The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-13
EASY TO DECEIVE
WITH COUNTERFE|TS
lnattention of Public NulIifles
Protection Afforded in the
Designing.

moment CnCdSOS population WHICH
has occasion to use $40 bills every little
while needs to keep an eye open to
the possibility of some of those $40
bills having been made from silver
certificate of the denomination of only
81. In case the Chicago person is caught
mapping with a bill Of this raised char
acter, he may count himself at least
81 ahead over what he would have
been had the bill been forged out of
hand. For at the office of the sub
treasurer in the Rand McNally build
ing the United States authorities will
be pleased to give him for it a copy
Of the original 81 into which the bur-
eau of printing first turned the bill.
This converted 81 bill shows how
much value there is in knowing just
what vignettes should appear upon bills
of certain denominations. For in
stance "a $40 bill that might have a
charging buffalo racing across its face
would be raised bill to the eye of
a child, If only the child had been
taught that 1t is only a bill of SIS de-
nomination which has the buffalo ram
pant upon it.
Many People Easily Deceived
In this particular bill which has been
appearing on several sides of the city,
the work under a questioning eye seems
remarkably crude. On the face of it
is the eagle with the spread wings so
associated with the current silver GER
tidcate of 81 denomination. Yet by
the changing of the numerals in the
four corners Of the bill and the lettered
zone" on the face, there are enough
people in the city so unfamiliar with
the general purpose of changing designs
in bills of different denominations as
to have taken these bills at big loss.
The advantage Of the raised bill, Of
course, is that the texture and feel
of the paper satisfy the person who
eyes at the same time. There are few
people, comparatively, who could make
a guess as to how many different Wig
netteS are on the faces of the 81 bills
in current circulation, but in view of
the success with which these raised
bills are disposed of it might be worth
while for one to learn.
But, If the raised bill is dangerous,
the sweating, filing, plugging, saving,
andFdrilling out Of the centers of gold
coins is easier still, though the lack
of circulation of gold in Chicago has
not made the coin as troublesome as
the raised bills have been.
Sweating" strictly speaking, Is the
immersing of the gold coin in an acid
bath and leaving it there until the acid
has operated to remove equally from
the whole surface of the coin about as
much of the metal as the person sweat
ing it feels to be safe. The ring Of
the coin is not affected by this opera
ton and the loss of weight runs from
one-tenth to one-twentieth of the coin,
those of all denominations being tam
pered with in this way.
Gold Pieces Plugged for Profit.
Pieces of $40 and $40 denominations are
used for plugging for profit. This plugging
is not that of the accepted type in
round hole punched through the piece.
But with a drill the crook taps the mill
ed edge Of the coin in a small spot, drill
ing deeply into it between the two sur
faces and causing the drill to ream out
as much of the metal as is possible. With
this gold spilled out in the form of dust
the cavity in the coin is filled with some
base metal of nearly equal weight. One
eighth to one-sixth of the value of q
coin may be taken from it in this way
and where the metal used for filing is
platinum the weight of the coin is Just
what it was before, while the metal stick
ing from the original drill hole is milled
like that of the rest of the coin and plat
ed over until only an expert might dis
cover the fraud. They are extremely dan
gerous.
To fill a gold coin to the maximum the
operator using fine saw, cuts away the
top and bottom surface Of the piece to
the thinness Of paper. Then through the
use of platinum he fills in between these
plates, having taken four-fifths of the
value of the coin. The platinum edge is
carefully milled after the plates have
been soldered together and when this
"a ic,o
weight and likely to deceive even an ex-
pert. With the platinum filling the ring
Is good, whereas with any other mixture
of metals the ring is bad and the CON-
provided it be of weight, is considerably
thicker than the original From quarter
eagles to double eagles these crooked
operators find profit in the work.
Gold Shell Dangerous Coin.
A less profitable means to the detri-
ment and misuse of the gold coin is the
saving of thin, lid-like top partially
from one surface of the piece, leaving
most of the thickness of the coin on the
under portion With an instrument for
the purpose the gold is cut from this I'M
der portion, leaving it a shell to be filed
with baser metal. When filed the lid
like flap Of gold is turned down, soldered,
dressed and gilded into dangerous gold
piece.
From filing genuine gold coins to the
making of gold counterfeits Is an easy
step for the criminal. Many of these
criminals of a lower grade. however, seek
to do counterfeiting of minor silver and
nickel coins, and in the work they use
molds. 1t is the die struck coin that al
ways promises trouble for the public and
for the treasury department alike These
struck coins have the sharp outline of
the genuine. with clean lettering and a
good ring. In most respects they are close
to the genuine in appearance though the
scale test shows most of them to be short
in weight, with milled edgings that are
open to scrutiny.
Nearly all the characteristics of the
die struck coin are lacking in the nodded
product. Most of the silver coins in cir
culation are nodded, and they are lacking
in weight to noticeable extent unless