> 10 years went by and the search for Mister 880 turned into the largest and most expensive counterfeit investigation in Secret Service history.

The article doesn't explain why the Secret Service made this their biggest case, and it doesn't make much sense to me. If the dollars were accepted by the general population, it would cause an infinitesimal increase in inflation of no consequence to others. And if shopkeepers wised up to the false dollars and rejected them, at worst he was defrauding the public by a few hundred dollars a year. In either eventuality, surely the Secret Service had more notorious counterfeiters to track down?

  Under ordinary circumstances, a federal counterfeiting arrest would have generated little sympathy. But the story of Emerich Juettner struck the public imagination immediately. Here was an old man surviving in poverty by printing crude one-dollar bills one at a time. He was not violent, greedy, or glamorous.

  At trial, Juettner admitted his activities openly. The judge sentenced him to only a year and a day in prison, and he was paroled after 4 months. He was also made to pay a fine of $1. It has been agreed that Juettner’s complete lack of greed was the rationale behind the light sentence. …

  Juettner returned to a life of normalcy, and lived out the rest of his days in the suburbs of Long Island, where he died in 1955, at the age of 79.

(Edit - thanks, leaving as a highlight)

One dollar in 1943 is worth about $19 today's dollars.

He started in 1938 and was arrested in 1948:

    1938 23.42
    1943 19.09
    1948 13.70

Enough to buy some supplies, but how did he pay the rent? Perhaps he owned his apartment.

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1948?amount=1

Fun fact: in parts of East Africa, a $50 bill may be worth about 60-70 $1 dollar bills, due to the $1 bill being easier to counterfeit (and also more likely worn down).

> Eventually, Juettner made more money from the release of Mister 880 than he had made by counterfeiting

I'm guessing this was before the law where you couldn't benefit from crimes?

The lack of greed is wonderful. It makes me think of how many endeavours would have succeeded if the founders and advisors weren't greedy.

At least this story shows that the lack of greed didn't improve quality.

>He was also made to pay a fine of $1

I wonder if the cashier checked the bill closely when he paid it.

It reminds me of Bojarski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceslaw_Bojarski

The 2025 movie is worth watching https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35495035/

Is it possible that he might have spent almost $1 in materials and labor and allocated capital expenses on equipment ... to create each of these counterfeits.

Attempting this today would probably surely cost that much in today's dollars?

EDIT: on a second thought ..this almost feels like "proof of work" for currency :)

> He was also made to pay a fine of $1.

I see what they did there.

> References:

> The 70-year-old retiree who became America’s worst counterfeiter. [link]

He evaded capture for 10 years, making him one of the best. Also got less than a slap on his wrist and ended up making legal money on the whole ordeal.

These days it is much more effective to pay employees to swap payment terminals (or just employees doing it themselves), changing where the money ends up, and banks don't really know what to do about it.

It feels like an increasingly common belief in the tech world, that "whoever dies with the most toys, wins." By such an account, this old man's cleverness, labor, and risk exposure must seem like the greatest squandering. So why should it attract our attention so, and without any apparent contradiction?

Perhaps our culture just contains multitudes like any other. Or perhaps, in addition, even the antithesis of a culture possesses an otherworldly charm to those who know nothing but that culture.