Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-15
GOOD MONEY AND BAD
Treasury Department Official
Talks About Counterfeits.
HOW TO DETECT THE QUEER
System of Numbering United States
Notes.
WORK OF THE SECRET SERVICE
Difficulties That Stand in the Way Of
Persons Who Would Make
Illegal Currency. = j
HOW TO DETECT THE QUEER
WORK OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Il VIII give you a pointer or two about
counterfeits and good United States notes
| and certificates" said treasury depar.~
ment chief of a division to Star reporter.
which may be found handy for reference
from time to time.
Il noted with interest what an expert
counterfeiter had to say in The Star re-
ing of counterfeit notes from the refuse
material of the macerator. If he can devise
any process by which such of this stuff as
finds its way into the hands OF the public
through the postal cards, images, etc,
which are made of 1t can be turned into
good counterfeiting paper he will be q
| smarter man than the average of his kind;
but 1 will undertake to assert that We VIII
get him. and get him very quickly.
"Other men have beyond doubt acted
| upon this Idea to greater or lesser extent,
but if their experiments have resulted sue
ceSsfully we have yet to have counterfeits
| made from this kind of paper revamped
and sprung upon us. You see, the govern
ment is in the business of making money
and catching others who also want TO
make 1t unlawfully, and while the latter
have succeeded at intervals, we have come
| out the victor in the end. and still at
| the same old stand doing business catching
counterfeiters.
'All United States notes are printed in
sheets of four notes of one denomination on
each sheet. Each note is lettered IN its re-
| spective order, in the upper and lowe corr
ners dlagonally opposite, A, B, e and d,
and we have this system for numbering our
notes: All numbers, on being divided by
and leaving l for a remainder. have the
check letter A; remainder, B; 3 remain
| der c; even numbers with no remain-
| der, d. Any United states note the num-
Der upon which can be divided by 4 without
| showing the above result is a counterfeit.
I and while this rule is not infallible in all
instances, 1t will be found of service in the
detection Of counterfeits.
Secret Service VS.. Counterfeiters.
Compared with a dozen or SO years ago,
! there is nothing like the counterfeiting GO
Ing on in this country Shortly after the
war the country was practically flooded /
with 1t. but so perfect is the machinery of !
| the secret service, and SO successful havev
its officers been in recen. years in unearth-
| ing the big plants and their operators, and
| placing the latter behind the bars, that
during the past six months of the past fs-
cal year there was not one new eounterfeit'
note issued. The receipts of subsidiAeG
counterfeit coins at the subtreasury at ~
York have been I'm recent times inconsVE
quential Some time ago Italian silveiN
smith, who was expert coin counterS
feiter, was captured. and the destruction ofS
his plant and bis subsequent conviction had
a wholesome effect upon his fellow coun-
rymen, some of whom have come over to
the United States for the express purpose
of counterfeiting its silver coins. Only five
counterfeit issues of notes made their ap-
pearance during the year in question, and
of these three were new and two the re-
issues of old counterfeits.
This shows how well the counterfeit sit.
uat1on, as 1t were, Is kept in check and un-
der control by the government. By some 1t
is supposed that most of our counterfeiters
come from abroad, but this is not strictly
accurate though many of those who at
tempt to initiate our silver dollar and the
hail I+a1,-
Russia.
Americans Most Expert.
ut Is our home talent, however which
gets in its best work from the counterfeit
er's standpoint. OF the $50 arrests made
by the secret service officers during the
past year for the ofrense of counterfeiting
no less than PA, regret to say were born
In this country, sunny Italy furnishing
eighteen and frozen Russia nine. To thor
oughly understand how well the govern
ment has put a stopper ON the counterfeit
ing Of its paper money there were but
q arrests last year for manufacturing or
seeking to pass counterfeit paper money, as
against 2l2 for passing counterfeit silver
coin
You see, I'm order to set up a frst-class
counterfeit shop for the turning out of
good paper counterfeits. there are so many
Indispensable requisites the part of the
spurious money makers that they get dis
couraged caught in most instances al
most at the very outset of their would-be
easy moneymaking careers. All of the
good engravers who are capable of turn
ing out good plates are more or less under
the constant supervision of the secret Serv-
Ice officers, while the paper supply, or
its possible supply, is equally well watched.
So what is the poor counterfeiter to do but
to take his lemon, squeeze 1t and weep?
Because gold and silver coins pass cur
rent out on the Pacific coast. where notes
do not yet circulate freely as in the east.
mn mt arfa fnn aQcdr
than any other state in the Union, with
Pennsylvania, with its large foreign popu-
lation in the mining regions. close second.
"a moderately deceptive IS silver certif-
cate was made in Italy, imported into this
country by various gangs Of Italians and
passed quite extensively in the eastern
states, but the secret service officers quick
ly got on to the source of issue. and made
many arrests and secured convictions. So
closely did they hit the trail of fairly
good counterfeit note issued In the west
that they got the maker and passer ar
rested and convicted and the plates cap
tured so quickly that 1t must have caused
him acute pain. 1t was the same with
SO note of deceptive workmanship which
appeared in New York. So far as my
recollection goes only three Of these notes
were circulated.
Output Largely Decreased.
"Of course there are plenty Of counter
felt notes and coins in circulation-if there
were not the secret service officers would
have an easy time of it-but the output
has largely decreased as compared with
former years, and, unless all signs fail, 10
is likely to go still lower. as the secret
service officers become each year more ex-
pert in detecting this class of crime and
putting the criminals away where they
will serve the state the best. Gold GER
tificates are not issued below the denomi-
nation of $40. are numbered the same as
treasury notes and are check-lettered In
orh
tion is that the only denominations OF the
gold certificates which have been counter
feited are the issues for $40 and 500. re-
snectiyely, as the gold certificates present
a pretty tough counterfeiting proposition,
though most Of the denominations of the
various issues of the silver certificates
have. been more or less extensively coun-
forfeited, perhaps the issues for IS and
$40. respectively, being the most favored at
the countefeiter's hands. by reason of the
ready circulation of these two issues.
.'The main deterrents to counterfeitins
nowadays are, first good engravers who
will take the risk, second. the making and