Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-05-06
COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
Over Three Hundred Recorded Issues
of Bad Notes.

Over Three Hundred Recorded Issues
of Bad Notes.
| How many issues Of gold and sill
yer coins, national bank notes, treas
ury notes. gold and silver certificates
have been reported as counterfeit? ??
repeated a United States treasury ex-
pert to a Washington Star man re-
Gently. "Well, great many more than
most people imagine; enough to keep
cashiers on a sharp lookout for spuri-
GUS money of all kinds, and to make
us wonder that the public are not
caught more frequently.
"The activity Of the secret service
men during the past few years in fer
reting out nests Of counterfeiters and
In capturing and confiscating dies,
presses, crucibles, metals, papers, ETC.,
used in their nefarious occupations, has
tended to keep down the circulation of
counterfeits very largely, especially
when they have been issued by regu-
t1arly organized gangs Of counterfeit
ers Isolated cases. as where a man
here and there issues a few pen and
ink or Photographic counterfeits, are
not so readily rounded up.
"The average Photographic counter
felt can be readily detected by persons
familiar with money by their bad color
as against the perfect printing of a
good bill. Some counterfeiters touch
up by hand the red seal Of the treas
.ury upon all bills with colors and
brush, and where this work, together
with Photographic execution and good
paper, is we'll done, the counterfeit is
more apt to pass current until 1t
strikes the quick eye Of money ex-
pert.
+ There has been counterfeited Of the
issues of national bank notes five 81,
fifty-eight IS, of which seven are on
Chicago banks; forty-three SO, Of
which ten are on New York national
banks; sixteen $40, nine $50, Of which
seven are on New York national banks
and nine 500 bills.
"Of the United States treasury
notes and certificates there have been
|counterfeited four 81, thirteen 81, sew
enteen IS, twenty-three SO, thirteen
$50, eight $50, three 500, one $500 and
one $1,000 bills. .. .
"Of the silver certificates there have
been issued and recorded seven Of the
81 denomination, fourteen Of the 81,
twenty-six of the IS, twenty-one Of
the $40, ten Of the $40 and one Of the
500.
"The gold certificates have not been
as extensively counterfeited as the sill
yer certificates and they are much
more difficult to initiate. There are
outstanding three counterfeit issues Of
the $50, two Of the $50 and one Of the
$l90 certificates ,::.
+"I do not recall Of ever having seen
these facts arranged in the manner In
which I am giving them to you, and
when it is considered that there are
officially recorded 300 different issues
of good, bad and Indifferent counter
felt notes, the public can get line on
what the counterfeiters of the country
have been doing to our currency in
the way of imitation and deception.
MANY of these different issues Of
counterfeits have been so cleverly
made, especially those from engraved
plates, that we denominate them dan
gerous,' very dangerous and exceed
ingly dangerous In the 500 gold GER
tificates the issue was very danger
GUS one, over quarter of a million
Of these counterfeit notes having been
put into circulation, not in dollars, but
in the number Of notes. So danger
GUS were these counterfeits that the
government has retired from ctrcula-
ton nearly all Of the genuine notes OF
this issue. One of the three counter
felt issues of the SO gold certificates
Is a very clever Photographic produc-
ton we'll calculated to deceive. This
counterfeit may be taken as an Illus
tration Of the high art attained by
notes by the Photographic process.
This note should be detected by its
coloring not being up to the mark of
the genuine.
1.-The $1OO silver certificate is one Of
the most dangerous counterfeits yet
put out. There are several danger
Gus counterfeits Of these certificates In
the $50, $40 and SIS denominations,
while Of the 81 denomination there are
found different dangerous issues, and
Of one of these the gang sending out
this issue has floated five separate is
sues. In the original issue Of this last
counterfeit the word Two was incor-
rectly spelled backward, thus 'Owt.'
The counterfeiters did not discover
this error until they floated the note,
then they promptly sent out second
issue with the word spelled correctly.
This 50 silver certificate counterfeit Is
an exceedingly dangerous article, and
the fact that five separate issues have
been Showed testifies to the skill Of
the counterfeiters. All Of the seven
known issues of 81 certificates are
poor and are readily detected, or ought
to be.
Passing from the silver certificate
to the United States treasury notes,
while some of the counterfeit issues
are clever, most Of them are far from
fair to bad, except a few which are
dangerous, especially the $1,000 and
$500 denominations. Very few genuine
notes which are counterfeited are in
circulation, and the public should
handle these big bills with great care.
So few of us ever see them, however,
that the general public need not be
lconcerned