Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — E[?]rt Countterfeiting. [ARTICLE]

E [?]rt Countterfeiting.

Perhaps ■ te most surprising curiosities in t • treasury scrap-book are proofs of cunnin plates which appear to have had heir surfaces scratched aud bat te ret. to the utmost possible extent. The plates were those of the famous 7.30 bonds, executed by Chas. H. Smith and printed by Chas. Brockway, which w re the occasion of a great lawsuit against the Government. Such w->rks of art were they that no question of their genuineness was raised until Jay Cooke & Co. forwarded $84,000 worth of them to the treasury here for redemption. Although Mr. Casilear declared them counterfeits, it was claimed that they must have been printed from the original plates made by the treasury, and on the strength of that assumption suit was brought by Jay Cooke & Go. against the Government. The cause was lost by the plaintiffs, however. Smith was undoubtedly the most remarkable forger that ever lived. For twenty years, while leading a life of she utmost apparent respectability, he produced counterfeit after counterfeft of the most marvelous character, both of notes and bonds, from SSO to SI,OOO. Probably not less than $1,000,000 of imitation money of his manufacture found its way into circulation. It was only through the discovery of his association with the notorious plate printer, Brockwaj, himself a marvelous expert in his line, that Smith was arrested in 1881 at No. 42 Herkimer street, Brooklyn. Thus was broken up one of the most dangerous combinations against the national flnanees that have ever existed. Smith and Brockway did all they could to give evidence against one another, each for the sake of securing his own immunity from punishment, after the manner of counterfeiters, who invariably, when they are caught, turn traitors to their comrades. Washington Letter.