The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-07-06

RaPSA VII WHICH govern.
ment notes are printed. 1t Is mad.
by q secret process and has. -
individual an appearance and feel.
ing that almost everyone can deter
q substitute. All demnominations
Of American money are printed nm
notes Of uniform size. Therefore
favorite device of the counterisitsr
Is to take q 81 bill and raise its a..
nomination. He will bleach II ana
have q piece of nearly white distinc.
tive currency paper on which \.
Will print note Of higher de-
nomination. Such notes are hard
to detect. especially If the counter.
feiter prints $50 or 500 note Of a
new and unfamiliar series.
Another scheme is to take a not.
and change only the figures Thi,
proves snare to the counterfeiter
il he gives such a note to a man
familiar with the designs Of money
Such man knows that a $50 noie
has a buffalo on its design. but M
$50 or 800 issue has. This sort NJ
counterfeiting has increased With
the new money because the conn.
terfeiters know that few people are
familiar with the designs Il ths
various new issues.
The same is true of the liberty
bond issues. No two issues ara
alike and counterfeiter chansinv
the denomination of a 500 bond 10
81 900 could readily be detected BY
one who had studied bond designs.
Experts in Secret Service,
The secret service at Washing
ton has many experts who are
very hard to fool with even the
cleverest counterfeit. and while
counterfeiting has increased to a
great extent, the circulation Of
counterfeit money has not done so.
The new counterfeit issues are de-
tected very early in their careers
and the source discovered and
stopped. 1t means more work and
constant vigilance for the govern
ment agents and greatly increased
investigation work.
The appearance Of women in the
counterfeiting profession has
caused the secret service many dif-
ficulties. The women are not en-
gagged in the actual manufacture Of
counterfeits, but are confederates
in the spurious currency.
Counterfeiters seldom work alone
in spite of the fact that the rec
ords show that only the counter
feiter who plays lone hand meets
with success for any extended per-
iod Of time. But it is hard to prac-
tice the profession singly. The
great difficulty is in getting the
counterfeit money into circulation.
To accomplish this the master
counterfeiter has accomplices. The
general practice is for the counter
feiter to sell his spurious money
at a substantial discount. He will
sell a 500 counterfeit bill to a
passer for $50 of genuine money
and of course no one is more e.
pert in detecting spurious money
than a counterfeiter. The passer
then may make another sale GET
ting perhaps SIS in real money iar
his 500 counterfeit.
Great care is taken not to lie.
many of them get into circulation
at the same place.
1t is in this passing branch OF the
profession that women are being
employed. They make valuable
cSnfederates because when detect
ed, they frequently escape arrest
by claiming to know little about
handling money and therefore are
easily imposed upon.
A curious psychological mystery
about the whole profession OF
counterfeiting is that really good
counterfeiter requires skill of such
high order that he could earn q
better living by honest employ
ment of his talents than by the
manufacture of spurious currency.
Counterfeiting is a long, tedious
process, beset with hard work and
difficulties and it is rarely indeed
that a counterfeiter makes as much
money before he is apprehended as
he could from regular honest en-
ployment as an engraver.