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Show Combating Counterfeiting: The Treasury's Perpetual Partnership with the Public Anissa Beecroft tor seems to be the more important for a least six days out of seven'" (qtd in Hessler 1983, 12). Private banks also attempted to combat counterfeiters by making bills more difficult to replicate. They used elaborate portraits, laminated papers, secret printing marks, and fiber inclusions. Although the general public possessed neither the time nor skill to copy these features, neither did the members have the resources to recognize the features. According to a standard counterfeit detector (Dillistin 1949, 46), if a man had a $10 bill offered to him he had to: First, look at a Detector to ascertain whether the banking institution printed on the bill was of good standing and not bankrupt. Second, ascertain whether the bill was an alteration, which could be done by several different processes, either in name or denomination. Third, discern whether it is a "spurious" note or totally unlike the genuine currency issued by the identified bank. Fourth, determine whether the note was made by pasting together portions of a number of swindled notes. Fifth, if the bill is suspected as counterfeit, decide whether it has been counterfeited by photography, lithography, or legitimate engraving processes. One merchant noted how these criteria did more harm than good: '"In most cases, the purchaser is tired before the tradesman is satisfied, and the tradesman is vexed when the purchaser borrows the "Detector," to see, likewise, whether the change is not a counterfeit'" (quoted in Glaser 1968, 91). Buyers indirectly forced merchants to scrutinize nearly every bill passed before them due to both the number and variety of counterfeiters in the era. Employment information taken from a profile of counterfeiters in Manhattan during the 1850s indicated the large variety of counterfeiters; 40 percent of the counterfeiters reported that they worked at unskilled jobs at the time of their arrest, yet almost as many others claimed skilled occupations. The general public became its own worst enemy as anyone and everyone was suspected of counterfeiting (Johnson 1995, 13). The Bureau of Engraving and Printing As counterfeiting persisted, the Treasury was forced to take control of the paper money printing processes. The initial steps taken by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), established by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase in 1863, marked the next step of the Department's commitment to preserving the dollar. The Treasury continued in the fashion of its predecessors by seeking to create a dollar that was difficult to replicate. As the public did not have faith in the government, neither did the government trust the public. The Department combated widespread counterfeit operations by containing its own printing operations. The "secret" means of production were only known to those "immediately engaged by the Treasury Department." Initially, Treasury officials allowed only a select staff of trusted employees to devel- op and manufacture a special paper for the new "National Bank Notes." The Treasury also kept its paper-producing devices secret by containing all machinery in the Treasury building's own basement under close guard (Walston 1989, 63). In addition to the measures intended to secure the paper, Treasury officials increased the security of the new currency by using two colors of print on the bills. While common black ink adorned the fronts of these notes, a special green ink was used on the notes' backs. New "greenbacks" aided production of the bill because the green color did not bleed through the paper as readily. Dual colors further facilitated protection of the bill as the green ink was more difficult to obtain than the black ink. Thus, the ink deterred many people who were lured into counterfeiting because of the ease and opportunity instead of skill (64)- Additionally, the coloring technique countered counterfeiters since cameras of that age only used black-and-white film. Would-be criminals could not photograph the bill in order to study it and make a more accurate forgery. The BEP continued to rely on the lack of time and expertise available to the members of the general public in its subsequent changes to combat counterfeiting. As counterfeiting persisted, so did the Treasury Department. In 1869 the Treasury bureau developed a "controlled, high-quality watermarked paper with wide vertical bands of dark blue jute fibers embedded in the paper substrate" (Kranister 1988, 64). Only a few years later, the paper was changed to "pure linen stock, with continuous colored (red and blue) silk lines or threads running parallel to each other from top to bottom of each cell" (National Materials Advisory Board 1993, 14; hereafter Materials). The BEP's changes helped to standardize the dollar. In return, as the majority of American citizens appreciated a bill that was easier to recognize, they acknowledged the power of the government. By 1887, the BEP printed all of the United States' paper money. Still, counterfeiting persisted in the United States as people who relinquished their right to print the dollar also abandoned their duty to protect it. Although the Treasury intended its new bills to be difficult for the public to replicate, yet easy for them to recognize, citizens did not utilize the latter advantage. They appreciated the purchasing power of the dollars, but paid scarce attention to the appearance of the bills. Citizens ignored the factor that could secure the dollar's value-recognizability. Many of those people who did notice this element decided to abuse it. Counterfeiters readily preferred the recognizability of the new notes because they no longer needed expensive tools and ingenuity to profit from the forgery trade. "Upping" became a popular practice as a counterfeiter simply needed a few easily attainable chemicals, good glue, and a pair of scissors to take a small denomination and turn it into a larger amount (Dillistin 1949, 34). The art of counterfeiting required the common skills of cutting and pasting rather than the talent to concentrate and to copy. For a craftsman who was willing to put in extra time and effort to replicate the bills, the extra exertion was equally compensat- 14 |
