The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-02-29
NO PERFECT coUNTERFE1rs.
Lawless Engravers Seem to Be At
feeed by Some Strange Hoodoo.
((.hicsgo Chronicle
aicago ChrOniole.)

IeeSed oy some Strange 100000.
Chicago Chroniole.)
These unaccustOmed TO the constant
handling of money have often been
surprised at the facility with which the
receiving teller at a bank detects a
spurious coin and, apparently without
inspection. throws il aside. The ma
jOrity of people are not aware OF the
fact, which is known 10 hank officials.
that a perfect counterfeit of a coin
has never yet been made. There is al
ways some variance from the genuine
that catches the eye Of the expert IT.
Stantly. William +. Hazen, formerly
chief of the government secret service.
was talking the other day about the
lack Of skill displayed by counterfeit
ers and said:
1T is certain that a perfect counter
felt has never been made, and, strange
as it may appear, with ali the viii and
endeavor in the world, the counter
feiters seem 20 be wholly unable to
complete a perfect job. although they
get many details of the bill or coin TO
absolute perfection.
Some strange. power appears to get
possession OF these criminals at a cru
cial moment in their fraudulent work
and TO render their art vain The real
reason for this 1 have never been
able to fathom.
1T may be psychic. You may smile
some people wiIl-but the criminals
! themselves, so far as 1 have ever
| talked with them on the subject after
we have captured them, have indicated
| to me that they believe it is cOnsci-
! ence which balks them
During his term as head of the Sc
| cret service Mr.. Hazen had a large
/ experience with cOunterfeiters, the
/ a larger one than later times have
| shown. Having noted that all counter
| feits were defective in some particular
/ he made inquiries as TO the reason
/ for this.
! It is not. by the way always By
| reason of a defect that a counterfeit
/ is detected. Sometimes suspicion is
I raised merely by an indehnable feel
| ing on the part of a treasury or bank
| employe that a bill or coin does not
/ look or. feel just right. and then eX-
animation discloses the fatal error in
| the bogus money.
Even the most expert engTavers,
! Mr.. Hazen said, and it, Of course, is
! well known that some Of the best have
/ gone into the cOunterfeiting business,
/ cannot turn out in their counterfeit
| work the perfect results which they
! can readily get in legitimate work.
| With counterfeit bonds it IS the same
| as with notes and COIN
lone of the most remarkable eases
occurred with the coUnterfeiting of the
old United States 1905 by the noto-
rious Rrockway- Smith gang. One Of
the members Of that gang got his free
! dom by offering 10 go to Washington
] and pick out the spurious from the
| good bonds, for the government experts
| themselves could not do il al first. he
| was Charles UlTich, VINO is straight
! now-one Of the few Of whom that can
be said.
He said at some point or other con-
| science was sure to prevent him from
making a perfect job at crooked work
! The only error In these bond plates
| was in the lathe-wOrk border. Up in
one corner of this border the counter
| felt was not uniform in its lines
Thomas Johnson. now dead, who
! made the counterfeit Window 3 noses
| had a curious experience with MS
| plates. He made five plates, each one
/ wrong in some minor particular In
! one plate the error was in the right
! eve. which was so drawn that II gave
| the portrait the appearance, on close
! examination of being cTOs-eyed.
! He said that when he was making
that part of the plate he was fright
| ened by some noise, a thing that would
ssnot have bothered him in the least ii
| he was at honest work, as ne was an
/ expert engraveT. Had 1t not been TOT
| this error the plate would have been
g finer one than the government USED
| for il gave a clearer impression.
IN another plate he used he got the
letters in two reversed. so that they
read .owt. and yet the bills printed
/ from that plate set into circulation.
johnson w54z even a better engraveI
/ than UIrich, ~ IN each OF the foui
plates b. 1aSds after the 1rst one tC
counterfeit tl.!s 9.li he eadeavored L
1 correct an eTro,s. vet IN each one n
made anSther efror. he simply couio
not help il. h said. so long as he va:
at the crooked work.
His last eFror-that, is the one OF
the last of the five plates-was in th'
treasury numbers. In that the 3 was
not uniform with the rest of the nu'
| merals So throughout the series 81
plates he would correct one error, Onls
to make another, and no effort Wouie
/ save him frcm making one
"A person would scarcely believe tnal
a So bill with the word owing spellee
! owing could get into circulation bu
this happened with a bank note, eoun-
terfeited after one Of the Tamaqua
pa. bank. In another instance tht
word thousand came out on the coun-
terfeit Thousand
who pays attention to a cent-espeel
ally in New York; But one gang cir
cuiated bogus cents. They had a gooC
plate. but the copper they bought Wa
not of uniform quality and the lnalap
head came out ciumsiiy.
These people operated largely Il
Boston and got little girls To put TIT
cents in circulation through Chihes
laudries. which use lot OF eeIits
The girls would go 10 the launu ltl -
v-itb bundles of 100 cents. Of which
nerhsps 80 per cent would be goo'
. coins. and they would get change iron
tho Cinnamon. These counIerteltef
were caught finally