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Show COUNTERFEITING NOT PROFITABLE Salt Lako, April 6. That the count-erfeitlng count-erfeitlng operations uncovered here Saturdar were part of the work of an organized gang responsible for the circulation of spurious coin over a wide area of territory radiating from Salt Lake, is the belief of investigators. A deluge of counterfeit gold coins in Butte within the past few days is believed to have a direct relationship to the appearance of like coins here recently and possibly to the operations opera-tions of the men or their associates who were interrupted In thoir counter-felting counter-felting operations Saturday morning by Dotectlves Herbert Lelchtor and W. C. Zeese. Andrew Poteres, the man arrested by tho detectives, protests that only he and his partner, who escaped, were concerned In the work they were doing. do-ing. Poteres was at a loss, however, to explain the presenco of a bar of bronze found among the materials taken by the detectives from the room where, according to his confession, he and his partner labored early and late at making counterfeit half-dollars in a house at No. 9 Rustic court, on Third West street, between North Temple and First North streets. That the bronze was left alter a batch of counterfeit gold coins had been made and removed from the den Is the belief of the detectives Two bronze-conted coins, a $5 and a $10 piece, are In the hands of the police, having been turned over to the department de-partment by merchants on whom they were passed The failure of the story of Poteres to "Jlbo" with certain facts known to the detectives, and his anxiety anx-iety to have them believe that he was telling the truth in all particulars, have led to a suspicion that he is trying try-ing to protect confederates other than the one who escaped. The $5 piece now in the possession of the police was passed at a restaurant restau-rant operated at Co East Firs,. South street by Petor McUhie, on March 21, and the $10 piece was passed at the Model bakery, 259 South State street, on the same day. The man who pass ed the coin at the bakery wore a light gray raincoat, was of medium height and smooth shaven, accordlng- intr in tho. rlpsnHnf Inn fnrnJfihnrl the ing to the description furnished the police. The coins show a likeness of workmanship that has convinced the detectives of the police dopartment that they were made by the same person per-son or persons. Also the defects in them have been observed to be similar sim-ilar to those in the half-dollars of which 1400 were found in the room from which Poteres ran when interrupted inter-rupted by the entrance of Detective Le.ichter Saturday morning. When the counterfeit ?old coins were shown to Poteres last night, he was earnest in declaring that he had never before seen a counterfeit gold coin. He further said that he and his partner had made no effort to circulate any of the counterfeit silver that they had made, but that thoy defrayed de-frayed their expenses with money brought with them when they came here from California three weeks ago. 'mat tne expense-defraying money might have been counterfeit gold is suspected by the police. Also the statement of oPteres that none of the counterfeit half-dollars had been circulated in Salt Lake was doubted when a report was made that counterfeit counter-feit hnlf-dollars were recently taken In a leading cafe. It is thought that and examination of money on hand in various business houses might re suit in further discovery of the spurious spur-ious coins. Another feature that has led to doubt of the story of Poteres is the fact that he said that the material ma-terial for making the coins was bought In Salt Lake, when at the time the detectives wore in possession of invoices showing that it was pur chased in San Francisco. Poteres. who says he, is a Greek, hut that he speaks both French and Italian, said last nicht that counterfeiting counter-feiting was not a paying proposition, especially the raakiu? of silver coins, because of the slowness of the operation. opera-tion. He said that it took ten days for one man to make $100 in half-dollars half-dollars if he worked long hours, and that there was still the difficulty of circulating the coin to be reckoned with. |
