The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-01-10
COUNTERFEITfRS
USE REAL SILVER
EXPERTS EXPERIENCE DIFFICULT
TY IN DETECTING BOGUS
MONEY NOW IN CIR
CULATIoN.

Washington, Jan. 10.-A regular car
nival of counterfeters is i'm progress
and the country is being flooded with
"phony" money. Experts of the United
States mint frankly admit that they
have difficulty in detecting the real
from the bogus coin, for the counter
feiters are making the money of real
silver of finer quality than that used
in the genuine pieces.
The explanation of this is that silver
is so cheap that the silver dollar, half
dollar and quarter can be made at a
profit of about so per cent. In other
words, there is only about so cents
worth of silver in dollar piece, 20
cents worth in a half dollar, and 12h
cents worth in a quarter of dollar.
This means that even IL the counter
feiter makes his bogus money Of real
silver he can still rake in handsome
profit. getting so per cent on the risk
he takes in passing his coins.
What a bonanza this discovery has
been to the counterfeiter may readily
be imagined There is great risk in
|
made of tin or lead. This variety of
queer queers itself on sight, and a man
or woman, must be in a great hurry
or very coreless to accept counterfeits
that ring with about as much music
as a pebble and affect the sense of
touch like the inside of an oyster she'll
The clumsy counterfeiter who tries to
pass this out-of-date stuff is jeopar-
dizing his liberty at every attempt
But the man who handles only coins
that ring true, are real silver to the
touch. and can safely withstand all
perfunctory tests for genuineness is
fairly safe from the law.
Bogus Coin of Real Silver.
The question that will naturally be
asked by any one reading the fore
going-How. then can one recognize a
counterfeit coin that is made of real
lsilver?-was asked by your CORES
pondent Of government expert The
answer was that only by careful ex-
lamination under a microscope can the
difference between a well-made bogus
coin of real silver and one turned out
from the United States mint be dis
ceined. The minted coins are stamp
ed i'm die press from which they come
out with the observe and reverse sides
imprinted on them. Formerly coins
were made by molding the metal. the
molten mass being poured into ma
trix and allowed TO cool. But this pro-
cess of making coins became antiquat-
ed long ago and is no longer in use
except by the counterfeters who cannot
set up plant with the press without
too much expense and adding greatly
to the risk of detection. Therefore, the
counterfeiters work by the old process:
of molding, and. although the meta
they use is real silver, they canno
rake the coins with the clean-cut pre-
cision of a government die press. SO 1
is possible to detect the difference
: when a microscope is brought to bea
on the nodded coin and the figures ant
letters are examined closely
But how is it possible to carr.
around a microscope for the purpose O
examining the coins that are passe'
7. around i'm the course of everyday bust
2 ness? II is obviously impossible, am
therefore the counterfeiters who us
care in preparing their coins and max
them of real silver stand very GOO
! chance of escaping the clutches Of tn
law.
The West is the favorite stampin
, ground OF the counterfeiting gangs
for there silver circulates more freel
than I'm the East and there is infinitel
more opportunity to make money fror
the money they make.
The secret service men are on th
: alert as ever for the suppression {
l. this lawless game. but they confes
that they have only one trump care
:. This is 20 watch carefully the silve
N market II anyone is caught buyin
n silver in large quantities then a clos
W watch IL kept TO see what Is dor
with IT.