Sunday, April 29, 2012

An interesting story and new addition

Greetings everyone...This is a story about Samuel C. Upham,  number one counterfeiter  in the U.S. At the start of the Civil War Upham began marketing patriotic items to support the Union, and novelty items to mock the Confederacy, such as cards depicting the head of Jefferson Davis on the body of a jackass. In February 1862, he acquired a sample of Confederate money and quickly started producing his own counterfeits. His first printing consisted of 3,000 five-dollar notes, each stamped at the bottom with the words "facsimile Confederate Note - Sold wholesale and retail by S.C. Upham 403 Chestnut St. Philadelphia." He sold his first batch for a penny per copy. Cotton smugglers in the south quickly began buying Upham's novelty notes, trimming off the notice at the bottom and flooding the Confederate economy with bogus bills.
Before long Upham was advertising what he called "mementos of the Rebellion" in the New York Tribune, Harpers Weekly and other papers. He also advertised himself willing to buy genuine Confederate notes and stamps, as samples he could later duplicate. By late 1862 Upham was selling 28 variations of Confederate bill denominations and postage stamps, with currency notes selling for 5 cents a piece.
The Congress of the Confederacy responded to the flood of counterfeit bills by imposing the death sentence on convicted counterfeiters. Upham would later brag the Confederacy put a $10,000 reward on his capture, dead or alive. He had done more to injure the Confederate cause than General McClellan and his army. Upham later clamed he had printed from March 12, 1862 to August 1, 1863, one million five hundred and sixty four thousand facsimile Rebel notes, of denominations ranging from 5 cents to 100 dollars. Some modern analyses estimate his fake Confederate money amounted to between .93% and 2.78% of the Confederacy's total money supply. Upham discontinued his facsimile business in late 1863 and returned to selling stationary and patriotic envelopes. His notes were still being used in the war-torn South by Union soldiers and other persons after he shut down his business. I was lucky enough to find and purchase one of his counterfeits. His bogus money is worth more than the real thing.

Friday, April 27, 2012

A new artillery base takes shape







Greetings everyone...I had some extra Dixon figs that I found in a drawer, so I decided to base them in the same way that I based the Infantry and Cavalry. I added a piece of red foam on the bottom. Red being artillery, I thought it might look good. In making this base there are 14 different colors used.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Night shots from the villa







Greetings leadheads...In my last post I showed you a wall I was going to use for a second entrance...but I decided to use it as a primary entrance. With the wall in place here are a few night shots of the entrance plus one behind the wall with a lot of artillery going off.




Thursday, April 19, 2012

Another entrance to the Spanish villa

Greetings leadheads...I'm in the process
of adding another entrance to my 
Spanish villa. I took a bunch of shots
of the first part of the wall.















Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A place to park the tank






Greetings leadheads... I had nothing to do yesterday, so I started playing around with the tank...lit it up and parked it in my new barn.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

A new barn on the table















Greetings leadheads... I like the idea that everything on the table is a one of a kind made by me...except one, the barn. I got this tiny little resin barn that I got for my birthday a couple of years ago...nice barn, but too small...so I built a bigger one. Here are a few shots of it.