THE PIECING OPERATION.
This process of increasing the number of bills from a given quantity by piecing—as making ten bills out of nine—appears to be done—as seen in a specimen lately—by cutting off perpendicularly a piece, one ninth of a bill, and pasting in its place a piece of a counterfeit on the same bank and denomination to match. The same process will be then carried on with the nine bills, only that in each bill the piece would be cut out in a different place. When the nine bills are thus all pieced there would be just enough surplus pieces left of the genuine to paste together with one piece of the counterfeit to make a complete bill like the rest, and this would be the profit on the operation. The counterfeit part of the bills appeared to be intentionally defaced, so as to be nearly illegible, in order to escape detection. The banks will only redeem such bills at their estimated proportionate value.
SUMMING UP.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE RULES.
No matter how much a bill may be worn and defaced, if the name of the bank and the denomination can be seen, the application of these rules will enable a person to decide at sight whether a bill is genuine or not. The 1st Rule, the Geometric Lathe-work being infallible, any imitation can be detected at a glance, when of course the bill must be a counterfeit without looking any further. But a great many counterfeits contain stolen genuine dies, when of course the 1st Rule will fail to detect; but there is always enough else to detect a bad bill. The 2d Rule, the Ruling Engine work—any imitation of this can be detected at a glance. This rule detects oftener than almost any other rule, and therefore it is one of the most useful of all the rules. In some old-fashioned genuine plates, especially in some of the old New England plates, there may occur an exception to this rule, the shading of the letters being done by hand. Now and then, but very rarely, a counterfeit is seen containing genuine Ruling Engine work; but in such a case there are plenty of the other rules to fail. Counterfeiters may get some genuine work, but they cannot get a perfect combination of all the work genuine. There is always something lacking. It is against their interest to invest so much capital as would enable them to get everything perfect. Besides, they can never get the services of a sufficient number of first-class artists, and all the necessary machinery. 3d Rule, the Medallions—see if the heads or other ornamental patterns of this work look raised, distinct, clear and smooth, and the lines all full length, and the most skillful imitations by hand can be detected at a glance. 4th Rule, the Vignettes—whether they come up to the usual standard of perfection, especially the human eye and face. Sometimes the vignette in a counterfeit is a stolen genuine die, generally much worn. A lot of old worn out dies were sold at auction in New York in 1841 to the highest bidder, and some got into counterfeiters’ hands. 5th Rule, the Lettering and Engravers’ Names. It is an exceedingly rare thing indeed to find anything near first-class lettering in a counterfeit; but the Engravers’ names always fail—the writer has never seen a single exception. 6th Rule, the Signatures and Filling Up. Counterfeits are so often palpably filled up all in one handwriting as to make this an important rule; also look out for lithographed ‘fac-similes.’ 7th Rule, Paper and General Appearance. Experience has proved that it is always best in judging a doubtful bill to apply the rules in their proper order, one after the other, commencing with the 1st, otherwise a person might forget one or two rules, and neglect to apply the very rule that would most palpably condemn the bill. The writer has never seen a counterfeit where less than two of the rules would condemn it at sight, and the rest genuine work. But the majority of counterfeits are condemned by three, four, five, six, and very often the whole seven rules.