The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-15
A COLLECTION OF oouNTERFErrs.
A Fine Assortment of Bogus Bank
Notes Owned In New York.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
There is In this city what Is probably the
best collection of counterfeit bank notes
and certificates In the possession of any in
dividual in this country. There were sew
eral good collections up to 1891, but the
government stepped in then and made II
Illegal for anybody to- have counterfeit
money in his possession without the per-
mission of the Secretary of the Treasury
This piece Of legislation resulted in the
contiscation of several collections. The one
left intact In this city belongs to John
Holler and William Dickerman, who pub
lish the United States Treasury Counter
felt Detector, and its owners have official
permission from the Secretary of the
Treasury to maintain 1t. The complete
collection OF counterfeits represents nearly
$1,000, but Messrs. Holler and Dickerman
are allowed TO keep only $3.50 worth in their
office. The rest Is deposited in Washing
ton, and includes duplicates of the samples
I'm the collection In New York The collec-
ton includes one of the new $100 counter
feits
A man who has made a study of coun-
terfeits said to a Sun reporter the other
day that this latest one has quality rare
~ possessed by bad money. The more
closely IL is examined, the better it looks.
As a rule, counterfeits cannot stand very
close and careful examination from an ex-
pert, but the new silver certificate makes
better showing after 1t has been EXAMINE
ed for few moments than IL does when It
IL first looked at. Its general appearance
is almost perfect. a thing hard 10 believe
after reading list Of the defects picked
out by the treasury officials and sent
broadcast in the land as a warning to
bankers merchants ana others.
Once an expert, with his knowledge OF
all the thousand and one little points
about the genuine bill, becomes satisfied
bill IS counterfeit, ne can speedily
pick out for the information of the gem
eral public a dozen or more flaws by which
the counterfeit can be distinguished from
the genuine. Hence the long list of de-
fects which has been sent out as a warm
ing against the new counterfeit
Now the government has a staff Of
engravers, the best to be found in the
land. 1t has specialists for the portrait
work and specialists for the letter and
number work, so that the American bank
note Is model of engraving. Some of
these days an expert portrait man is go
ing to get in with an expert letter and
number man, and then we're going 70
have trouble. One satisfaction Is that it's
never going 10 be possible TO make
perfect counterfeit, and no matter how
good the note may be, IL cannot go unde-
tected for long"
In several accounts Of the new 500 coun-
terfeit published, Il has been stated that
i was made by Photographic process.
That is not so. 1t Is an engraved note
printed from a metal plate
Mr. Holer, when asked IL there was
any clew TO the identity of the makers of
the counterfeit, said that he was not in a
position to discuss the matter.
Il will say this much however, he
said There is to-day alive ana at lib
erty a noted counterfeiter In PROBES
sional'criminals Of America ex-Chief Of
Police Byrnes' book. he is recorded as
dead. He 10 not dead, however. That is
al / can say