Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1896-02-13
SI.00 A YEAR.
NEW VOL. 31--NO. II.
counterfei,ers are Clever.

Many devices have been resorted TO
by counterfeiters 10 raise genuine bank
notes, as well as manufacture bogus
ones, but one of the most novel has
come to light within the last few days
at the United States subtreasury office
in this city. 1t is not known whether
the plan was ever tried before, nor how
successful it was in this case, as il is
not known whether anybody was
caught by it. The scheme consisted
Of splitting a fve.dOllar and one.
dollar note and then pasting the backs
OF the one-dollar 10 the front Of the
fve-dollar note and the front OF the
one.dollar note to the back Of the five
dollar note. The mechanical part Of
the work was excellentiy done, hut
the fraud could be detected the mo-
ment the note was turned over.
An effort had been made TO change
the "oue" to five" on the one side Of
the new combined note, but it was done
so clumsily that the fraud would have
been seen at a glance and the only hope
of passing the notes as 6ves would have
been to pass them over with the hve-
dollar side up and trust to the man re-
ceiving it not to turn 1t over before
putting it away. The doctored notes
came to the subtreasury through one
ofthe banks, with the request that they
be allowed whatever the notes were
worth. The government always re-
deems notes from the face value, and
as the faces in this case were OF one
and a fve-dollar note, six dollars WAS
allowed. 1t is not known whether the
bank was caught on the split notes
or not.
A cleverly executed counterfeit fve-
dollar national bank note was also de-
tected at the subtreasury the other day.
1t wa. on the First National Bank OF
Tamaqua, and was burned in several
places to give it an old appearance aud
then pasted on a piece ofpaper as ifto
hold 1t together The fraud was first
discovered by turning over one Of the
corners and discovering misspelled
word on the back. Another trick re-
sorted to frequently is an attempt to
raise notes by pastlug on an additional
cipher taken from a revenue stamp.
Experts can, however, detect such a
scheme at glance by the picture on
the note, the same picture never ap-
pearing on notes Of different denomi-
nations.
A counterfeit in which IL il hard 10
see whore the profit comes in is the pen
and ink imitation, all tho lines aud
shadings being made by hand. With
the skill and time required for such a
work there can be little, If any. profit
in the work. Probably the most per.
feet counterfeit silver dollar ever
turned ont was 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 It's
weight. and the maker evidently over
looked the fact that be might make
dollar Of full weight and yet make a
handsome profit owingto 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
the true ring Of the coin. The most
surprising thing about counterfeits ls
that they make so many bogus coins
Of small denominations. a great many
Of these are pennies, which apparently
| contain the full quantity Of COPPER,
and il is hard to see where any large
profit can be made. The makers Of
these are mostly foreigners, 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 so iDper-
feet that they can readily be detected.
-Philadelphia Record.