Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1894-12-01

Seventeen boxes ana thirteen BIG
money bags of the coin productions of
counterfeiters, gathered by the secret
service officers during the last eighteen
months, were destroyed recently in
the furnaces at the navy yard, A
heavy wagon load of over two tons.
including scot in spurious coins of
every denomination from copper
cent to bogus twenty-dollar gold
piece, together with dies, devices. and
Jim cracks of various descriptions.
were hauled away from the treasury
early in the morning, and with the
permission of Secretary Herbert ten
ton cupola blasting furnace and seven
or eight smelling pots in the estab-
lishment adjoining the gunshops We're
pressed into service for reducing the
deceptive metals to ingots.
The great treasure. which would
have paid the salary OF the head of the
treasury department two or three times
over if it had been the true coin of the
realm. was watched as if by sleuth
hounds from the time it left the keep
I ing of the secret service till it was
4 transformed into a molten mass by
| committee of three tried treasury EN-
ployes, who annihilated $50. COO worth
of bad paper money in Uncle SANS
macerator and burned a lot of para
phernalia important to that branch OF
the counterfeiting business. An in
ventory had previously been taken Of
the articles, which will be kept in the
archives of the department with the
certificate of destruction.
Master Moulder George B. Cook
divided the booty into two parts, Of
which the thirteen money bags were
taken away to the cruciblas ct the fur
Their end Of the building.
The collection that ratified into the
freproof receptacles was as varied as
the rats that followed the pied piper
out of Hamelin town. One Of the
first pieces which one OF the curious
fished out OF an open bag was circu-
lar brass check with round hole in
it and bearing an inscription to the ef-
feet that it was good for the price OF
drink at the Opera House sample room.
The checks, of which there were
large number, were cOnfiscated down
in Alabama, where there seems to be
a craze for counterfeit devices of a
similar character, and each stated on
its face, good for Y! cents to the
possessQrn
j 1t had a monogram OF the enterpris-
ing proprietor of the sample room on
one side and did not appear much like
any coin of the realm, but it was for
hidden by the authorities because.
among other reasons. it might deceive
some people, especially the negroes,
into believing it to be money.
One ingenious imposition upon the
public which went into the white hot
melting pot was about 900 stick pins.
excellent limitations at first sight of
s. gold pieces. They were manufac-
tured from five-cent pieces which were
gilded, having the pins soldered upon
the side bearing the letter v. and were
worth in genuine money, if the gliding
could have been removed, $50 in hard
money. 1t is the principle at the
treasury that everything connected
with the infamous occupation must be
destroyed, and the good fve-cent
pieces we're consigned to the crucfble
without compunctiou.
There was also a number of solder
silver dollars which had evidently been
captured by giving the maker sur
prise, for the mouths of the mold were
still attached to the coins. They were
bungling pieces of work in the art Of
coin fashioning, and the fact that thew
were moulded was sufficient to make
them light. At the mints the silver
coins are made from dies, and it is not
possible to get the requisite number OF
grains into the standard size by any
other method than that of compression.
There were o number of foreign
pieces also in the collection. one of
which was Of Spain, apd bore like
ness Of the head Of Princess Eulalie.
The best workmanship in the collec-
ton was in the number of silver dol
lars, which were made in the windy
city, and put the officers to task more
J in the detection than any other coun-
, terfeit scheme for years. These are
iAA'-AC ~ " D'9C VI copper, carefully
stamped and electroplated with the
white metal, each dollar having 70
t cents worth Of the good stuff. The
ring of these dollars was all right, as
was their weight and appearance, and
there was no way in which they could
be detected save by cutting into them.
1t is hard telling how long the fraud
was undetected or how many Of the
bogus dollars there are circulating al
' present around the marts OF trade.
: The ingenious scheme was first de
} tected in the sub-treasury in Cincin.
!. natl, and the perpetrator is now serv-
+ ing five years time.
+ What az BE.
The battle was on Shells went
! aayr,ittar 4It,1,t,-b A..