Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1896 — BAD DOLLARS GALORE. [ARTICLE]

BAD DOLLARS GALORE.

Counterfeit Bilver Money in Wide Circulation. Shrewd counterfeiters, supposed to be located in British Columbia, China, Honolulu, or Mexico, have flooded the West and the Southwest during the last ten months with real silver dollars, as good or better, in point of bullion contained in each coin, than those issued from Uncle Sam’s mints, and of equally excellent workmanship. Secret service officers have been at work for nearly a year trying to locate the place of manufacture of these dangerous counterfeits, but it is only recently that they have acknowledged the extent to which the bogus coin has been issued and put into circulation. The dollar in question will stand any assay test and can be detected only by a clever expert. But they are counterfeit just the same, and the people who manufacture and “shove” them will, if captured, be tried for counterfeiting. Andrew Mason, superintendent of the United States office in New York, says: “I got hold of two of (them while doing some work in the San Francisco mint about ten iponths ago. The coins I examined were of excellent workmanship and calculated to deceive almost everybody. They contained enough silver of sufficient fineness to stand any assay. Indeed, one that I assayed was only 1-1,000 deficient in fineness, and it was ju&t a little over weight—contained more silver than the standard dollar issued from the Government mints, in fact. There were two or three slight points of difference between the counterfeit and a true dollar which would lead an expert to detect it upon close examination. One of the letters'in an inscription was imperfect, and the tip of one of the eagle’s wings was also a little ont of line, but it w«s a most dangerous counterfeit.”