The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-19
COUNTERFEITER TALES.
CHANGING TIE SEAT OF OPERA
TONS FROM EAST TO WEST.

Flooded the Country Hundreds
Sent to Pris On fer Passing the Illegal
Impressions - Row Goodwin Made
Greenbacks Worth Four Times Their
Value.
From the San FTdncisco Examiner.
Within the last few years the operations
OF counterfeiters appears to have been trans
ferred from the populous eastern states to
this coast. Nowadays all the coiners seem
to think that California and the northwest
are the ideal places for passing their spuri-
Gus money. This probably comes from the
fact that in the east. where people are many
and money Is scarce, a coin or bill Of any
but the smallest denomination is nearly al
ways subjected to close scrutiny. The
people there have been educated by costly
experience into a knowledge OF the proper
weight, feel and ring OF a com. and the
color. design and texture of bill.
Out this way it is different Pacific coast
people, so the sharp men say have not yet
recovered from the days when every TO-
morrow held a prospective fortune for
everybody, and still consider that to too
carefully examine bit of money Is to in
suit the man who offers It. Then again
bills are relatively scarce out here, and
rather than subject himself TO rldicule for
suspecting q good bill the Pacific coaster is
very likely to accept unquestioningly bad
one. Not one man Ia ten, outside of bank
ers and those others who have a special
knowledge of the subject. knows what
vignettes are employed on the various de-
nominations of gold notes, greenbacks, sill
YER certificates and the rest Of the tribe Of
rag money"
All of this makes things pleasant for the
confidential man who has always large
bill to offer In payment for tritling pur-
chase.
The bad money is not made here as q
usual thing. This is particularly true OF
bills. 1t takes such an extensive plant to do
passable work OF this sort that to compen-
safe. the bill printers require whole coun-
try for q market From the point of man.
ufacture the bills are shipped north. east
south and west, trusted To none but those
upon whom the counterfeiters can rely,
and so before they get into circulation they
pass through so many different hands that
tracing them back to the printing press
10 nearly always impossible. That is where
tho great difficulty is encountered
by the United States secret service opera
tives and is also the reason that there is so
much jubllation over the capture Of a plant
or a plate. Very seldom is the money
maker or money-passer arrested promptly
upon his disc )very. Operatives have at
times spent years assisting criminals in plac-
ing spurious money upon the market before
they have got sufficiently into the confidence
OF the chief CONTRIBUTORS that they were
able to seize the apparatus Indeed, there
is not day but the secret service officials
are cognizant that the law is being violated.
They know how 1t Is being done aud who is
doing 1t but they hold Off. practically par
L., 49, Faut
to reach the root OF the Illicit industry.
In the case of Doerr the other day, for
instance, Detective Harris knew for months
that he and his two assistants were putting
coin into circulation, and, more than this,
he knew that they we're preparing TO go
into the business on the wholesale scale. He
knew who their friends and agents were
he even knew the prices they were asking
and the contracts they were entering into.
For months he had his assistants buying
the stuff from Doerr, and he could trace by
the dollars and halfs and nickels Of tin and
antimony they brought him the progress of
of the couuterfeiter's experiments. There
| has not been day for three months that he
could not have swooDed upon them with
! the certainty OF convicting the whole
crowd But he held Off until his men had
learned the exact location OF their factory.
Then he came down upon them and got not
only the men. but all their store or bad
money and molds and tools and batteries.
The government regards the apparatus as
more important even THAI the men that use
them. The most famous Of all American
countorfeiters, William e. Brockw way, and
bis associates we're relieved from what
would pract cally have been their life sen-
tence on condition OF their giving up the
plates and the bills they had printed There
were three In the gang. and oil made large
fortunes out of counterfeit $500 notes aud
bogus bonds of the Morris and Essex railroad
OF tho latter Charles Ullman disposed OF
So, 900 worth in Chicago alone. SO perfect
! were the bonds that the Morris and Essex
people could not tell when genuine aud a
counterfeit bond OF the same number we're
placed before them which of the two they
nae issued. The Brockaway outfit we're
sentenced to thirty years imprisonment,
but 30 anxious was the government to get
hold of such dangerous plates that 1t offered
20 suspend the sentence IL the counterfeiters
would give up the engraved pieces of metal
and the bills they had printed from Them
The counterfeiters accepted the terms and
are now free and enjoying the fortunes
they made by their frauds. However, it
for their sentence still hangs over the men
ard will be forced against them II they ever
again resort to crooked practice.
There is a plate some here, to obtain
which the government would suspend al
most anv sentence For thirteen years the
bills from this plate have flooded the whole
| United States Hundreds OF men have been
sent to prison for passing them and thou
sands have been deceived. They are so good
that they commonly continue In circulation
until they reach a bank or the sub-treasury
before they are detected. Nanny Jonas
who was arrested last week by the secret
services agent, had been passing some of
these bills.
They are called the "Webster head" be
cause the portrait OF the vignette is that OF
Daniel Webster. Jones' waY Of getting rid
, Of them was to tell people that he had
found bill ana that he could not read,
thereby leading them TO suppose that he was
ignorant of its denomination. He would
either got them to change It, allowing them
to reserve half dollar or a dollar, or else
would sell IL outright TO them. Many Of the
bills found in his possession were crumpled
and torn. This still further hid the slight
inaccuracies Of the counterfeit, and gave it
the appearance of bill that had been in
circulation long time. To the operatives
OF the secret service he said that he had
found the bills under the carpets Of his
mothers house, and had no means of know
ing that they were bad. IL Is supposed that
/ he got the bills from the east-from New
York, probably.
GsshIe Stein, the Pacific street clothing
merchant who was sent TO San Quentin for
six years, also dealt in webster heads -"
About that time, the detectives have since
learned, q large invoice of these bad bills
! L 80 . l.