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Show HAVE LOST CUNNING COUNTERFEITERS TURNING OUT NO GOOD WORK. For Many Years There Have Been No Spurious Banknotes to Worry the Money World The "Monroe "Mon-roe Hundred." The.-o Is one lost art among cilra-Inalu, cilra-Inalu, one trade which United Stntes secrtt servlco men have seemingly wiped out to tho very last man This Is tho art of counterfeiting currency, bbjs tho Kansas City Stur Kansas City bank olllclals say that for eight ears not one spurious banknote worthy of passing comment has been handled In the money world They declare that the day of successful counterfeiting has come to an end "Not a banknote which fools tho experts ex-perts Is on the market," said K. T. Swlnney, president of tho First national na-tional bank "There Is counterfeit currency, plenty of It," ho said, "but it s n kind detected almost at a glance. Inspection of It quickly reveals tho Haws Usually tho work Is clumsy Hut not bIiico tho notorious gang In Philadelphia which made tho famous "Mcnroe hundred ' vvus wiped out has thero been a teally clever counterfeiter counterfeit-er nt work. At least, we havo no rec ord of any 'I ho "Monroe bundled" was a $100 silver certlllcato with the faco of President Monroe Btampeil upon It. It was of a series of 1001, check letter D, Tillman register, Morg.m treasurer. treasur-er. It was an absolutely perfect counterfeit. coun-terfeit. Experts In the treasury department de-partment were fooled b It. The notes became so numerous and were accepted ac-cepted so extensively that the government gov-ernment called in Its entire issue of the bill, amounting to several million mil-lion dollars Even now a 'Monroe hundred' Is occasionally picked up and Is nlmost Impossible to tell whether It is genuine or not. ' The only difference between tho genuine bill and the counterfeit was in the shape of the figures 3 and 4 and the length of the bill. In the figure fig-ure 3 the lower loop did not extend up so far toward tho center of the figure as It should have extended In tho Ilguro 4 the space between tho baso and the cen'er cross lino was narrower nar-rower than It should havo been. Tho fatso bill was one sixteenth of an Inch shorter than the genuine. "Such h regularities would easily pass the eye of an expert," Mi. Swtn-ne Swtn-ne said "Of course, If a genulno bill was laid before you, and you had the opportun't to comraro tho two, after some study tho defects could bo noted. Hut think of the number of money handlers who had tho counterfeit counter-feit bill who had no opportunity for such comparison 'The gang which made the 'Monroe Iiun ' ed" was anested In Philadelphia In 1&99 The plates which printed tho bills were recovered and tho counterfeiters counter-feiters sentenced to long terms in prison. "With the end of that gnng." Mr. Swlnney said, "thero seems to havo been an end of successful counterfeiting. counterfeit-ing. Not slneo 1S9D has tho government govern-ment ueen forced to lecall any currency cur-rency Issue Ciooks have learned that to mako spurious currency which will pas3 Inspection Is n haul task. And they have learned that tho penalty pen-alty Undo Sam makes them pay when detected Is heavy." |
