Emanuel Ninger known as "Jim the Penman", was a counterfeit

Counterfeit

To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...

er in the late 1880s.

Biography

Ninger and his wife, Adelaide, arrived in 1882 from Germany to live in Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...

. He worked as a sign painter and then bought a farm in Westfield, New Jersey

Westfield, New Jersey

Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 30,316. The old village area, now the downtown district, was settled in 1720 as part of the Elizabethtown Tract....

. He told his neighbors that he was receiving a pension from the Prussian army. On October 12, 1892 he moved to Flagtown, New Jersey

Flagtown, New Jersey

Flagtown is an unincorporated community located within Hillsborough Township, Somerset County in the U.S. state of New Jersey.-History:It was originally called Flagtown Station when the Lehigh Valley Railroad came through, after the nearby Flagtown, which had been corrupted from Flaggtown...

.

Forgery

Ninger would buy bond paper from Crane & Company, in Dalton, Massachusetts

Dalton, Massachusetts

Dalton is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Dalton is the transition town between the urban and rural pieces of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,892 at the 2000 census.- History...

, cut it to the same size as the $50 and $100 United States Note

United States Note

A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their heyday, a...

s he was copying, then soak the paper in a dilute coffee solution. He would align the paper over a genuine banknote, place the two on a piece of glass, and trace the resulting image. He used a camel’s hair brush to put colors on the note, imitated the silk threads with red and blue inks, and suggested rather than duplicated the intricate geometric lathework. Notably, he omitted the line crediting the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from all of his bills, and some of them were also missing the counterfeiting warning.

He worked for weeks at a time on each note, and this was profitable because at the time one of those notes was extremely valuable (about $2000 or $4000 in today's dollars).

He was apprehended by the United States Secret Service

United States Secret Service

The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

 in March 1896 when he paid a bartender with a $50 banknote, the note got wet, and the ink began to smudge. Ninger pleaded guilty, and was given a sentence of six months and a $1 fine. At some point after his release he forged a few British pound notes. He died on July 25, 1924, at 77 years old.

Ninger was somewhat romanticized during his time, as almost a "Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

"-like character, whose crimes were deemed "victimless", both because only the extremely wealthy could afford the bills that he was forging, and also because with the proper art connections, one could stand to profit by receiving a Ninger work. Ninger notes are illegal to possess; it is estimated that there are 20-30 notes in the hands of collectors, out of an estimated 700 made by Ninger.

See also

• JSG Boggs
• Trompe l'oeil
  Trompe l'oeil
  Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...