THE FIRST BANK NOTE FORGER.
The first bank note forger was one Richard YvGlliana Yaughn, who Avas led to this crime not by want, nor by a desire to accumulate, but simply to make a strong impression on his sweetheart. He was engaged to be married, and the nuptials were soon to take place, but a wish to aggrandise himself in the eyes of his betrothed led him to engage several engravers, each to work on different portions of a bank note, and in this way he successfully counterfeited 20 notes, and put them in the hands of his sweetheart as proof of the opulence of his circumstances. His purpose was after the mariage to procure them from her and destroy them ; but one of the engravcus, suspicious of the object for which the work was done, gave information to the authorities. Yaughn was apprehended, and, after a trial which attracted considerable attention, was convicted and hanged. Yaughn was the first of a long line of men who followed each other to prison and the gallows for the crime of forgery ; for after he set the example, and showed how easily the thing could be done, a host of imitators took up the work.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR18941027.2.18
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Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 31, 27 October 1894, Page 7
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204THE FIRST BANK NOTE FORGER. Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 31, 27 October 1894, Page 7
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