Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1898-05-22
A C~OUNTERFEITER'S ART.
GROWING SKILL SHOWN IN COPYING
GOVERNMENT NOTES.

-Is Chief Flaws-How 1t Is Made.
Perhaps the greatest tribute ever
,,o;d 10 the counterfeiter's art in this
rrouptrv was the practical calling in
several days ago by the Treasury De-
,ortment of the entire new issue of
ZOO silver certificates. 1t amounts,
sovs the New York Sun, to a con
fnss;on on the part of the Government
chat the counterfeiter has almost
nanaht mp with it, and that it is prac-
t;rally impossible to turn out a bank
roto NJ silver certificate that cannot
he copied well enough to insure to the
couuterfeits extensive circulation be-
fore detection.
The counterfeit is a splendid piece
If work and even Il careful eXamina-
ZION bv one not IN expert will not
bring out its defects. To detect it Il
man must be thoroughly familiar with
,hs genuine bill. The workmanship
If the counterfeit is almost perfect,
and there is no crude engraving to
catch the eye as in most counterfeits.
tjsimpossible to estimate at the pres
ont time the number of these bogus
hills that have been passed, for they
hoye been worked off i'll different parts
of the country simultaneously. They
anpeared in Philadelphia, Chicago,
and ST. Louis at the same time, and a
little later began to come to light in
Michigan and Pennsylvania.
It would appear that they were ac-
cepted without hesitation when pres
euted. No one raised the slightest
question as to their g~enuineness until
one of them fell into the hands of a
man who is supposed to know a
terfeit without seeing it. When the
Treasury employee whose touch or in
stinct warned him that he was hand
ling a counterfeit looked at it. he was
ready to make oath that for once in
his life his skill had gone back on him.
The wonderful workmanship, the
auality of the paper, and the thread
ing. gave the bill an appearance of
ge~nuineness that was startling.
As a rule, counterfeits cannot stand
very close and careful examination
from an expert, but the new silver
certificate makes a better showing
after it has been examined for a few
moments than it does when it is first
looked at. Its general appearance is
almost perfect, a thing hard to believe
after reading a list of the defects
picked out by the Treasury officials
and sent broadcast in the land as a
warning to bankers, merchants, and
others.
1t may be well to state at the very
outset that the Treasury expert who
prepared the list of flaws made one
serious mistake. He says i'll the print
ed warming that the ''t' in "Washing-
ton" is not crossed. The IT" Is
crossed, although in some of the coun-
t~erfeits the line is very faint and
scarcely discernible without a glass.
On the other hand, others of the coun-
t~erfeits show no signs of this flaw at
all and the "t's' are as well crosseda as
those in the original bill. For the
purpos of comparison the bill from
which the warming sent out was pre-
pared was studied alongside OF sew
eral other counterfeits of the same
issue. among them the one o in Mr..
Holler's possession. They were found
to be exactly similar in good points as
we'll as bad points, excepting Ill the
matter of the ct" No cross could be
seen in the Government bill with the
naked eye. An ordinary magnlfylne
glass failed to reveal one, but under
a powerful glass the line showed NJ
distinctly. 1t is a safe assumption
after this to say that the "t' in the
word "Washington" is crossed IN al
the counterfeits.
The main fault with the bill is the
portrait of James Monroe. 1t Is al
excellent fac simile of the II on thu
Genuine bill, and not II man IN /
thousand would detect any difference
unless his attention was called to IL
The defects are of the most insignlil
can't character. In the genuine not
the cheek bones of the President ar'
pronounced. In the counterfeit thu
engrayer has made an effort to give tn
same effect in his copy, but has only
partially succeeded. The left cheek
bone is not visible at all, while thu
right is brought out a little, but not 81
much as in the genuine note. The re
suit of this is to give Monro $ 1ac'
the appearance of being long and thin
In the hair. too, there is faulty work
In the genuine bill the hair IS brushe'
straight back, and despite the angle a
which the head is set, the hair on tn
left side can be seer as we'll as that o
the right. The fine lines can be dis
tinctly made out with the naked ey
on the sides and top. In the counter
felt the hair is not drawn with lines
butt 8 solid work, and none can be see
on the left side. tits cleverly shadeo
however, and looks remarkably lik
the original. The hair is worst o
top of the head. 1t runs into tn
background, while on the genuine bl
it stands out in relief.
It is the faulty picture which ha
had more to do with the detection {
counterfeits than anything else "A
officer of the United States secfet Sc
vice, when asked to explain this almo
universal defect in connterfelts' san
Remember in the first place III
the counterfeiter engages Just as ie
men in the actual manufacture OF bogl
money as he can get along with. III
showers rarely know who is makll
the money or where it is made )
they can be engaged without numoe
But the makers are at the mercy
one another, so the fewer IN charge
a plant the better. So it rarely ma