The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1901-01-09
DEALT IN BAD COINS
Treasury officials Arrest Eight
Counterfe.ters.
CAUGHT IN NEW YORK
Attempt to Purchase Sheet Silver a
a Store Arouses Suspicious and
Officers Are Notified.

Washington, d. c.. Jan. 5.-The off
Gals of the secret service of the treasur,
department, under the direction OF Chic
Willlie, made a number of highly-impor
tant arrests in New York last night an(
today. For at least two months the Sc
cret service people have been at work t.
discover the makers of a large number O.
all-silver counterfeit coins, mostly quar-
ters and halves which were being freel,
circulated in New York city. The result
has been that Pic Paris and seven com
panions. all Italians, were arrested ant
are now in Jail. The coins being of al
most pure silver, 800 fine, and fairly vel
made. they readily passed wherever pre-
scented, and rendered extremely difficult
the task of locating the makers and pass
erS.
Buying Sheet Silver.
Some time ago two Italians called c.
Messrs. Platt & Co. of Gold street. New
OK, large dealers in sheet silver an(
gold, and purchased 1000 ounces Of Shee
silver. One of the men was observed a
the time OF the purchase to compare on
OF the sheets with a coin which he tool
from his pocket, probably with a view 0
determining whether the sheet was of tn,
same thickness as the coin he had in hi
possession. This circumstance was mad,
known to the secret service officials by
Messrs. Platt & Co. and a force was i'm
medlatcly set to work on this new lead
From the fact that the men took away
with them only small part of the pur
chase, it was assumed that they would
shortly return for the rest After a time
the two men again appeared and tool
away another small quantity to III
CT Of
York. From there they were Swallowed
to 30 Watt street on the west side.
A Policeman's Break.
Yesterday morning one of the roomers
in the Mangin street house became sus
DlclouS that the men ON the floor below
were dong some sort of crooked work
and he at once notified a policeman on
that beat. which fact came near render.
ing ineffective all the work that had been
DONE
The policeman, not knowing that the
authorities were watching the house
went to the door and pounded for admit.
lance. He was not answered. however
ana soon went away. One of the gang
who had been watching from the next
street corner at once went to the house.
notified the gang of the suspicious cir
cumstances and all precipitately fed to
the Watt street place, carrying with
them many of their dies, coins. and
blanks.
Forced an Entrance.
The secret service officials. realizine
the danger of further delay Immediate
ly, forced an entrance into both houses.
where they found several of the men.
eight in all, at work. The Mangin street
house, as well as the house on Watt
street, was fully equipped with modern
machinery for rolling silver, punching
blanks, etc. In one of the places a screw
press, weighing five tons, was in opera
ton. About 100 ounces of silver and
quite. large basketball of steel dies were
secured. Many of the dies, however, had
been so mutilated as to be beyond use.
1t seemed that as soon as the policeman
had given the alarm, the counterfeiters
bega nto file away the faces of their dies
TO prevent them from being used as evil
dence. Two of the men lived at 112 Null
berry street, New York, and others were
scattered about the neighborhood.
Chief Wilkie said today that this gang
probably was responsible for at least so
per cent. of all the silver counterfeits
which have been put in circulation in
New York during the last two years.