March 7, 1896. Judge Green taps his gavel on the bar and reads the decision: guilty on both counts of counterfeiting. The defendant will serve ten years in the New York State Penitentiary, and a pay fine of

$1,000. (How many counterfeiters were sentenced that year?) The tall, thin, gentleman said to look like “a bank president”, is calm during the reading of his sentence. It is far from the first time he has been before a court, or been sentenced to serve time in jail. And so ends William E. Brockway’s half century long career as “the most skilled counterfeiter in the United States”1. Given Brockway’s illustrious record of taking “the road to wealth by such easy though dishonest means”2, one would expect the public to take pleasure in his downfall. But the attitude of the public towards William Brockway reveals what he represented in his time, as well as how American culture and attitudes about money changed in the course of his career. (Is this going to far in having an agenda with the facts?) --American money became more protected as it gained strength: “In his lifetime, it had soared to become the world’s most wanted, guarded currency”3 --counterfeiters were something of a popular culture icon, the Americans could still have that anti- controlling government thing going on. --admired for the skill it entailed “…behind these vulgar fellows, who are merely brazen and dexterous, and who are daily being apprehended, there stands an organization of men of actual genius and unbounded resources…”4 Maybe that’s why Smith didn’t get much sympathy. As the turn of the century approached, the hey-day of counterfeiting in the United States was coming to a close: the currency was standardized and new methods were being developed to protect it further from those seeking to imitate it. Today, counterfeiting is rare. The idea of someone creating their own currency, using it, and profiting from it is foreign. Yet counterfeiting has been a strong presence in American society since the founding of the colonies. When colonists in Philadelphia and Boston first made their own coins, they were defying laws about currency according to King George. After independence, many independent banks sprung up, and each produced their own currency. There were thousands of different kinds of money. The government started to regulate it, but it was still being counterfeited everywhere. William Spencer was born into an America where twelve out of thirteen banks’ money is counterfeited or altered, and there were over 6,000 varieties of counterfeit money.

1 William Brockway’s Arrest. New York Times (1857-current file); Jun 4, 1882; ProQuest Historical Newspapers. The New York Times (1851-2004). Pg. 10. 2 COUNTERFEITING :Statistics of Frauds on Our Paper Currency. Twelve-Thirteenths of Our Banks Have their Issues Counterfeited Proportions of Altered, Spurious and Imitation Frauds in Circulation. SIx Thousand Varieties of Counterfeit Money.DEFECTS OF OUR PAPER CURRENCY EXPOSEDStartling Increase of Counterfeiting in Six Years.A National Evil Demanding a National Remedy. SPURIOUS NOTES. THE "IMITATIONS" THE DEFECTS OF OUR PAPER CURRENCY SUMMED UP. WHAT IS THE REMEDY?. (1862, July 30). New York Times (1857-Current file),p. 1. Retrieved October 16, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004) database. (Document ID: 78694390).

3 Murray Teigh Bloom, Money of Their Own, New York, Charles Scribner Sons, 1957, p.115 4 Glaser, Lynn. Counterfeiting in America the history of an American way to wealth. 1960.