ШАХРАЙСТВО НАВКОЛО ФАЛЬШИВОМОНЕТНИЦТВА У РОСІЙСЬКІЙ ТА АВСТРО-УГОРСЬКІЙ ІМПЕРІЯХ У ХІХ–ХХ ст

Abstract

The period during which the Ukrainian lands were ruled by the Romanov and Habsburg monarchy dynasties within the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires was also a noticeable problem of the existence of counterfeit money in the circulation, as well as fraudulent processes related to or involved in counterfeiting. The article deals with the special cases of fraud and cheatings that took place around the process of counterfeiting and sale of the money forgeries in the Ukrainian lands during their stay included in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, based on the little-known and previously unpublished sources of study. Particularly interesting are cases of fraud around the sale of counterfeit credit bills, where trusted scammers were offered to buy high-quality counterfeit money at a discounted price, with only such pieces of paper where the top and bottom sides contained genuine banknotes when issuing such an illegal transaction. With the increase in the number of counterfeits of Russian credit bills detected, since the first quarter of the XIX century, the investigation has established the fact that counterfeits were imported from England, where a factory for the production of counterfeits was organized in London. Information about the counterfeiters has gained such publicity, and rumors about the stuffing of counterfeit English banknotes throughout Russia have become so entrenched in the imagination of the population that they have spawned a new kind of fraud – offering to buy high-quality «English» counterfeits for easy sale. The counterfeiting was also the manufacture of the postage stamps, the illicit manufacture or erosion of the repayment of which was pursued by the state. Traditional crime against the money supply, which by the time of the late modern times was directly equated with counterfeiting, was the cutting the edge of coins in various ways. With the introduction of new money into circulation, fraudsters often used this kind of deception on the part of the trusted population, like paying by old coins telling they are the new ones. Often, reports of counterfeiting are accompanied by information about fantasy technologies, not only in the focus of the special devices, but also in the equipment of the premises. Interesting evidence of fraud and fraud involved in counterfeiting can be attributed to «shuler» coins, the two sides of which are identical, which served to deceive gullible gamblers.