Early Counterfeiters In Canada

Source

From Life in Canada


"...the Spanish milled dollars in which military services were paid for. Mexican dollars were also in vogue, and a few years previous to the American War of 1812, some enterprising New England counterfeiters, fancying the densely-wooded portion of Lower Canada, near the state lines, would afford a secure base for their operations, emigrated to our lower province.

"So expert had they become at the business that paymasters in the American army actually crossed over the lines by stealth through the woods and bought these Mexican dollars from the counterfeiters to pay the American troops with."

"...they ceased to produce the Mexican dollars for fear they might be traced out. Counterfeiting bank notes was what they next turned their hands to."