Three Successful CountcrIeits
Issued Since 1860.

- SS"y '
ready market, and Washington has boon
stof les of this kind hat have greatly misin-
formed and perhaps unnecessarily alarmed
the newspaper readers of theland. Writers
who have imperfectly understood the ac-
counts given to them in the secret service
bureau have at times been responsible for
stories of this kind, says the Washington
correspondent of the New York Times.
While Secretary Fairchild was at the
head of the treasury. the chief of tho secret
service, in his hostility to the use of steam
presses, contributed by his testimony on
the stand before Il congressional committee
to the busines of scnndalously mis-
representing the danger to be appre-
hended from the floating of counter
feits of the notes and silver certificates. A
wag OF q newspaper man, who is now in tho
business, used to entertain newcomers to
the capital by telling them that the seer ct
service officer swere in the habit of burying
over n over again the counterfeit money
in their possession and as often refinding
the Same paper, just to give the idea that
charge of their duties.
As a matter of fact, there are and have
been very few counterfeits dangerous to ex-
perto. and only two or three that were CAL
culated to deceive any but the most ignorant
or ~carless. The recent counterfeits of the
two-dollar silver certificates which have
been referred to as wonderfully good" are
only likely to deceive by their general effec-
tiveness in appearance. A moments study
or comparison of them will prevent acc ept-
ance of any ono of these counterfeits.
A recent instance of the sort Of article
that is doing mischief was illustrated in q
curious way. Last Saturday a very we'll
written and interesting account of counter
feits and countel feiting appeared in an
evening paper here, and on Sunday it was
printed in Il number of papers III different
part of the country. 1t was calculated to
alarm by the positive character of the as
s~ertions that it made of the ease and fire.
quency with which government issues are
reproduced by counterfeiters The writer
has been overhauled, and to-day he prints
an article in which he recalls, practically,
ell of the alarming assertions he made a
week ago.
The writer said in last weeks article, for
instance: "1h he recent circulation of fresh
counterfeit paper money of extraor-
binary excellence has called public
attention very strongly to a menace
to the country's finances that is practically
new. Photographic and photo-chromlc
processes Of late invention, a Star reporter
was informed, have been of great assist
ance to forgers in the reproduction of notes
or certificates, 30 far as the designs are con
cerned. As tor the parer to print them
up,n, the government sells 1.-THE real stuff
OF treasury manufacture-at Il cheap rate
to any one who wants to buy. If you don't
believe this you can easily obtain from the
secret service bureau here a full account of
the manner in which. not long ago, a skilled
operator took a large number of real one
dollar bills, washed them in a chemical
bath 80 as to remove every trace of the
printing, and then used the plates he had
prepared to print on the same paper as
many Observation-Disclosures bills, the profit
on each being S499."
Chief Engraver Casalier, of the bureau of
engraving aud printing says, through the
pen of the same writer in the Star:
''Repolts have been circulated to the effect
that Photographic processes of new invan-
tlon have rendered counterfeitlng go easy
that it is n mere bngatelle to reproduce our
own notes with such accuracy that we our
selves cannot distinguish the real from the
imitation. So far is that from being true
that we were never SO sure as we are to-day
of the fact that such processes are not to be
feared and that our work can only be dan
gerously initiated by the art of the skilled
engraver. Against the accomplished work
man with tho g%raver's tools, whose
facility in the art is equal to our.
own. we can never be entirely Sc
Gu Q, although nothing that he has
done vet has been beyond detection. Tho
system by which forgeries are discovered
md the forgers themselves hunted down
has been so far developed that since 1869
only three successful counterfeits of Uncle
SANS paper currency have been issued, one
OF them the 81 silver certificate that has oc-
casioned such a disturbance of late"
After saying that it has been surmised in
some quarters that the old counter eiter
Charles ii. Smith is responsible for the
two-dollar note. and expressing a doubt of
that because tho work ID not up to his
standard. Mr.. Casalier says: "And now as
TO these same two-dollar certificates. |
want to give emphatic correction to a most
erroneous expression that has gone abroad.
In the first place it is not q Photographic
counterfeit. Secondly, it is not Il very dan
gerous counterfeit. With the notes issued
by Smith and B'ockway it bears no COM
garrison whatever. Not only is it untrue
that we have been unable to discover any
flaws in it, but the banks and the
experts at the treasury recognized it
as a forgery before it was ever sub
mitted to our Judgment at the bureau
OF engraving and printing. We, ourselves,
could not have been for n moment deceived
as to its character. II is a dangerous coun-
terfeit certainly, because what we call its
general effect is good. but it will not bear
examination at all. Much excitement has
been occasioned lately by the dangers that
were alleged to threaten us in the shape of
the Photographic process by which forge g
could copy Uncle SANS money with abso-
lutte accuracy. 1t is all Il bugaboo. None
of the processes now in existence will pro-
duce a decently successful counterfeit"
THE PATAGONIANS.
The Manner In Which u Mother Brings n