SAMUEL UPHAM'S COUNTERFEITS

 

A US stationery store owner began a counterfeiting operation on March 12, 1862, which would crash an entire country's economy.

As the Confederate States of America broke away from the US during the Civil War, the new nation began to print its own banknotes.

One of those notes ended up in the hands of Samuel Upham, a Philadelphia merchant.

With the means to make copies of the new money, Upham began printing his own version to sell as souvenirs to curious northerners.

Unlike in the loyal Northern states, the Confederacy did not have the technology to print high-quality currency.

Instead, it was printed on what was effectively newsprint - cheap, simple and remarkably easy to duplicate.

Upham's duplicates were essentially identical to the Confederate legal tender, save for the note printed along the bottom: "Fac-simile Confederate Note – Sold wholesale and retail by S.C. Upham 403 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia".

 

He started to sell the dollars as souvenirs for a penny each.

But he found people weren't buying the cash as curiosities. Instead, buyers were seeking to buy his money in bulk.

So he started printing more and more. For two US dollars, you could buy a hundred Confederate notes. You could buy a thousand for $15.

Savvy black market merchants were buying the money, snipping his name off the bottom, then using the cash to surreptitiously buy items in the South.

The Confederacy was flooded with these bogus notes, indistinguishable from the real thing.

The Confederate government was well aware of his exploits, with eager black marketeers sometimes forgetting to cut his name off the fake money.

They ended up placing a $10,000 bounty on his head, though nobody attempted to murder him. Would-be assassins could buy that much money for $150 from the man himself.

To read the complete article, see:
Today in History - March 12: How a stationery store owner crashed an entire economy (https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-12-what-happened-on-this-day/1d873918-5057-4a15-a8e6-4e0da54eb438)

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