Newton and the Counterfeiter

Newton and the Counterfeiter PDF Author: Thomas Levenson
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571265758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Already famous throughout Europe for his theories of planetary motion and gravity, Isaac Newton decided to take on the job of running the Royal Mint. And there, Newton became drawn into a battle with William Chaloner, the most skilful of counterfeiters, a man who not only got away with faking His Majesty's coins (a crime that the law equated with treason), but was trying to take over the Mint itself. But Chaloner had no idea who he was taking on. Newton pursued his enemy with the cold, implacable logic that he brought to his scientific research. Set against the backdrop of early eighteenth-century London with its sewers running down the middle of the streets, its fetid rivers, its packed houses, smoke and fog, its industries and its great port, this dark tale of obsession and revenge transforms our image of Britain's greatest scientist.

Newton and the Counterfeiter

Newton and the Counterfeiter PDF Author: Thomas Levenson
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571265758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book

Book Description
Already famous throughout Europe for his theories of planetary motion and gravity, Isaac Newton decided to take on the job of running the Royal Mint. And there, Newton became drawn into a battle with William Chaloner, the most skilful of counterfeiters, a man who not only got away with faking His Majesty's coins (a crime that the law equated with treason), but was trying to take over the Mint itself. But Chaloner had no idea who he was taking on. Newton pursued his enemy with the cold, implacable logic that he brought to his scientific research. Set against the backdrop of early eighteenth-century London with its sewers running down the middle of the streets, its fetid rivers, its packed houses, smoke and fog, its industries and its great port, this dark tale of obsession and revenge transforms our image of Britain's greatest scientist.

The Art of Making Money

The Art of Making Money PDF Author: Jason Kersten
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101060166
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Read Jason Kersten's posts on the Penguin Blog. The true story of a brilliant counterfeiter who "made" millions, outwitted the Secret Service, and was finally undone when he went in search of the one thing his forged money couldn't buy him: family. Art Williams spent his boyhood in a comfortable middle-class existence in 1970s Chicago, but his idyll was shattered when, in short order, his father abandoned the family, his bipolar mother lost her wits, and Williams found himself living in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. He took to crime almost immediately, starting with petty theft before graduating to robbing drug dealers. Eventually a man nicknamed "DaVinci" taught him the centuries-old art of counterfeiting. After a stint in jail, Williams emerged to discover that the Treasury Department had issued the most secure hundred-dollar bill ever created: the 1996 New Note. Williams spent months trying to defeat various security features before arriving at a bill so perfect that even law enforcement had difficulty distinguishing it from the real thing. Williams went on to print millions in counterfeit bills, selling them to criminal organizations and using them to fund cross-country spending sprees. Still unsatisfied, he went off in search of his long-lost father, setting in motion a chain of betrayals that would be his undoing. In The Art of Making Money, journalist Jason Kersten details how Williams painstakingly defeated the anti-forging features of the New Note, how Williams and his partner-in-crime wife converted fake bills into legitimate tender at shopping malls all over America, and how they stayed one step ahead of the Secret Service until trusting the wrong person brought them all down. A compulsively readable story of how having it all is never enough, The Art of Making Money is a stirring portrait of the rise and inevitable fall of a modern-day criminal mastermind. Watch a Video

The Counterfeiters

The Counterfeiters PDF Author: André Gide
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
A young artist pursues a search for knowledge through the treatment of homosexuality and the collapse of morality in middle class France.

Counterfeiter

Counterfeiter PDF Author: Moritz Nachtstern
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 076277648X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This is an enthralling personal account of the secret Nazi project, Operation Bernhard, devised to destabilize the British and, later, American economies by creating and putting into circulation millions of counterfeit banknotes. A team of typographers and printers was pulled out of the rows of prisoners on their way to the gas chambers and transferred to the strictly isolated Block 19 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There they were presented with the enormous task of producing almost perfect counterfeits to the value of hundreds of millions of pounds sterling. These notes were to be dropped from bombers over London, with the aim of causing financial chaos. When the time came the Luftwaffe's resources were fully committed in other campaigns and theaters but some of the currency was successfully used to fund operations in Germany's secret war.

