The receipts of subsidiary counterfeit coins at the subtreasury at New
York have been in recent times inconsequential. Some time ago an
Italian silversmith, who was an expert coin counterfeiter, was
captured, and the destruction of his plant and his subsequent
conviction had a wholesome effect upon his fellow countrymen, some of
whom have come over to the United States for the express purpose of
counterfeiting its silver coins. Only five counterfeit issues of notes
made their appearance during the year in question, and of these three
were new and two were reissues of old counterfeits.

This shows how well the counterfeit situation, as it were, is kept in
check and under control by the government. By some it is supposed that
most of our counterfeiters come from abroad, but this is not strictly
accurate, though many of those who attempt to imitate our silver
dollar and the subsidiary coin issues hail from Italy and Russia.

In order to set up a first-class counterfeit shop for the turning out
of good paper counterfeits, there are so many indispensable requisites
on the part of the spurious money-makers that they get discouraged or
caught in most instances almost at the very outset of their would-be
easy money-making careers. All of the good engravers who are capable
of turning out good plates are more or less under the constant
supervision of the secret service officers, while the paper supply, or
its possible supply, is equally well watched.

Because gold and silver coins pass current out on the Pacific coast,
where notes do not yet circulate freely as in the east, California has
more counterfeiting cases than any other state in the Union, with
Pennsylvania, with its large foreign population in the mining regions,
a close second.