The Perfect Counterfeit
Spokane police investigate a sophisticated operation producing high-quality gold fakes that fool local businesses.
Counterfeiters are reported to be making a very successful imitation of the $10 gold piece at Spokane. The Review says the weight and size are perfect to any man only ordinarily used to the handling of money. The metal is an alloy which, when thrown on a counter, will spin and ring like the genuine article. The two in the police station bear the dates of 1885 and 1886. The engraving cannot be detected with the eye in the smallest lines from the government work, and above the eagle the motto 'In God We Trust,' is exactly after the style of coin of that date. To avoid possible suspicion the makers have taken the newness off and they have an exact appearance of a coin that has been in use for some years. The police took them to several business houses, and they were changed without hesitation.
“The metal is an alloy which, when thrown on a counter, will spin and ring like the genuine article.”
Economic insecurity often drives the production of 'shadow money,' whether it is 19th-century gold fakes or modern digital fraud. The story highlights the enduring fragility of physical currency and the constant tension between private illicit innovation and government authority.
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