The evening times., 1897-11-24
BEWARE OF TORN s5 BILLS
Boston People Tricked by Clever
ROgues.
ACCEPTED PIECED CURRENCY
A Note Made With Clippings From
Fourteen So Bills Easily Passed
Muster and Puzzled AN Expert.
The Swindiers Escaped and May
Work the Scheme Elsewhere.

Boston, Nov. 24.-Swindlers have been
flooding this city with $5-bill that, curl
ously enough, while not a counterfeit, is
absolutely worthless, and il is not Con
federate note at that. 1t is made from
pieces clipped from fourteen So bills,
and is Sc cleverly put together that the
deception was not discovered until ii had
puzzled the brain of a bank-nute expert
The scheme was studied out, and this is
how the work was done:
The first bill would be clipped half an
inch-one OF the new five-dollar bills is
about seven inches long. lea wing IL with
out its white margin at the right end and
part of the scroll 5order. This discs ep.
ancy would not he noticed by the aver
age person, as Inany new bills are not
cut sluarely when they come from the
Treasury
The second bill is cut an inch from the
end. In place of this strip the half inch
taken from the first bill is pasted tothe end
of the second, being held lay a piece .f
tough tissue paper, such as is commonly
used in patching bills that have been torn.
iHeu Tue biil Is CiulUpleu 10 give SOlOi "
the opinion, if question should arise, that
it WAS accidentally torn and had been
patched.
The third bill is cut an inch and hall
from the end, and to the bill is pasted
the inch that was cut from the Second
bill. This makes the third bill, like the
other two, just half an inch short pf
standard measure.
The fourt h bill S cut two inches from the
end, and the piece cut from the third bill
is pasted on to IL, Thus the cutting is car
ried Oh up to the seventh bill, when the di
vision comes about in the middle of the bill,
carving the beautiful female figure i'll
twain.
Then the piece cut off in each of the sue
ceeding bills is longer than the one that re-
mains, until at the last cutting the left
hand edge OF the bill is cut off, and to 1t
is pasted, in the same manner as in the
preceding cases, the piece cut off the pre-
ceding bill.
When the pasting is done 4 fifteenth
bill remains in the hand of the workman
with its left border clipped off and noth-
ing to paste on it. 1t is the same sDr.
of bill that the first one was, only the
other end is missing.
II was the discrepancy in the number
ing of the clipped bills that first brought
the operations of the clippers to the
attention of the police last week. One
of the clipped bills came into the hands
of Paying Teller Smith, OF the Shoe and
Leather Bank. He noticed that the nuru-
bers did not correspond on the ends of
bills. He thought about it some time, and
kept watch for other bills of the same issue.
Finally another came that was patched
and had nI-iit numbers. Then the pa ying
teller fel, assured that the nisfits We're
not thc result of carelessness in mentlinc
torn bills. and he notified the bank SOUND
of the police department.
The weak spot in the piecing systeiT
is that the gap of half an inch Oh thir
teen of the bills breaks the continuity
of the design 10 such degree that care
rul examination shows letters or figures
to lie missing.
The tissue helps cover up the deficienc;.
Int I'm the bills that are cut across the mid
die the zap Is quite Pronounced, owing ;u
the pictorial nature of the design, and the
grouping of the figures.
The bills caught Were traced to shop
keepers, who had not suspected that they
had been dcfrauded. Other banks have
now reported the presence of the pieced
bills, but the police have caught no one,
and think tine rascaIs have gone to New
York city.