LABORATORY ANALYSIS OF STOLEN CURRENCY

Improvements in scientific technology and technique have greatly expanded our ability to analyze microscopic samples for their composition, source, and/or age. This has led to various applications, such as the study of chemical impurities, historical artifacts, and crime scene evidence. Although the surface and interior composition of coins has been studied to help determine their history and legitimacy, little similar work has been done on currency. We report here on our laboratory analysis of stolen currency to confirm its well-documented history and to demonstrate the potential for future studies on other currency.

An accompanying article in this issue details the 1866 robbery of the Osage National Bank of Osage, IA, charter #1618. In brief, the door of the bank safe was blown off with gunpowder and among the stolen currency were crisp, unsigned, unissued $5 Original Series notes from the bank with serial numbers 1751 through 2200. The thieves forged the bank officers' signatures and distressed the notes before starting to pass them. Sixteen of the stolen notes have survived, mostly in tattered and torn condition. On the note pictured here, the stamped letter “S” is faintly visible in blue ink in several places to indicate its having been stolen.

Laboratory Procedure
We studied two of the Osage stolen notes, serial numbers 1966 B (pictured here) and 1951 A (pictured in the accompanying article).

Both notes had been purchased from prominent numismatic sources. Our goal was to determine whether we could obtain evidence confirming their presence in the explosion of the bank safe. We looked for three different microscopic materials embedded on the surface of the notes. First, gunpowder residue may have survived the explosion. Next, a local newspaper reported that a roll of stolen currency recovered from the thieves was covered with “Plaster Paris.” This white powder was undoubtedly a proprietary fire-proofing material with which manufacturers of bank safes typically lined the safe walls, such as talc, asbestos, or gypsum. Finally, iron fragments would be strong evidence of an explosion.

In summary, we have found three separate lines of evidence compatible with an origin in an explosion in a bank safe (iron oxide particles formed in a high temperature event, talc as a fire-proofing agent, and trace elements from gunpowder residue). These findings are somewhat speculative, and none are definitive. And of course we can not know how the notes may have become soiled or contaminated during the last 150 years. But we can say that our results are consistent with the robbery that was so well documented in 1866.

We have demonstrated that modern, non-destructive laboratory analysis can provide information about currency not available in any other way. A wide variety of other technological methods are available in addition to those we have used. Perhaps special applications may be found for the study of certain paper, ink, counterfeits, DNA, etc. Researchers need to include these possibilities in their thinking.

For more information about the Society of Paper Money Collectors, see:
www.spmc.org

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