People may not realise that the US Secret Service was formed in the late nineteenth century precisely because of risks to the integrity of the US finance system expressed in money: Forgery was why they exist at all.<p>If you look at a french revolutionary Assignat, it says "Le Loi Punit de Mort le Contrefacteur" -and with good reason. The print quality was so crap, forgery would be trivial. Thats probably why high denomination banknotes had real signatures on them for a while. -I bought a couple to give as a gift and keep one. They're surprisingly robust given how old they are (1790s) and they cost about the same amount in todays disposable income as their face value, but obviously I paid for them as a collectable, not as a negotiable bond of value. I think if I presented one at the french national bank they'd decline to convert to euros but at scale, a conversion factor from many former currencies exist: Certainly pre-euro Franc conversion rates are maintained because debt denominated in Franc still exists. Thats the new franc, not the old devalued one, which was I think the third or fourth run at a franc because it kept losing value. (do NOT mention the lire)<p>They got the second mission because of McKinley's assassination.