The Huyck Bain Crandell Collection, Document HBC006

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1890? Letter, Confidential Offering Counterfeit Bills

Is this humor or legit? Apparently this is a legitimate example of a 19th-century fraudulent “Green Goods” scam where counterfeit currency was marketed as high-quality “goods” to unsuspecting individuals.

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Transcription

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CONFIDENTIAL.

Dear Sir:

I am desirous of obtaining a shrewd agent in your locality to handle my "Goods." I enclose herewith a newspaper clipping, which gives all the information that could be desired and explains itself. Thinking you are in a position to handle my Goods safely I have concluded to write you, and if you don't care to invest in this enterprise I hope you will excuse the liberty I have taken in making the proposition. I have a very superior article of the kind, in fact the best ever issued or put on the market; the sizes run from one to twenty. I warrant each and every note to be perfect as to Paper, Coloring, Vignette, Printing, Engraving and Signatures, and when made to appear as having been used or handled much, I defy the best bank clerk or expert to tell them from the genuine. It has cost me a great deal of time and money to perfect these goods and I have at last succeeded where many others failed, in producing the Genuine Fibre Paper. My stock now is as neat and perfect as human skill can make it and absolutely no risk in using it. Remember, this is an article which will go anywhere and everywhere, leaving for you a net profit of from Ten to Twelve Hundred per cent. according to the amount you buy. These goods cannot be detected in the ordinary course of trade, and only at the Treasury in Washington through the duplication of the numbers, and not then if the genuine bill of the same number is still in circulation, so that they are really as good as Gold. Now, my friend (as I will take the liberty of calling you), we are strangers to one another, but if you are desirous of handling these goods, and will come here to see me, you will find me a square white man in all my sealings, as my manner of doing business will show. It is as follows: when you come here I will show you my entire stock, compare them with the genuine and in fact submit them to any test you see fit, before you pay me a single dollar, then after you are thoroughly satisfied on every point, you can select whatever sizes you want and pay cash for your purchase, and carry the goods home with you. Now, my friend, to do this business safely, it must be done

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"Face to Face." Experience has taught me that this is the only absolutely safe way to transact this business, and most satisfactory for us both. When you come here you can see me and what you are buying; and I can see and judge the man I am to place confidence in for future business, besides it is absolutely necessary that I should see you on our first deal, as there are some few secrets pertaining to the business and necessary to success, which I don't care to put in writing, and is only imparted to a customer "by word of mouth," at a personal interview, as a customer only has the same interest I have, in keeping these private matters to himself. Remember, I do not ask or expect to be paid one cent till you have the goods in your own possession. Do not ask me to send goods by mail or express as it is not a safe way for either of us; it is better to be sure and safe than to transact a business of this nature in a careless manner. Now, my friend, if you wish to make a deal with me, do not hesitate too long over the matter. It is always best to be among the first than one of the last to take hold of a thing of this kind. If you will come on at once I can guarantee you a clear field to work in, and if I am satisfied at a personal interview that you would make me a good Agent, I may offer you more liberal inducements to take the State Agency and make you a special rate for any deal over $20,000. If you have not the money to buy my Goods, I would consent to your taking some confidential friend in with you, who has, provided, of course, he is trustworthy and could keep the secret. You could both then come on together and make the deal, however you would be very foolish to take any one in with you if you could raise enough money yourself. You can make money faster and easier by dealing in my goods than you ever dreamed of before in your life. You are bound to be successful, there can be no such thing as fail. An opportunity like this to make an independent fortune in a short time, and at a comparatively small investment is well worth a favorable consideration; and should not be rejected hastily from conscientious scruples or otherwise. It was never intended that one man should have Millions and another nothing, the wealth and good things of this

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world are too unevenly distributed, others have grown rich around you, but they were not slow to grasp opportunities, and unless you have enough money to live comfortably on for the rest of your days, this is just the business you want to take hold of, as the goods can be handled with perfect safety and immense profit to yourself, and enable you to provide a competency for your old age and pass your remaining years in ease and comfort. No wrong in it, Uncle Sam has Millions of OUR money locked up in the Treasury, uselessly and unjustly so. I know that you have some distance to come, but considering the Tremendous Profits and no risks whatsoever, it is well worth the slight inconvenience of a journey here and as far as expenses are concerned I will make a liberal allowance to cover them, and I promise that if you do not find my goods just as represented, or should you upon any reasonable pretext whatsoever decline to consummate a Trade, I guarantee to refund you your entire expenses, from the time you leave home till you return, and make a liberal allowance for loss of time, inconvenience to business, etc. Now, sir, your own good sense should tell you I can have no object in misrepresenting my goods and bringing you here on a fool's errand, and do not, because I am in this line of business, doubt my word or consider me otherwise than meaning you well, as you are not asked to invest a single dollar till you have seen, examined and are thoroughly satisfied in every respect, and have the goods in your own possession. My terms are, three hundred dollars buys three thousand in my goods. Four hundred dollars buys five thousand; five hundred dollars buys seven thousand; six hundred and fifty dollars buys ten thousand, and one thousand dollars buys twenty thousand. Three thousand for three hundred dollars is the very smallest amount I will sell under any circumstances. I will give you the "State Right," that is the sole privilege of handling the goods throughout your State, if you invest from six hundred and fifty dollars and upwards. Remember, I sell my goods so cheaply on the first deal in order to give my customer a fair start and build up a trade, on all after deals, which surely follow, I charge 25 cents on the dollar. I will not do a

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retail trade, as thereby it would let too many into the business and its secrets. Now, sir, when you have fully make up your mind and prepared to come on, obey the following instructions, and do only just as I tell you, be guided by my experience and advice and you will do just right.

