St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-02-01
SPLITTING BANK NOTES
The Latest Iagenioas Devices Of Cooo
torfeleoro.

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Many devices have been resorted b
by counterfeiters to raise genuine banl
notes, AZ well as manufacture bogus
ones, but one of the most novel haa
come to light within the last few days
ct the United States subtreasurer's Of.
fice in Philadelphia. It II not known
whether the plan was ever tried before.
nor how successful it wes in this case,
as it is not known whether anybody
was caught by it. The scheme con-
sisted Of splitting fave-dollar and .
one-dollar note and then FASTING the
back Of the one-dollar to the front Of
the five-dollar note and the front o1 ~
one-dollar note to the back Of . 1vo
dollar note. The mechanical part -
the work was excellently done. but ths
fraud could be detected the moment
the note was turned over.
An effort had been made - eAanRs
the zone" to five" on the s6nGe "a
Of the new combined note. but It was
done so clumsily that the fraud would
have been seen at . glance, and the
only hope of passing the notes a. fives
would have been to pass them over with
the five side up and trust to the man
lcceiving it not to turn it over before
putting it away. The doctored notes
came to the subtreasury through one
of the banks, with the request that
they be allowed whatever the notes
were worth. The government always
redeems notes from the face value,
and as the faces in this case were Of .
onc-dollar and . five-dollar note, si1
dollars were allowed. It il not known
whether the bank was caught on the
split notes or not.
A cleverly executed counterfeit i've
dollar national bank note was also de-
tected at the subtreasury tho other
day. It was on the First national banl
Of Tamaqua, and was burned in several
places to give it an old appearance
and then pasted on q piece Of paper
as IL to hold it together. The fraud
was first detected by turning over one
of the corners and discovering mis-
spelled word ON the back.
Another trick resorted to frequently
is to attempt to raise notes by pastina
ON an additional cipher taken from
revenue stamp. Experts can, however
detect such scheme at . glance By
the picture on the note. the same pic
ture never appearing on notes Of dif
ferent denominations.
A counterfeit in which it ID hard to
see where the profit comes In il the
pen and ink imitation, all the lines and
shadings being made by hand. With
the skill and time required for such
. work there can be little II any profit
in the work.
Probably the most perfect counter
felt silver dollar ever turned ont wa
detected few days ago. The coin
was the same size as the genuine dollar
and the die was perfect down to the
minutest detail. The counterfeit was
only detected by its weight, and the
maker evidently overlooked the fact he
might make dollar OF full weight and
yet make q handsome profit, owing tc
the difference in value Of the coin and
the bullion in it. That the bulk Of the
metal used in this case was silver was
shown by tho true ring Of the coin.
The most surprising thing about
counterfeiters is that they make q
many bogus coins of small denomina-
tions. A great many of these are pen
nies. which contain apparently the full
quantity Of copper. and it il hard to see
where any large profit can be made.
The makers Of these are mostly for
eigners, who are content to operate for
small profits. In the case of dimes
and quarters many are made with the
full quantity Of metal. but the designs
are 20 imperfect that they can readily
be Observation-Disclosures Record.