“A Nation of Counterfeiters”

In the July 4, 1818, edition of the Niles Weekly Register, editor Hezekiah Niles railed against the proliferation of counterfeit notes in the United States, warning that “we seem about to become liable to be called a nation of counterfeiters!” Niles went on to note that “counterfeiters and false bank notes are so common, that forgery seems to have lost its criminality in the minds of many.” Indeed the problem of counterfeit notes stemmed in large part from the sheer number of banks, public works companies, and railroads all printing their own notes, which made it difficult for a merchant in New Orleans, for example, to know that the 100-dollar Bank of Memphis note he received as payment for goods was in fact a forgery.

By the 1830s the problem had become so severe that some enterprising publishers began producing counterfeit detectors, pamphlets intended to help shopkeepers and bankers identify phony notes. More than eighty such detectors were published prior to 1870, but their use produced mixed results. Some merchants successfully prevented the passing of forged notes, but more often counterfeiters themselves benefited by using the guides’ illustrations—and examples of real bank treasurers’ signatures—to refine their bogus creations.