Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1903 — Counterfeiters' Conscience. [ARTICLE]

Counterfeiters' Conscience.

William Jp. Hasan, formerly chief of the United States secret service, recently said, in conversation with the Washington correspondent of the Baltimore Herald, that it la apparently an lrr|)ossibility for a man to make a perfect counterfeit coin or note. It Is certain, he said, that a perfect counterfeit has never been made, and, strange as it may seem, with all the will and endeavor In the world couniterfeiters have never turned out a perfect Job, although they get many details of the bill or coin to perfection. Some power seems to gain possesof these criminals at a crucial moment and render their art vain. Even the most expert engravers, and it of course la well known that some bf the best.have gone Into the counterfeiting business, cannot turn out in their counterfeit work the perfect results which they can readily get In legitimate work. With counterfeit .bonds it la the same aa with notes or coins. The real reason for this I have never been able to fathom. It may be psychic. The criminals themselves, so far aa I have ever talked with them, have Indicated to me that they believe It la conscience which balks them. It Is not, however, always by reason of a defect that a counterfeit Is detected. Sometimes suspicion la raised merely by an indefinable impression on the part of a treasury or bank employe that a bill or coin does not look or feel just right, and then examination discloses the fatal error In the bogus money. '**