MADE PRETTY FAIR
DOLLARS OUT OF TIN.
GEORGE ELLIOT, COUNTERFEIT-
ER, TELLS HOW HE DID IT.
Block Tin and Antimony Molded in
Plaster of Paris and Plated
With Silver -- He Was
Out of a Job.
George Elliot, who gave the name of George Bullene when the police arrested him and found a counterfeiting outfit in his rooms at 511 Locust street Saturday night and the woman with him, Tillie Bullene, from whom Elliot chivalrously borrowed a name, yesterday told Police Captain Walter Whitsett exactly how they make bad money.
Block tin, purchased from any tinner, and antimony are melted together and cast into plaster of paris moulds by the Elliot process. The imitation coins are then plated with nitrate of silver by the very ordinary process of electrolysis, known to every school boy. A file is used to trim off the rough edges and make the milling uniform.
Sixty-six of the alloy dollars were taken from Elliot's room. They have the ring of a real silver dollar, are very little under weight and look like good money. One has to take the Elliot brand of coin between the fingers and feel its smoothness before one would detect that it is not the genuine article. Elliot used three real dollars to make his plaster of paris molds. They are of the years 1899, 1900 and 1901. The original coins, molds, alloy, metal, electric batteries and all were found by the police.
Eliot, in his confession says he learned how to make this money from an old counterfeiter in Denver seventeen years ago, but never made use of his secret until two months ago, when he was t hrown out of employment at the Kansas City Nut and Bolt works and Tillie Bullene lost her position at the Loose-Wiles Cracker and Candy factory. Elliot's picture is in the police rogues' gallery, and he was fined $25 for vagrancy about six months ago. He is 32 years old and has spent most of his life in Kansas City. Tillie Bullene met him about a year ago.
Captain Whitsett has notified United States secret service men, Edward J. McHugh of St. Louis and J. A. Adams of Kansas City.
John G. Ritter of 325 Park avenue, a driver for the United States Express Company, yesterday identified Tillie Bullene as the woman who, a few days ago, gave him a counterfeit dollar. He had whittled the coin in two, but brought half of it to Captain Whitsett.
