Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1917 — ONE WAY OF RAISING MONEY [ARTICLE]

ONE WAY OF RAISING MONEY

Governments, in Napoleonic Wars, Made Counterfeit Coins to Finance Raids on Enemy. Numerous methods have been adopted from time to time for supplementing the currency of the various countries engaged in war, but it is scarcely possible that the powers will be forced again to the expedients that were often essential In the old days. Prior to Napoleon’s 1812 campaign, for instance, the Paris gendarmes made a raid one night on a house in the Plaine Montrouge, and discovered a manufactory of false notes. Quite a sensation was caused when, on the following day, the police minister made the announcement that the manufactory had been started “by order of the emperor.” The false notes, which were Austrian and Russian, instead of French, were intended for use against the enemy on the Russian expedition, but the bulk of them came to grief during the great retreat. The duke of Wellington was responsible for a similar stroke of business during the Peninsular war. Badly in need of gold when about to invade France, he conceived the idea of hunting out some counterfeit coiners from the ranks. A number of these gentry were forthcoming, and they were ordered by the great general to exercise their evil art by transforming English sovereigns into louis d’or and napoleons.