Currency, Counterfeiting, and the Making of the US Secret Service

In ‘This Week in History,’ the Treasury Department and Congress worked to stifle counterfeiting during the Civil War, leading to major changes in banking.

"To Counterfeit Is Death." Counterfeit warning printed on the reverse of a 4-shilling colonial currency in 1776 from the Delaware Colony. Public Domain

The history of counterfeiting is nearly as long as the history of currency. Just as counterfeits have remained on the heels of the originals, legal systems have remained on the heels of the counterfeiters.

Well before the discovery of the New World, the legal systems of European nations worked feverishly to keep ahead of counterfeiting rings. Therefore, when Europeans arrived in America to establish colonies, the counterfeit problem was soon to follow.