Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1918 — FEARED NEW QUARTER BOGUS [ARTICLE]

FEARED NEW QUARTER BOGUS

Coin of Recent Vintage Caused Baltimore Business Houses to Make Hurried investigation. In the future Uncle Sam should certainly notify Baltimore in advance when he is going to spring a new coin, for the appearance of a new quarter of the vintage of 1917, which differs slightly from the first issue, has causedj anxiety to a number of good Baltimoreans because they thought they were “stung.” Rumors that counterfeiters were flooding the city with “phony” money naturally followed, states the Baltimore Evening Sun. The new coin arrived unannounced and it was not long before experts noticed the slight difference between it and the first issue of the 1917 quarter, and then they got busy. The most persistent rumor was that counterfeiters were plying their trade in Baltimore and that many of the large business houses, the United Railways and the public in general had been “caught” for hundreds of dollars. On the old quarter there are no stars under the eagle, while on the new coin there are three. There are seven stars on one side of the eagle and six on the other on the coins of the first issue, while the bird on the new coin is flanked by only five stars on each side with three underneath. , The milling on the new coin is different from the old and the “In God We Trust” on the one is much larger than omthe other. The of inquiries about the coin, and a halfdozen banks which were consulted had also been asked to express an opinion as to whether it was good or not, and they all vouch for it. The whole trouble seems to be that the new coin was sprung on Balttffiore without notice.