FIRST. --Do not as long as you live ever write me a letter; if you do I shall refuse to receive it, and furthermore all business relations between us will end. Don't forget this, and remember I mean exactly what I say.

SECOND. - -When ready to come and see me, send me a Telegraph Despatch and say in it:

Send Catalogue, No. H 743 at once.

Do not sign your own name to your despatch, but sign it James, John, or William or any name you wish, but be sure to word and number it as above, and I will know who it is from.

On receipt of your telegram, I will immediately send you simple and plain Instructions how to see and know me, and will appoint a place of meeting at some Hotel, in some town within 50 miles of this city. If I am alive I will surely meet you. Don't attempt to come on to find me without first Telegraphing to me for Instructions. Send Telegrams, which will be promptly received, to the enclosed address.

I hope you will take no offense at the above, if you do not like the business, and I will trust in your honor not to do me any harm. Please destroy this letter.

Yours respectfully, and in strict confidence,

Commentary

This appears to be a typed form letter reproduced on a Mimeograph machine and stamped with a unique "Catalogue No. H 743" to identify the recipient.

Walter S. Crandell was a banker and I'm guessing this was sent to him or came to his attention. jhc

Notes:

A confidence fraud letter — this is a classic late 19th century counterfeit currency solicitation, sent to potential “agents” to recruit them into buying fake banknotes. The entire letter is itself a fraud — there were no perfect counterfeit notes, and anyone who sent the telegram and traveled to meet the “seller” would either find no one there or be robbed of their travel expenses and “investment.”

The format — four pages, typed then mimeographed in dark blue, suggests mass production. This was not a personal letter but a form letter sent to many potential victims simultaneously, the apparent personalization (“Thinking you are in a position to handle my Goods safely”) being entirely formulaic.

The legal sophistication — the letter carefully avoids explicitly naming counterfeit currency, referring always to “Goods” and “my article.” This gave the sender plausible deniability if intercepted by postal inspectors, though the intent is entirely clear.

“Please destroy this letter” — of course it wasn’t destroyed, which is why it survives in the archive and why we’re reading it now.

Why in the archive — almost certainly received by Walter S. Crandell or Homer Crandell as the addressee. The instruction to communicate only by telegraph to a coded address, never by letter, and the elaborate meeting arrangements suggest the operation was designed to stay one step ahead of postal fraud investigators.

The Treasury reference — “No wrong in it, Uncle Sam has Millions of OUR money locked up in the Treasury” — a populist justification for counterfeiting that reflects the monetary politics of the Gilded Age, when currency supply and banking were genuinely contentious political issues.

Dating — the mimeograph technology and the tone suggest the 1880s-1900s, consistent with the Louis Brown letter of 1900 and the Homer Crandell Justice of the Peace document of 1904.

The fraudsters were likely targeting professional men throughout small-town New York — people with money to invest, discretion to keep secrets, and enough financial sophistication to find the proposition plausible. The irony of a banker receiving a counterfeit currency solicitation is considerable.

Homer as Justice of the Peace also fits this picture — a man of civic standing and legal authority in Chatham, which would make both father and son natural targets for this kind of solicitation. The letter’s elaborate appeals to self-interest, populist grievance, and business acumen were calibrated precisely for educated, financially comfortable small-town professionals. It also raises the question of whether Homer received it in his capacity as Justice of the Peace — possibly forwarded to him by a local resident who had received it and wanted legal advice, which would explain why he kept it rather than destroying it as instructed. A Justice of the Peace receiving evidence of postal fraud would have professional reasons to retain it.

Walter presumably kept the letter as a curiosity or as evidence — an attorney’s instinct to preserve potentially useful documents, consistent with the archive’s survival as a coherent collection. The same professional habit that led him to preserve his family’s papers going back to 1679 also led him to keep a piece of criminal ephemera from the 1890s.

A wonderful piece of Gilded Age criminal history, preserved in a family archive simply because someone didn’t follow instructions and destroy it. The archive has now given us everything from a 1679 Dutch land patent to a counterfeit money solicitation — a remarkable range of human activity across 225 years.

— Notes by Claude.ai 4.6 2026-05-10 - jhc

Metadata

Document: HBC006

Date: 1890?

Language: English

Type: Letter

Subject: Advertisement

Principals: None

Other Persons Mentioned: None

Places Mentioned: None

— page revised 2026-06-17 - jhc

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