Lookout for counterfeit money.
--A case came before C. S.
Commissioner Alex. H. Sands yesterday, in which a gentleman from
Norfolk, Va., had gone to the C. S. Treasury Department and asked for the interest upon $5,600 in Confederate one hundred dollar bills, which proved to be counterfeit.
The evidence proved that the gentleman who had this money on his person bore an excellent character at home for respectability and honest dealing, and that his loyalty to the
South was unquestionable, he having refused to take the oath of allegiance to the
Lincoln Government when the alternative was either to do so or give up business.
The money had been bought by him in the city of
Norfolk for a certain sum in gold, and believing the notes were genuine in every respect he unhesitatingly presented them to the Treasury Department, in order that the interest might be drawn which he supposed was due upon them.
The
Commissioner very promptly discharged the prisoner, taking the ground that if he had has any suspicion that the money was counterfeit he would hardly have presented it at the Treasury Department.
The place above all others where its worthlessness would have soonest been detected.
We learn that there is a great deal of counterfeit Confederate money afloat in
Norfolk, and that it can be bought there for little or nothing.
The signatures to the notes in question were exceedingly will executed, and we doubt whether any other than the most accomplished expert could detect the genuine from the counterfeit.
Our citizens should be on their guard, much of this money is offered by parties who was perfectly innocent of any intention to do what is wrong, themselves thinking they are passing the genuine article.
