The San Francisco call., 1895-10-08
MADE OF GOOD SILVER
Bad HaIf-DOlIarS Which Are
Counterfeit in Name
Only.
The Coins Believed to Be the
Work of Some Mill in
This Vicinity.

The counterfeiters in the vicinity of San
Francisco have been keeping very quiet
lately, and but little of their handiwork
has been recognized by the many handlers.
The reason for this has just been discov-
cred in few half dollars, little inaccu-
racy in the stamping of which had caused
them to be more critically examined.
They were counterfeits, but they were of
good silver, of nearly full weight, the
proper ring and milled and stamped with
a die. About the only thing wrong with
them was that they had not been made by
the Government.
The Government agents have three of
the half dollars in their possession, all ex-
cellent specimens of work and of different
dates, a fact which argues that the money
mill must have more than one set of dies
or that there is more than one gang at
work. The coins are 865 grains fine, only
35 grains less than the genuine halves.
which are 900 grains fine to the 1000 The
silver bullion in each of the coins is worth
% cents, and the coiners make the differ
ence between that and 80 cents, the face
value of the coin. With the coins of
lighter weight the profit is still, more, but
there is evidently no great desire to make
the pieces much lighter than they
should be.
The new mint is supposed to be some
where near the City, as the coins have not
been long on the market. A counterfeit
will wear much more quickly than q good
piece. for no one wants to keep it any
longer than is possible and the bad coin is
constantly moving. One of the pieces in
possession of the Government is dated
1894. 1t is quite new and has not been
handled much. The others are of older
date, and have been tarnished and pur-
posely worn to simulate an age they can
not claim. These older pieces have been
placed in the hands of the Mint. where
they were tested and their real value as
certained.
1t has already been found by counter.
feiters that the half dollar is the most
profitable. piece to initiate with the real
metal. Smaller pieces are harder'to make
ana have less profit, while dollar pieces
give too little margin of profit. In a dol
lar piece there are 412]I grains of pure
silver, while there is but 1872 grains in each
nall dollar, or 3S4 grains in the dollar
made of two halves. The coming of half
dollar pieces gives a profit, therefore, of
2o7a grains OF silver on every dollar. be-
sides the 2S grains on every half dollar.
The 8414 grains profit on every dollar
which IS thus made is enough to tempt any
counterfeiter, while q piece 80 made is
very hard to detect.
This is the first experience of the Secret
Service agents in this City with the silver
counterfeit. Such work has been at
tempted in the East, and some time ago a
man in Omaha was tried for lust such
an offense, but it has never before been be-
lieved that there was anything of the kind
in this vicinity. Hasides this, the price of
SILVER bullion IS declining rapidly and such
counterfeiting offers possibilities now
which it did not offer before. The only Sc
rious obstacle is in the stamping. It is
hard to make the dies, and harder still to
get them made, and nodded coins are
easily detected. Besides, they cannot
mold the silver coins as they could the old
ones OF baser metal. The fact that the
three just captured-two of the old dc.
sign and one of the new-were slammed
with dies makes them all the more dan