Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1915-10-01

The most dangerous coin counter.
feiter with which the government has
had to deal was an Italian ieweier IN
New York city. He made a ten-doIlar
gold piece OF 500 nnenens in the body
OF the article. CThe government
standard Is 900 ine.) Yet the imita-
ton was very accurate, and in order
to have the weight correct he made
the coin a whit larger than the gov
eminent measure required. Then. too.
ne made a rim. commonly called the
reeding. for the coin. This rim was
OF the exact ineness OF the govern
ment ten-dollar gold pieces.
The jewelers. object in making the
rim, which he soldered on to the body
OF the coin, was, Of course. to throw
the secret service men on the trail
when they made an assay OF the rim
Of the counterfeit coin and found the
gold thereon to be Of the standard
hneness.
The jewelers. coin had a rounded
rim, and not n that rose at right
angles from the surface OF the body Of
the coin. as in the genuine article.
He sent his little daughter out to
pass the coins in different shops In
the East side Of New York. When she
was apprehended the news filtered
around to the jeweler in time for him
to destroy evidence which, had we
obtained, would have resulted in his
conviction. A federal jury decided
that we had failed to present sufh-
cient evidence upon which to convict
him Of making the counterfeit money.
and the jeweler was discharged. The
rounded reeding OF rim was the most
pronounced defect in his work. The
jeweler laughed a hearty Italian laugh
as he left the courtroom. His kins-
and friends were there in goodiy
numbers and Joined in the laugh.
That was all in the days work.
Still, the future events that brought
the jeweler and me into contact again
in the same courtroom serve as an
answer to the of~ten-repeated question,
Can you distinguish certain coins or
notes as the particular work of certain
individuals?
Turns to sllver-cauaht.
About a year after the acquittal OF
the jeweler the secret service men
were supplied with information that a
great quantity Of counterfeit half-dol-
lar pieces were in circulation in and
around New York city, Long island
and Jersey city. A peculiar feature
of the cast vas that the coins were
such an accurate duplicate Of the gov
eminent article that %subtreasury Of
icials could not detect the defect in
them; they were Of the same ineness,
weight and size as the government
coin; in a number Of other ways they
answered the requirements of the gov
eminent standard.
Yet the inevitable detail was there
to prove the imitation. When the Sc
cret service men examined the coins
1t was found that the rims we're round.
exactly in the same fashion as the
gold piece Of the Italian
We called on the latter in
time to find him busily engaged in the
manufacture of coins. When we en-
tered the rear Of his jewelry store we
found a number of the spurious fifty
cent pieces and the material and tools
for the making Of many thousands Of
them.
Then there was the well-known Phil.
adelphia-Lancaster case, in which the
scheme was to print $4,000, 900 and
unload 1t simultaneously through ex.
change at the different -subtreasuries
throughout the country. There were
imperfect cheekbones on President
Monroe on the 800 notes of this
particular enterprise. The deficiency
gave an entirely different expression
to the face of the counterfeit as com
pared with the genuine bill. Another
and an important one, that the
of this enterprise over
looked was to properly manage the
engravers employed by them. The
backing the scheme were not suf.
ficiently lavish with their funds. Con.
sequently two Of the engravers took
$4,000 in the counterfeit notes and
went to the races with the money to
make a killing" They laid the spu-
notes at the track. This was
to the date set for the grand
coup. The notes at the track. how.
ever. were sufficient to set the secret
at work in time to Illustrate
the conspiracy.
And so many other cases there are