Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-06-08

OUTFIT FOR CONTEMPLATING PAPER CUR
RENCY.
the moro reason for keeping an eye on
| him, for he has now the incentive to
commit crime. No temptation is so
strong as the temptation to make bogus
money.
! 1t is not very pleasant to contemplate
life under the watchful, suspicious eye
of the law, but every man who takes
| up bank note engraving must make up
| his mind to endure it ever afterward,
even if he change his occupation q hun
! dred times.
This is the reason for the watch on
| ngravers-only a skilled engraver and
one familiar with bank note work can
make plate which is even passa BILE
imitation of the plates used by the
treasury There are botched counter
fets turned out by ordinary engravera
now and then which could deceive no
one but very ignorant man. But a
really clever counterfeit like the bogus
| 500 bill which caused such a furry
| could not be made by any but an ex-
perienced engraver.
So clever was the execution of the
! 800 bill, by the way, that it was said
/ to have been printed from plates stolen
from the bureau of engraving and
printing. The story of stolen treasury
plates is one which is revived at inter
walls. l never have found any one who
believed it except A. L. Drummond,
once chief of the secret service. He is
certain there are stolen plates in exist
ence, and he did not hesitate to say so
even when he was in the government
service.
Whenever new counterfeit appears
the first thought that comes to the Sc
cret service officers is that it was made
by some of the engravers in the treasury
list. These are not all treasury engrav
ers. The list kept by the government
includes all the men who have worked
or are working for the bank note and
engraving companies in New York,
Chicago, st. Louis and other cities.
Not suspiciously, but as a matter of
course, the secret service officers try TO
trace the counterfeit to some engraver
first to one who has committed
crime before and then to some man who
is presumably honest A good record is
no protection from investigation. When
some outsider has committed the crime,
the officers are puzzled to lind a clew.
If IA known engraver is guilty, it is
only question of time when the crime
will be fastened on him.
When there are no new counterfeits
II. "a
selves informed of the movements of all
the engravers in the country. If an en-
graver falls into bad habits, the fact is
reported to the treasury department. If
he sits up late at night, he becomes the
victim of suspicion. Engravers draw
ing heavy salaries for legitimate work
have been known to make bogus plates
at home in their spare hours. One man
working for the American Bank Note
company some years ago was caught
copying on a plate at home in the even
ing the work he had done on a govern
ment plate during the day.
One fact operates against successful
counterfeitinG by the professional en-
graver Each one of these men has his
speciality. With one it is borders, with
another portraits, and so on. The work
is divided among them according TO
their special abilities so no one gets
practice on all the features of note.
The mechanical work of the geometric
lathe has never been initiated success
fully by hand. Photography has given
fair reproduction of it.
GEORGE GRANTHAM BAN.