Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1910 — IGNORANCE OF LAWS [ARTICLE]

IGNORANCE OF LAWS

Much Money Lost Through Carelessness in Using Coins. Jewelers Guilty Every Day of Committing Criminal Offense in Filing One Side of Coin Smooth— Other Offenses. Chicago.—Thousands of dollars are lost yearly by big firms through ignorance or carelessness in observing the federal laws governing abuse of coins. Just lately in Chicago a piano company came to grief in this way. Had they asked the proper authorities (the information would have been furnished gratis) or had they looked up the law they would have found in Section 165, public act No. 350, these words: "Whoever fraudulently, by any art, way or means shall deface, mutilate, impair, diminish, falsify or lighten . . the gold or silver coins Which have been or which may hereafter be coined in the mint of the United States . . . shall be fined not more than $2,000 and imprisonment of not more than five years." Much trouble and expense would have been saved the firm and the government had the law only been read. It all happened in this way : Some clever advertiser conceived the idea of an “ad” of metal just the size of a dime, with the wording and printing placed in such a way that at first glance it would appear as a dime.

The idea was cleverly executed. A fair imitation of the head of Liberty was on one side and the advertisement on the other. The number was placed where the date on a dime is and the first glance certainly impressed one as the real coin. The other side had a sheaf of wheat and in the center the words. “On Time." The firm had no desire to defraud the public. But unscrupulous people who had access to them did. Several waiters at a summer park lost money by accepting the advertisement for real money, chewing gum machines were filled with them and at last the secret service learned how matters were and began an investigation. There were 150,000 of the metals confiscated. Some stray ones, however, were in circulation and it took almost a year to "hunt them down." Jewelers are guilty every day of committing a criminal offense. Every day some one of them lays himself liable to the law. According to the ordinance quoted above, to mutilate money is an offense in the eyes of the law. Jewelers file one side of a coin smooth and monogram it. - The other side is perfectly good. Pins, bracelets, lockets and numerous other things are made. The owner never means to use the article for money. But some one gets hold of the pin or locket. He thinks ’the money would be more useful and so passes the coin with the pin or ring pulled off and the good side up. To “change the complexion” of a coin also is an offense. That means to dip silver in gold. Only a few days ago a “lot” of shirt sets were confiscated and sent to Washington. The sets were made of Panama halfpennies gilded. Carelessness of the law again. The only kind of coin that can be worn is that so completely mutilated that there can be no chance at all of passing it; for example, the fillgreed dimes that the Mexicans make.