Hanging on the walls and in racks in the two rooms that are occupied by the chief and his two assistants are the photographs of every known counterfeiter in the country.  Among these are the faces of William E. Brockway, the veteran dean of counterfeiters; Emanuel Ninger, the most expert penman the service ever knew, and Taylor and Bredell, who hold the record as the cleverest counterfeiters in history next to Brockway.  There are hundreds of others who have at some time or other gotten into the clutches of the service, many of them the most desperate characters.  Some of these have taken human life with the same ease they would make a paper dollar or a silver coin.

The development of modern processes of photolithography, photogravure, and etching has revolutionized the note counterfeiting industry.  So famous a counterfeiter as Brockway realized this.  In the old days all counterfeiting plates were hand engraved and it took from eight to fifteen months to complete a set.  Now this part of the work may be done in a few hours.

Information as to the personnel and operations of the secret service is carefully withheld from the public.  The names of the heads of the various districts and the operators are unknown and are seldom published unless in case of the arrest of a counterfeiter and the the facts get into the newspapers.  The bureau is managed by John E. Wilkie, chief.  He has held the position since 1898, when he succeeded Chief Hazen.  Mr. Wilkie is a newspaper man having held responsible positions on many large papers.  He began his career as a reporter and worked his way up to city editor of one of the big Chicago papers.  He has a great “nose” for criminal investigation, and his work is regarded as brilliant.

All the United States notes are printed in sheets of four notes of one denomination on each sheet.  Each note is lettered in its respective order, in the upper and lower corners diagonally opposite, A, B, C, and D, and this is the system for numbering notes:  All numbers, on being divided by 4 and leaving 1 for a remainder, have the check letter A; 2 remainder, B; 3 remainder, C; even numbers, or with no remainder, D. Any United States note the number upon which can be divided by 4 without showing the above result is a counterfeit, and while this rule is not infallible in all instances it will be found of service in the detection of counterfeits.

Compared with a dozen or so years ago, there is nothing like the counterfeiting going on in this country.  Shortly after the war the country was practically flooded with it, but so perfect is the machinery of the secret service and so successful have its officers been in recent years in unearthing the big plants and their operators, and placing the latter behind the bars, that counterfeiting has almost ceased.

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.