The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-23
COUNTERFE|TERS
 ARE STILL ACTIVE Spurious Money and Men
 Who Make 1t UNCLE SAM'S SLEUTHS How Secret Service Has Organized Elaborate System to Guard Against Making of Coun-
 terfeit Money

| From the Chicago Tribune.
 | Counterfeiting, if not particularly pros porous as a vocation, seems 10 be popu-
 lar at present.
 Thus far 1911 holds the record for pro-
 ducing more spurious bank notes within | a given time than any other period in the | history of the United States. Between January and February :, inclusive, off
 cial circulars from the secret service di- | vision of the treasury department were sent out describing not less than seven | different new counterfeit bank notes that | were in circulation.
 l As matter of precaution. look twice l at the B and s1O bills in your weekly pay , envelopes or at the money handed you in
 exchange for merchandise. These two
 denominations are the greatest favorites
 with counterfeiters, and all the queer iof this years product call for these
 values. Notes on national banks are more
 popular among counterfeiters as models
 for their efforts than the United States
 notes.
 The great majority of counterfeit notes lare so badly executed, however that they are practically harmless The official cir Iculars describing this class or spurious notes generally end with it's sentence:
 ne note is so poor that 1t should not deceive the ordinarily careful handler Of Imoney." circular dated January 24, 1911, mentioning a badly executed $i0 note, dis misses it with "Ths counterfeit appears to have been printed from very crude wood cut plates, and is so poor that de- ltailed description is deemed unnecessary,
 One hundred and eighteen of these coun-
 terfeits were found in the possession of two Italians arrested at Taylor, Pa
 Little Danger in Poor Ones
 In such cases there are no elaborate preparations made on the part of the gov Iernment to ferret out the makers of these notes, which from their appearance are
 not apt to deceive any one except, per
 haps, the most ignorant immigrants, and
 these, as a rule, refuse most anything but specie. The possession of badly exc
 cuted note is a menace in itself, and professional "shover' is careful to avoid handling them from fear of being sus- pected of preparing plant"
 | On the other hand, if a counterfeit note appears which possesses some points which compare favorably with the gen
 uine article, alarm is at once sounded and
 the secret service all over the country lis set in motion to secure a speedy cap
 ture of the individual or gang interested
 in it's printing or circulation.
 A few weeks ago there suddenly ap-
 peared a number of spurious $5 bills on
 the German National bank of Beloit, Wis.
 As they appeared almost simultaneously
 in a number of places the secret service
 concluded it had to do with an organized
 gang of counterfeiters. This surmise
 proved correct, but it was a surprise to
 find that the members masqueraded as
 railroad promoters having their head quarters in Chicago.
 | The chief in charge of the United States
 secret services Chicago office quietly
 rested a Carl H. Evers who had offices
 in the Ashland block and purported to | promote the Missouri Inland and South ern railroad. The arrest was suppressed to insure the arrest of all members of the ! gang. This was quickly accomplished, the ' haul netting Burt Payne and Ebert E. , Young, arrested in Rolla, Mo-; Thomas
 Clark, in Huntsville, Ala. Harry Burke
 at Alton. 1n.. and J. G. Durham, arrested
 at Licking, 1do.
 It is charged that the sextet scattered . commercials broadcast. Burke "squeaied' and told real opera bouffe story of the
 operations of this unique but short lived company. 'The queer he said, "came all from Chicago. Evers offered to make r the counterfeit money and sell it to Payne, 3 Young and me at the rate of $500 worth 7 for s25.
 l; Art" Now Revolutionized u hot tha of should meet secretly in the woods near
 Houston, Mo, at midnight. Certain sig , nals were agreed upon and all Of us wore . masks that Identification might be impos-
 sible If any one intended to spy upon us |, while we were exchanging the money. v I got cold feet afterward and threw my share of the queer away" This was the last capture in Chicago. The gang win be tried in Missouri
 , During the last few years the art of
 counterfeiting has been revolutonized. In , the old days all fine commercials had to be engraved by hand and if a man was found wiling to undertake such a job he had to be an artist of the highest order , To finish properly a plate of any value for successful counterfeiting it required } from 10 to Is months.
 The constant progress and perfecting of
 the modern methods of photomechancal
 printing from photographically prepared
 plates constitute today the most serious
 problem with which the secret service has to contend both in tracing and detecting counterfeit currency. Where months ! were formerly required. and even then with far from certainty of success, it to- , day only takes a few hours for an exS . pert in the application of the complex
 photomechanical process to produce a bet
 ter and even more dangerous counterfeit bank note than any from hand engraved
 plate, no mater how skillfully executed. , 'The counterfeit Is an exceedingly dan ' gerous one This counterfeit is apt to de- , ceve the ordinary handler of money" il These statements taken from circulars r issued by the secret service disprove the | generally accepted theory that the sue $ cess of the counterfeters is far more due d to the ignorance and the carelessness or 5 the general public than to the perfection }. of their work.
 s It does not require any vast amount of ', reasoning to conclude that if experts are S compelled to pick out the silk threads # from bill and compare their length and
 thickness with those of another or sub
 ject certain parts to a microscopic exam
 nation to decide if it be genuine the gen.
 era public is up against pretty hard l. proposition. The chances are 90 to 1Oo q that the general public will accept the
 counterfeit with as much innocent avidity
 as the genuine.
 II As rule no counterfeit bills are evef 5 clear and crisp, they are Invariably reas- L. onably "mussed," which Is Gone by n aging them on a plank or board pre-