Evening star., 1902-04-25

that the counterfeiters concentrat ted their
sales at one time, destroyed or buried their
plant, and are keeping under cover with
the money received.
Counterfeiting of Postage Stamps.
Postage stamps are rarely counterfeit
ed; in fact, / don't recall any heavy at
tempt at it in recent years. There are
many reasons why postage stamps are not
counterfeited and few will prove Of gen.
eral interest.
Up to the. term of Postmaster General
Bissell, United States postage stamps were
manufactured by private concerns on con-
tract, just as postal cards are now manu-
factured. General Bissell deemed II adj
visable that the government should make
and control its own postage stamps as it
does its money. The ultimate saving he
ccntended. would amount to millions with
corresponding security. as the stamps were
then made in New York and shipped TO
Washington, while, if made here they
would be practically under the control Of
the postal authorities. and the splendid sys-
tenn of security guaranteed by the bureau
Of engraving and printing would safeguard
the custody of the stamp sheets. both be-
fore and after their printing and final prep
aration.
The wisdom of General BisseIrs course
has been proved a thousand times over
The government would never again return
TO the private contract system. The saw
ing is actual and enormous as time pro-
ceeds, the security perfect and the staruus
are as good as experts intelligence and mod
ern machinery can make them. and are
said TO be superior to the productions Of
other countries
Il will tell you one or two of the reasons
why our stamps are not counterfeited, for,
upon consideration, while you constantly
read of the counterfeiting of United States
treasury notes, and of our gold and silver
coins, the counterfeiting of postage stamps
is conspicuous by its absence. The paper
is especially manufactured and water
marked While the paper is difficult to i'm
c he Hnfn fnrfr7 nf b. Srlr
which the stamps are printed which is the
most difficult to initiate: to catch the exact
shade, as the least difference would be in
stantly detected and at once reported. Then
the mucilage plays an important but an
unthought-of part 1t took a long time of
experimental testing before the present
grade of mucilage was considered satisfac-
tory. 1t would be difficult to initiate it, as
simple as 1t seems, and the slightest differ
ence would be readily detected by an ex-
pert To properly dry the sheets a COM
plicated process requiring a large SUPER
icial area, as was recently intelligently de-
scribed in an article in The Star on the
manufacture OF postage stamps, is neces-
sary. In the counterfeiting OF United
States treasury notes and coins small
room, few sheets of paper. an ingot OF
metal, press, crucible, furnace and die
are all that are necessary. This process OF
counterfeiting may be carried on right un-
der the noses of other people in the same
house without detection. but not so with
postage stamp counterfeiting. Again, the
Il
were made by the counterfeiters.
Other Facts of Interest About Stamps.
Until few months ago all of the postal
cards manufactured in the United States
were made near Washington, at Piedmont
w. Va, but under the new contract they
are now made at Rumford Falls Me To
show that there is something doing in the
postal card and stamp line let it be re-
membered that the government has shipped
from it's postal card mandatory 659, ,6O0,-
600 postal cards annually, weighing 47O0.-
600 pounds requiring 163 freight cars for
its transportation to the various depots Of
distribution. Assuming each car to be
thirty feet long, this would require train
4,s9O feet in length, or nearly mile, to
move the cards at one hauling. In other
words, the government issued in a year
a ribbon of postal cards measuring 1924
765.OOO inches, 30.2o6.375 feet and 57,3eo
miles in length, or more than would reach
twice around the world and leave enough
to spare with which to tie a bow knot.
In ten years, at this rate, over half a mil
lion of miles of postal cards would be is
sued.
Few people realize the magnitude Of the
receipts of the government annually from
the little squares they so neatly gum to
their letters and the small parallelogram
of straw-colored card board they may buy
for penny. The total postal receipts last
year from all sources % was wa 81 Sill .6soooo and
uted by the sale of postage stamps, stamp
ed envelopes newspaper wrappers and pos
tai cards In short. the government issued
no less than 4.059. 900. 600 ordinary postage
stamps and lS7 300. .oso Pan-Amer1can stamps
last year. The field for counterfeiting. II
would seem, is large. but IL is safe to say
that it will never be invaded to any ex-
tent; the. postal authorities are too vigil
lant and the sale of postage stamps, even
of genuine issue in large quantities. at once
excites suspicion on the part of the
would-be buyer. The fact soon gets
out, and IL was in this manner that some
of the Chicago stamp robbers were recent
ly detected. With stolen money. gold, sil-
yer. precious stones and jewelry II is dif-
ferent. Stamp counterfeiters would have
hara work getting good counterfeit upon
the market. and harder work to escape ar