Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-23
METHODS OF coUNTERFEITERs.
How They Make Coins and Get Them
Into Circulation.

INTO
At an earlier period the method Oh
base coin was as silii-
nile as the method Of detection pall
of scissors, a sheet OF brass anu Sohie
silver or gold in melted coluiorUil III =
constituting the entire outnt. s Inc
coiner today is an alchemist, skllleu
worker in me ais, something of an
electrician and generally he follows
q trade as well.
Convictions for coming are Few anu
far between, but they do not prove
that coming Is on the decrease, says
the London Globe, but merely tna'
the difficulties of detection nave pc
come more pronounced, In prorortioll
to the increased knowledge or the
coiner. Years of study and experiment
are necessary before the modern COM
er is proficient, and often years are
spent in watching and. the building up
of evidence before he Is caught. ,,,
The coiner is more especially dim
cult TO discover owing to the many
fences he employs. Men, women
and sometimes children all nave d
finger in the pie. and 1t Is the RUE lof
counterfeit coin to pass through nan
a dozen different hands before II mas
its way into the storekeepers I'LL: III
deed very frequently the "utterer mas
no idea of the identity OF the manu-
facturer nor of the locality where ne
resides Another difficulty Is that IN
q great many instances people are IN
possession of bad money without
knowing 1t, and If the police arrested
every person in possession or counter
felt coin they would have their hands
full. ..o
IT will be remembered that at the
time of the Jubilee five pound golu
pieces were struck to commemorate
the event and made up in the form OF
brooches. This gave the corners
grand opportunity and they seized IT,
selling spurious brooches for halt the
price of the real ones ana getllils
twice the money they were worth. Inc
same thing is done with lucky SIX
pences." and as a great many people
are perfectly willing to pay the luli
value and sometimes more for SIX
nence with a hole in it the fraud IS
fairly lucrative.
The Barcelona sovereign" Is an
excellent example of the up-to- date
cOiner's work. The milling would de-
fy the examination Of any one save an
expert; they ring true, and they con-
tain sixteen shillings worth or pure
gold. The date is 1862; therefore II
is advisable to shun sovereigns pur-
porting to have been struck In that
wear. although no one who is not
will notice the difference
between the Barcelona and Soou
George ". half-crowns are another
issue much copied by coiners, the
half-crowns being made to look ola
by rubbing them over with SCRUB
bing brush covered with lamppiack
while they are on the FURNISHING
board.
A case which shows the ingenuity
used in passing counterfeit coin Is the
following: A tailor who was also a
very successful coiner had little
daughter who was some 10 years OLD.
She was being taught to play the
violin. and twice a week she went TO
have a music lesson at a house ABOUT
a mile distant. Once week she car
ried besides her violin case and violin
n package cunningly secreted IN the
false bottom of the violin case Whlch
contained some twenty or more pieces
of counterfeit coin.
The music master, rogue who was
i'm the know. found no difficulty in
abstracting the package unnotlced py
the child and in his turn passed 1t on
to 4 woman renee, VINO AGAIN saw
it to a male friend who delivered II
safely to the utterer. woman again
at a street corner. the package being
this time concealed in the false bot
tom of a canary cage. Thus it passed
through six hands, and besides the
man himself only the music master
knew who manufactured the coin.
The tailor was caught by an un-
lucky accident. His little girl let the
violin case fall in the street, the bot
tom of the case was smashed and all
the coins. done up in tissue paper. fell
into the street. The child, much mys-
tilted. opened one of the little packages
and the glitter caught policeman's
eye. This mishap led to the instant