The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-16
THE CoUNTERFEITERSART.
GROWING STILL SHOWN IN COPING
GOVERNMENT NOTES.

Certtneats ssa nts Defects - FFoEress 81
3, crinipsis In Making Spurious u~tIls-some
Rnneus PorEers aud Their vSork.
Perhaps the greatest tribute ever paid to the
eounterfeiter's art in this country was the
practical calling in several days ago by the
Treasury Department OF the entire now issue of
800 silver certificates. It amounts to q con-
fession on the part of the Government that the
oounterfeiter has almost caught mp with It,
and that IL 10 practically impossible to turn out
q bank note or silver certificate that cannot
0 copied well enough TO insure to the counter
feits extensive circulation before detection.
There IL I'm this city what is.probably the best
collection of counterfeit bank notes and certih-
Gates In the possession of an individual in this
country. There wero several good collections
mp to 1891, but the Government stepped in
then and made It illegal for anybody to havo
counterfeit money in his possession without
the permission Of the Secretary of tho Treasury.
This piece OF legislation resulted in tho confis-
cation Of several collections. The one left in.
tact In this city belongs to John Holler and
william Dickerman, who publish tho United
States Treasury Counterfeit Detector, and It's
owners have official permission from the Sec
Rotary OF tho Treasury to maintain It. Tho
complete collection Of counterfeits represents
nearly S17. 600. but Messra. Aoller and Dick
orrnap are allowed to keep only $3.50 worth In
their onlce. Tho rest Is deposited In Washing
ton. and includes duplicates Of tho samples In
the collection in Now York. Tho collection In
cludes ono Of the new oounterfcits.
The counterfeit 10 q splendid piece Of work
and even q careful examination by one not an
expert will not bring out its defects. To de-
tect It q man must be thoroughly familiar with
the genuine bill. The workmanship Of the coun-
terfcit is almost perfect, and there is no crude
A. a IL 49, -. L. 400 1000,
fcits. II is impossible to estimate ut tho pres.
emit time the number of these bogus bills that
have been passed. for they have been worked
of in different parts Of the country simultane-
ously. They appeared in Philadelphia, Chi
cago. and 81. Louis at the same time, and q little
later began to come to light in Michigan and
Pennsylvania.
II would appear that they were accepted
without hesitation when presented. No one
raised tho slightest question as to their genu-
inencss until one OF them fell into the hands Of
o man who is supposed to know o counterfeit
without seeing It. When the Treasury EN-.
ployee whose touch or instinct warned him that
he was handling a counterfeit looked at it, he
was ready to make oath that for once in his life
his skin had gone back on him. The wonder.
full workmanship, the quality Of the paper, and
the threading. gave the bill an appearance of
genuinencss that was startling.
A man who has made a study Of countcrfeits
latest Q one ' has ' a quality s1' rarely aiets Possessed snas 6!'
bad money. The moro closely it is examined
tho better it looks. AS a rule, counterfeits can
not stand very close and careful examination
from an expert. but the new silver. certificate
make a better showing after it has been exam
first looked at. Its general appearance is almost
perfect, a thing hard to believe after reading a
officials and sent broadcast in the land. as a
warning to bankers, merchants. and others.
Once an expert, with his knowledge Of all the
Inc bill. becomes sI satisfied that a Sbiiipii Is a te Counter inter-.
felt, he can speedily pick out for the informa-
flaws by which the counterfeit can be distin-
guished frm the genuine. Hence the long list
against the new counterfeit.
1t may be well to state at the very outset
that the Treasury expert who prepared the list
p a1S Pt IS not crossedk. TN The n: ne is is crossed as al:
very faint and scarcely discernibie Without "a
glass. On the other hand. others of the coun.
vs.! sts''si ase sn Ss we'll rH s Crossed ID t as th ham IN IN al The en ori tne
pni bill. For the purposes OF comparison the
bill from which tho warming sent out was pre-
pared was studied alongside of several other
ono now in Mr.. HoIler's possession, They
as we'll as bad points. excepting in the matter
of the IT." No cross could be seen in the Gov
masnifying glass failed to reveal one, but UNDER
. powerful glass the line showed up distinctly.
II is q safe assumption after this to say that
in all the countcrfeits.
The main fault with the bill is the portrait of
the one on tho genuine bill. and not one man in
2 thousand would detect any difference unless
OF the most insignificant character. In the
genuine note the check, bones OF the President
arc pronounced. In the counterfeit the en-
feet in his copy, but has only partially sue
cscdod;, The LEFT cheek bone is Tot visible at
all. while the right Is brought out a little, but
not 80 much as In the genuine note.
The result Of this Is TO give Monroe,s face tho
SsP Pss i%pTss ST being one l sess H afto 'hi looki This al i The The
seems better and less different from the origi.
nal. In the hair. too. there is faulty work. In
back. and despite the angle at which the head is
es that on the right. The fine lines can be dis.
tinctly made out with the naked eye on the
not drawn With lines. but is solid Work. kat and
none can be seen on the left side. 1t is cleverly
shaded, however. and looks remark ably like the
original. The hair is worst on top Of the head.
IL runs into the background, while on the gen.
uine bill It stands out in relief.
90, with the detection of counterfeits than any
thing else, An officer of the United States
most universal defect in counterfeits. said:
Remember In the first place that tho counter.
feiser engages just as few men In the actual
Along vita. The showers rarely know who is
making the money or where 1t is made. SO they
can BIO engaged without number. But the
makers are at the mercy Of one another, SO the
fewer In charge of a plant the better. So 1t
rarely happens that more than one enRraver is
ina gang. Now, it is a fact that the figure and
letter engrayer, no matter how skilful he may
be. cannot do perfect portrait work. Neither
can the portrait engraver do perfect line work.
Each excels in his own specially. In the max.
ing Of q counterfeit note there Is about ten
times as much line work TO do as there is por-
trait work, 80 that the engraver who is In a
counterfeiting gang is almost invariably a
ngure and letter man. He does perfect. work in
his line. but he can't do tho portrait work,
hence the, faulty pictures in all counterfeits.
Now the Government has a staff of engrav-
ers, the best to be found In the land. II has
specialists for the portrait work and specialists
for the letter and number work, so that the Amer
lean bank note is.a model OF engraving. Some
OF these days an expert portrait man Is going TO
get In with an expert letter and number man.
and then were going to have trouble. One sat
~isfaction is that it's never going to be possible to
make o perfect counterfeit, and no matter how
good The note may be. 1t cannot go undetected
Tor long"
In several accounts OF the new 800 counter
felt published. 1t has been stated that it was
made by a Photographic process. This is not
40. 1t is an engraved note. Drintpd from "A