Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-01-05

~ hat and wraps IN
B locker in the
basement,
The locker was too small for Mrs.
Leonard's big hat Besides, the treas
ury people were taking up carpets
laying bare floors, which clattered
as they were walked on, disturbing
her and her co-workers in the deli
cate operation of looking out for
counterfeits. o
During the forty seven years in the
treasury Mrs. Leonard handled $780,
100000 with loss of but $40
Mrs. Leonard was born July 28,
1910, in Pennsylvania. She attended
private schools until she was four
teen. In 1858 she graduated from an
academy near Philadelphia. She
taught school until 1860, when she
married In 1861 her husband en-
listed and Wen to the front. She
never saw him again. She doesn't
know just where he was buried but
it was on one of the battlefields Of
Tennessee.
In 1864 Gen. Francis f. Spinner,
then United States treasurer, offered
her employment in the redemption d.
vision of the treasury at $500 a
year She accepted, and in July, 1864,
her official career began.
Getting to know a bank note"
said Mrs Leonard, 'is like getting to
know a person. If you see a person
several times day and every day
for years you will know the color OF
her eyes and hair. whether her teeth
are even, and whether she uses rouge.
by the government should look like,
Many people do not know thsf every
one-dollar certificate issued is exactly
like another, the features of the por-
traits, the numbers, the letters and
the lathe engraved border, every
thing on them. The same is true of
the two-dollar and f1ve-dollar silver
certificates. If the printer gets too
much ink on his plate and the bill
shows up dark or smudged it is can
celled. / never had to take a second
look at bill to tell whether 1t was
good or bad
THE first counterfeit | discovered
was $500 bill, counterfeit of the
issue of 1859. 1t was almost perfect,
having but two what might be called
great imperfections 1t was in a
batch of bills which had come in from
New York for redemption In the
batch was a bundle of $500 bills. /
had got half through the bundle when
| noticed that one or the buttons on
the coat of the bust portrait or one
of them was not perfectly round. I
caught it at a glance. | took a sec
ond look and found that there was a
blurred toe on the Goddess of Liber-
tvs foot. | extracted the bill from
with the counting again took Up the
imperfect bill. found it was printed
on genuine fiber paper. Nowhere else
could I discover a blemish. The bill
was sent up to the treaurer and a fur
Their examination was made. Later,
when the counterfeiters were run
down, it was found that all the coun-
terfeit bills Of denominations OF $500
had been made Of one dollar bills,
washed and bleached. I discovered a
counterfeit bill of $1,000 denomination
much in the same way. 1t was a
counterfeit of the issue of 1850.
THE general run of counterfeiters
fall down on the portraits This is
true particularly Of the 81, 81, SIS, $40
and $40 bills. There never were two
artists who could get the same ex-
preston on a subjects face, and there
never was an engraver who could
make an exact duplicate of his own
work
"One Of the simplest methods I
used in detecting counterfeit bills
was to watch the serial number Of the
bill and the check letter in running
a bundle over. This is something the
laiety ought to know. 1t will aid
them in detecting counterfeit money.
The last two figures of a serial mum.
Der always determine the check LET.
ter which Is in turn found in several
places on a bill You take the last
two figures and divide them by four
and the remainder one. two or three
indicates the check letter, A. B or
c. If there is no remainder. the
check letter will be d. The numbers
are so made up that they always will
divide this way Thus, if the serial
number is 47S6S391, you divide 81 the
last two figures. by four and you will
get % ana over and the check let.
ter will pc c. Four is used as
diviser because all bills are printed
in sheets of four"
"a number of times have pro.
nouncet certain bills counterfeit
Mrs. Leonard said. and the senders
disagreed with my decision. The
bills were taken through the redemp.
ton division. the cash room and the
secret service division. where. with
few exceptions, they were pronounced
genuine | was not Influenced. how.
ever, and held to my first statement
and after the bills had made the
rounds several times they were finally
found To he counterfeit"