The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1915-09-30

The most dangerous coin counter
had to deal was an Italian 1eweler in
New York city. He made a ten-dollar
| gold piece of 500 fneness in the body
| of the article. (The government
standard is 900 fne) 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,
he made a rim. commonly called the
reeding, for the coin. This rim was
of the exact fineness 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 off the trail
when they made an assay Of the rim
of the counterfeit coin and found the
gold thereon to be of the standard
lineness.
The jewelers. coin had a rounded
rim, and not one that rose al 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 sufii-
Gent evidence upon which to convict
him OF making the counterfeit money,
and the jewelcr was discharged. The
rounded reeding or rim was the most
pronounced defect in his work. The
jeweler laughed hearty Italian laugh
as he left the courtroom. His kins-
men and friends were there in goodly
numbers and joined in the laugh
That was all in the days work.
Still. the future events that brought
the jewcler and me into contact again
in the same courtroom serve as an
answer to the often-repeated question,
Can you distinguish certain coins or
notes as the particular work Of certain
individuals?
Turns to Silver-Caught.
About year after the acqulttal 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 case was that the coins were
such an accurate duplicate Of the gov
eminent article that subtreasury Of |
ficials could not detect the defect in
them; they were of the same fineness, |
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 |
it was found that the rims were round |
GU 'hd'llg III INC Dd4lit luDlIipI 90 Lll' |
ten-dolar gold piece of the Italian
jeweler We called on the latter in |
time to find him busly engaged in the
manufacture of coins. When we en- |
tered the rear of his jewelry store We |
found 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 $l0,000,000 and |
unload It simultaneously through ex
change at the different subtreasurics |
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 |
detail, and an important one, that the
principals of this enterprise over.
looked was to properly manage the
engravers employed by them. The |
men backing the scheme were not suf |
hCiently 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 n killing" They laid the spu
riOus notes at the track. This vas
prior to the date set for the grand
coup. The notes at the track. how
ever, were sufficient to set the secret
service at work in time to Illustrate
the conspiracy
And so many other cases there are