OCR Text |
Show BENDER THEIR ART VAIN Counterfeiters Never Make a Perfect Plate. SAME IS TRUE OF DIE Strange Power Appears U Obtain Ob-tain Possession Men. This Always at a Critical Moment in Their "Work of-Maklng Bogus Money. Washington, Jan. 3. "iV Is certain that a perfect counterfeit has never been made," said William P. Hazen, formerly chief of the Government Becrot service, speaking of the facility with which receiving re-ceiving tellers at banks detect spurious coin, nnd. strange as it may appear, with all tho will and endeavor in the world the counterfeiters seem to bo wholly unable, to complete a perfect Job, although they got many details of tho bill or coin to absolute ab-solute perfection. RENDERS WORK USELESS. "Some strange power appears to get possession of these criminals at a crucial moment In their fraudulent work and to render their art. vain. Tho real reason for this I have never been able to fathom. It may bo physical. You may smile some people will but tho criminals themselves, so far as I have ever talked with them on tho subject after wo havo captured them, have Indicated to me that they believe It Is conscience which balks thorn. NOT ALWAYS A DEFECT. "It Is not always by reason of a dofect that a counterfeit Is delected. Sometimes suspicion is raised merely by an Indefinable Indefina-ble feeling on the part of tho treasury or bank cmployeo that a bill or coin does not look or reel right, and then an examination examina-tion discloses tho fatal error. "Even tho most export, engravers." Mr. Hazen said, "and It, of course, la well known that some of ihe best havo gone into the counterfeit work, cannot got tho perfect results which can readily be had In lcgltlmato work. With counterfeit bonds it la the samo ns with notes and coin. ONE REMARKABLE CASE. "Ono of tho most remarkable cases occurred oc-curred with the counterfeiting of the old United States 7-30s by the notorious Brockway-Smlth gang. Ono of the members mem-bers of that gang got his freedom bv offering of-fering to go to Washington and pick out the spurious from the good bonds, for the Government experts themselves could not do It at first. "Ho said that at some point or other consclenco was sure to prevent him from making a perfect Job at crooked work. Tho only error in these platos was In tho lathe work border. Up In one corner of this border tho counterfeit was uniform in Its lines. HAD CURIOUS EXPERIENCE. "Thomas Johnson, now dead, had a curious cu-rious experience with his plates. Ho mado live plates, each ono wrong In some minor particular. In one plate the error was In tho rlsht eye. which was So drawn that It gavo the portrait tho appearance on closo examination of being cross-oyed. "Ho said that when ho was making that part of the plato he was frlghtoned by some nolso. a thing that would not havo bothered him In tho least If he was at honest work, as ho was an export engraver. en-graver. Had It not boon for this error tho plate would have been a finer one than the Government used, for it gavo a clearer Impression, MISSPELLED WORDS. "A person would scarcely believe that a five-dollar bill with tho word "owing" spelled "ownlg" could get Into circulation, but this happened with a bank nolo counterfeited after ono of the Tamaqua. Pa., bank. In another instance tho word "thousand" camo 'out on tho counterfeit "thousaud." |