Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-13
Miseellaneuus 8eadins.
"sHovING THE QUEER" NOT EASY
Government Makes Counterfeiters
Task a Danaerous One.

Just ABOUT 1Our weeks dSO-OH ii
day, December 2, to be exact--th
daily papers of the country came ou
with the news that a gang of min
men had been arrested as counter
feiters by the United States Secre
Service right in this city. They wer
charged with passing pieces of pape
which looked so much like ordinar
bills that their makers almost GO
away with what they produced. ST
days later, on Thursday, the Sth, cam
the news of another counterfeitin
arrest here in the city-this time o
an Italian stoker who had some mic
SIS bills which the national govern
ment never issued. Four days late
again, only on Monday of this week
there were published the facts abou
mint just across the East River
where two ingenious persons wer,
alleged to be turning out IS and 81
gold pieces worth respectively So ant
sc.
Three patches of money-makers ar
rested within ten short days, and al
inside the city limits of the very town
may set some of us wondering a lit
tie about the profusion of counter.
feiting. What are it's methods? How
does it pay? How are bad bills ant
bad coins discoverable? How likely
are we ourselves to have bogus money
passed on us and how can we de.
termine that it Is bogus-or can we
at all? The answers to these ques'
tions are rather interesting.
The exact chance of any one person
being afflicted with a bad piece OF
money is naturally pretty hard to de-
termine, for the simple reason that nc
one, not even the secret service
knows at any one time just how much
currency is In circulation
But from years of experience the
government agents at Washington
have been able to work out certain
general figures. Along about six OF
seven years ago, and general condi-
tions have not changed much since,
Chief John E. Wilkie, of the secret
service, figured out roughly that in
paper money the proportion of bad
to good was about 81 to 100000, and
in coin somewhere between 50 and SO
to 100000. At first glance that
doesn't seem to be very much, and 1t
s,t,fN L.
many hundreds of thousands of dol
lars there are in circulation. Then
1t begins to loom large.
To get any fair idea Of what the
proposition is we have
first got to know something about the
business itself from the counterfeit
er's point of view. The making of
bad money is INDUCED in all over the
country, and to certain extent
even outside the country. particular
y in Italy, where they do a good deal
Of imitation engraving. But the bulk
Of it is done right here in the United
States.
The kind Of money a man makes
depends mostly on what part of the
country he lives in. Here in the east,
where the paper circulation is great
est, bank notes are chiefly counter
'eited. with a little silver on the side.
In the south and middle west the ma
.ural demand is for silver dollars and
half dollars. Out in the far west the
business is mainly in gold, with very
Few bills of any sort. A good deal Of
silver is turned out, too.
This state of affairs is an entirely nat
lral one, for the simple reason that
t Is always easiest for the counter
letter in any one region to circulate
he sort Of money which is most
abundant in that region. He gets rid
Of it more quickly, since there is
/ greater use for it. And it Is safer.
Once in a while, of course, a particu-
arly nervy gang or individual tries
gold in the east or bills on the Pacific
coast, but comparatively seldom.
How the proposition can possibly
pay is puzZling. The larger the coin
)r bill to be counterfeited the greater
he danger of detection, and hence the
need Of a more expensive plant. The
,ommonest form of making spurious
money is the turning out Of base
metal coinS-even copper cents-but
he operation is always an expensive
)ne. Silver, for instance, cannot be
cast. Base coins with
silver in them must therefore be
struck off with a steel die-a die rep
days of work on the part of
IN expert engraver. Then there must
De a powerful press to make the i'm
preston, to say nothing of all the ex-
)enseS of running chemical labora-
ory and keeping it secret.
There are two principal ways Of
making counterfeit coins, with endless
of each. One Is casting,
he other stamping the cold metal.
rhe latter always produces better re-
suits, as the coin is more accurate
md more clearly cut. In the casting
process a mold is generally made from
/ fresh and genuine coin. In stamp
rg a die is either cast or cut by
land-bOth operations require hours
md hours Of careful work, and then
he counterfeit metal is put in this
lie and struck with one sharp blow
# heavy press.
Expert cOuTterfeiterS do the work
70 we'll that the average person is
asily fooled. In making silver coins
hey use a certain amount Of silver
md adjust the alloy of the other
METAL so that the finished product
ings almost absolutely true. Gold
oins being worth more. are often
Ven more carefully worked over.
he men take, say, a genuine ten
ollar gold piece and cut about 81
worth of good metal out of it, gen.
rally from the center, in one or two
Orings. This they pocket, filling in
he hole with a base alloy which is
reated chemically so that it gives
very appearance of the gold itself.
aing the coin or test the edge and
seems good-and detection in work
Ike this is made a hundredfold harder
han the cOunterfeits where none of
he pure valuable metal is used. This
; the sort of work which the two men
rrested recently in Astoria are ac-
used of doing.
Another favOrite habit of silver
it to take silver coins
f Central and South American re-
ublics, which are many times below
ven our silver in value, and strike
hem off as United States coins under
powerful press which absolutely ef-
ects the old esigns. The new coins
re silver a Il they look all right.
he only fault is that they are light
n weight.
In the counterfeiting of paper
money there are four methods used
much Oftener than any others. The
rst is the copying of notes by hand,
'utting in every finest line and imi-
ating every silk thread in the paper
f the original with delicate pen-and-
nix work. Some of these notes are
one so carefully and so accurately
L