The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-11-27
SWINDLE BOSTON BANKS.
Clippings From Five Dollar Notes
Make One That Passes Easily

Boston. Nov q. - Swindlers have
been flooding the city with Il five-dOllar
bill that, curiously enough, while not a
counterfeit, is absolutely worthless,
and is not a Confederate note at that.
1t is made from pieces clipped from
fourteen 6Ve-dOllar bills, and is
closely put together that the deception
was not discovered until il had puzzled
the brain of a bank-nOte 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, leaving it
without it's white margin at the right
end and part of the scroll border. This
discrepancy would not be noticed by
the average person, as many new bills
are not cut squarely 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 to the end of the second, being
held by a piece of tough tissue paper,
such as is commonly used in patching
bills that have been torn. Then the
bill is crumpled to give color to the
opinion, if question should arise. that
it was accidentally torn and had been
patched
The third bill is cut an inch and
half from the end, and to the bill is
pasted the inch that was cut from the
second bill This makes the third bill,
ike the other two. just half an inch
short of the standard measure
The fourth bill is cut two inches from
the end, and the piece cut from the
third bill is pasted on to it. Thus the
cutting is carried on up to the seventh
bill, when the division comes about in
the middle of the bill, carving the
beautiful female figure in twain Then
the piece cut of in each of the succeed
ing 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 preceding bill.
When the pasting is done a fifteenth
bill remains in the hand of the work
man with its left border cliDDed off
and nothing to paste on it 1t is the
same sortof bill that the first one was.
only the other end is missing.
II was the discrepancy in the num-
bering 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 numbers did not correspond
on the ends of the 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 misfit numbers Then
the paying teller felt assured that the
insists We're not the result of careless
ness in mending torn bills, and he mott
fed the bank squad of the police de-
partment.
The weak spot in the pfecing system
IS that the gap of half an inch on thir-
teen of the bills breaks the continuity
of the design to such degree that
caretuI examination shows letters or
HSufeS to be missing. The tissue helps
cover up the deficiency, but in the bills
thaI are cut across the middle the gan
IS quite pronounced, owing 10 the pic
tOrlaI nature of the design and the
grouping of the figures.