The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-07-22

WORKING For $50 a Day Than Can
the Most Successful Counter
feiter.


business is one of the chief annoy
ances OF the government secret serV
ice. Ii is stated that in one month
lO.365 bad pennies were found in the
New York subtreasury, evidence tha'
some coners had directed their at
tention to &C. The manufacture Of 4
penny costs the government one-hftf
of a cent. The counterfeter does i
as cheaply or at little lower figure
Almost any copper disk of the proper
size will pass muster, so that the I'M
itation of this coin is easier and the
passing of IL attended with less risF
1 than making and showing the queer
/ in larger denominations. But penny
counterfeiting has the drawback to
the criminal OF smaller returns, and
1 the penalty attached is just as heavy
\ if he is convicted The government
does big business in pennies in the
east, but has much less demand from
the west. Over 100000 one-cent
pieces are sorted out in a year in the
New York suh-treasury One man
Z will count 10000 a day, throwing out
/ the bad ones One days record OF
bad coppers discovered by one hand,
/ Ter of cents was i,250.
/ Counterfeiting stamps chiefly of
( the 2-cent denomination. figures next
after the manufacture Of spurious
pennies in the notion branch Of the
bad money business. Some stamp
countprfeiting has been notably sue
cessful. Kendig and Jacobs, two IA
nous crooks. are believed to have sold
$500 600 worth OF bad stamps before
the secret service men ran them to
earth Then il was through branch
ing out into the field of paper money
that these men came to grief. They
went from 2.cent stamps To bills of
large denominations They were
caught in time to prevent the compile
ton Of scheme that intended putting
$40 100000 in bad money into circula.
ton. and their work was so skilled
that detection OF their paper was diff
ficult
Besides the turning out OF pennies
and stamps a third Oddly OF modern
counterfeiting is the manufacture of
good dollars that are bad. That is,
the counterfeiter turns out silver
dollar that contains as much, If not
more. silver, than the coin approved
by Uncle Sam and placed Ia circnla
"a. tts 10 sri
profit for the counterfeiter, because
the value OF silver in silver dollar
ranges somewhere between 80 and 60
cents, according to the market It
has been 40 cents The balance in
value lies in Uncle Sans credit.
The counterfeiter takes the Mexi-
can silver dollar melts it and recoins
II with Uncle Sans fit forged there
on Cinnamon developed this scheme
Mexican dollars circulate extensively
in the celestial empire. Some of the
heather" evolved the notion of TAX.
ing this collateral out of a bear mar.
ket and reaping par value from lit
tie manipulation of the silver and al
10y contained therein
But the secret service men checked
this operation before the profits be
came extensive.
From the careful statistics they
have collected the secret service men
estimate that any man can make more
money working at 81 80 a day or less.
than through the most successful ca
reer he may hope for as counter.
feiter. The best of them considering
the years devoted TO this business.
the time out OF that spent in Jail, and
the value received which has been
actually returned on their inves;
ment OF time and skilled labor of the
highest order, have enjoyed less aver
age prosperity have had less money
to spend year in and year out than
the poorest paid clerk in a department
store
To secure this small return they
have devoted brains and talent that
would have furnished them with a
generous income in almost any kind
OF business Veteran counterfeiters
whom the secret service man have
placed behind the bars. have always
insisted that there was no real profit
in counterfeiting for the criminal
There is an ex-newspaper man in
Washington who is chiefly respons-
ible for this condition OF affairs in !
the United States. This is Chief vii. I
kie. head OF the secret service. And /
IL IS secret" service His men per
form miracles; they do work which |
Conan Doyle could credit to Sherlock /
Holmes TO the increase Of that great /
reputation. but no one +
hears much about II. They receive
from So to s. a day and expenses. +
They collect information after a fash .
ion simply marvellous. But no one /
will ever know how il is done. be- 1
cause that would defeat their ends. In 1
recent cases il has developed that
they could lay hands on the secret .
figures of private bank accounts. that /
they could produce a schedule Of tina
Of a suspects safety deposit
box
GUESTS HoNoReD.