A Counterfeiter's Paradise

A Counterfeiter's Paradise PDF Author: Ben Tarnoff
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101574836
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
"This tale of counterfeiting is a treat for everyone...a delightful history lesson...Admirable and altogether charming." -The Washington Post As Ben Tarnoff reminds us in this entertaining narrative history, get-rich-quick schemes are as old as America itself. Indeed, the speculative ethos that pervades Wall Street today, Tarnoff suggests, has its origins in the counterfeiters who first took advantage of America's turbulent economy. In A Counterfeiter's Paradise, Tarnoff chronicles the lives of three colorful counterfeiters who flourished in early America, from the colonial period to the Civil War. Driven by desire for fortune and fame, each counterfeiter cunningly manipulated the political and economic realities of his day. Through the tales of these three memorable hustlers, Tarnoff tells the larger tale of America's financial coming-of-age, from a patchwork of colonies to a powerful nation with a single currency.

The End of Money

The End of Money PDF Author: David Wolman
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306822695
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
For ages, money has meant little metal disks and rectangular slips of paper. Yet the usefulness of physical money -- to say nothing of its value -- is coming under fire as never before. Intrigued by the distinct possibility that cash will soon disappear, author and Wired contributing editor David Wolman sets out to investigate the future of money...and how it will affect your wallet. Wolman begins his journey by deciding to shun cash for an entire year -- a surprisingly successful experiment (with a couple of notable exceptions). He then ventures forth to find people and technologies that illuminate the road ahead. In Honolulu, he drinks Mai Tais with Bernard von NotHaus, a convicted counterfeiter and alternative-currency evangelist whom government prosecutors have labeled a domestic terrorist. In Tokyo, he sneaks a peek at the latest anti-counterfeiting wizardry, while puzzling over the fact that banknote forgers depend on society's addiction to cash. In a downtrodden Oregon town, he mingles with obsessive coin collectors -- the people who are supposed to love cash the most, yet don't. And in rural Georgia, he examines why some people feel the end of cash is Armageddon's warm-up act. After stops at the Digital Money Forum in London and Iceland's central bank, Wolman flies to Delhi, where he sees first-hand how cash penalizes the poor more than anyone--and how mobile technologies promise to change that. Told with verve and wit, The End of Money explores an aspect of our daily lives so fundamental that we rarely stop to think about it. You'll never look at a dollar bill the same again.

Moneymakers

Moneymakers PDF Author: Ben Tarnoff
Publisher: Penguin Press HC
ISBN: 9781594202872
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Chronicles the lives of three colorful counterfeiters whose schemes reflected the culture of early America, describing their backgrounds and how they exploited period politics, economics and law enforcement to promote their operations.

A Path to the Next Generation of U.S. Banknotes

A Path to the Next Generation of U.S. Banknotes PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309185645
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
The rapid pace at which digital printing is advancing is posing a very serious challenge to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Printing (BEP). The BEP needs to stay ahead of the evolving counterfeiting threats to U.S. currency. To help meet that challenge, A Path to the Next Generation of U.S. Banknotes provides an assessment of technologies and methods to produce designs that enhance the security of U.S. Federal Reserve notes (FRNs). This book presents the results of a systematic investigation of the trends in digital imaging and printing and how they enable emerging counterfeiting threats. It also provides the identification and analysis of new features of FRNs that could provide effective countermeasures to these threats and an overview of a requirements-driven development process that could be adapted to develop an advanced-generation currency.

A Nation of Counterfeiters

A Nation of Counterfeiters PDF Author: Stephen Mihm
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674041011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
Prior to the Civil War, the United States did not have a single, national currency. Counterfeiters flourished amid this anarchy, putting vast quantities of bogus bills into circulation. Their success, Mihm reveals, is more than an entertaining tale of criminal enterprise: it is the story of the rise of a country defined by freewheeling capitalism and little government control. Mihm shows how eventually the older monetary system was dismantled, along with the counterfeit economy it sustained.

You Thought It Was More

You Thought It Was More PDF Author: Louis Colavecchio
Publisher: Vindicta Publishing
ISBN: 9781592114276
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Unravel the thrilling saga of an extraordinary counterfeiter in this raucously entertaining memoir! "You Thought It Was More" is the gripping memoir of Louis 'The Coin' Colavecchio, recognized as the world's best counterfeiter. Colavecchio takes readers on an amazing journey through his wild adventures around the United States and Europe through a fascinating and funny tale. He gives compelling details of his exploits as he made a great deal of undetectable slot machine tokens, exposing the hidden world of counterfeiting. Colavecchio's prowess as a jeweler, manufacturer, and charmer has earned him a place in history, having been featured on prestigious platforms such as The History Channel and The BBC. His profound impact on the casino gaming industry has left a lasting legacy, forever changing it.