Release: JULY 14, 2023
I was more than a little taken aback when I read a recent letter in the Coin World hobby newspaper. It was from a gentleman who had purchased a manufactured reproduction of a half dollar that appeared to be from the 1800s. Had it been real, the coin would have been worth close to $1,000. As a replica, it sold for $19.95. That part was fine....
The problem was, the coin came in a plastic “slab” holder – the kind used by grading and authentication services. It even contained the logo of a legitimate service and with the correct printing. All that also was fake. Clearly, once this item changes hands a few times, there’s nothing to stop someone from passing it off as a real “certified” numismatic rarity to an unsuspecting buyer.
A while back, I wrote of the current conundrum over artificial intelligence or “A.I.” The replication of some music, voices or signatures has become so good, humans can’t or have a great deal of trouble knowing it’s fake. Only in the rarest of circumstances might a reproduction or counterfeit have the same or greater value than the real thing. Steven Litzner knew something about that.
Litzner was born Woodbury, New Jersey in 1955. He attended high school in Brandon, Florida but wasn’t a great student. In fact, he was expelled his junior year. No matter. He had a talent for art – drawing in particular.
In the 1980s, Litzner assumed the pseudonym James Stephen George Boggs. He thought he was pretty good at drawing but was assured of it one day in a diner when he sketched a stylized one-dollar bill to pay his 90-cent tab. The waitress knew it wasn’t real but readily accepted it for payment. He went on to draw exquisitely complicated banknotes replete with all the lettering and intricate geometric patterns known as “guilloche.”
His renown and reputation for artistic banknote renderings grew. His works became known as Boggs Notes with people eagerly seeking them out. Boggs wouldn’t sell them directly to collectors. Instead, he would trade the note for groceries or other goods. Then, he would tell collectors to whom he passed the note. It would then be up to the collector to track down that recipient and arrange for the purchase of the reproduction banknote.
Amusing as this was, Boggs naturally ran into a tad of trouble. Even though he made it a point to never try to counterfeit a bill for personal profit, governments are suspicious. Agents are paid handsome salaries to hunt down forgers. Boggs went the opposite direction of perfect reproduction. He often incorporated humorous identifiers to prove the bill wasn’t real. Didn’t matter. Suspicious minds, especially governmental ones, wanted more.
Boggs didn’t limit his talent to US banknotes. In 1986, he was arrested in London for counterfeiting a 50-pound note. He went to trial in England but had good representation. It was shown the banknote was created for display at an art gallery. Boggs was acquitted of all charges.
In 1989, he was arrested again, this time in Australia, on similar charges. Yet again, he was released. That time, the judge awarded him $20,000 in compensation. Amusingly, it was because of Boggs that all currency connected to the Bank of England now carries a copyright symbol. That’s because the bank figured if they couldn’t get Boggs on counterfeiting, they might be able to get him on copyright infringement.
Evidently, there are no hard feelings. One of Boggs’s reproductions is now on permanent display in the British Museum.
Naturally, Boggs wasn’t overlooked in his home country. Between 1990 and 1992, the US Secret Service raided Boggs’s home three times on suspicion of counterfeiting. Again, he was clean. His freehand artistry was simply so good, federal officers assumed he must be mechanically producing them. Nope.
As I said, Boggs often had a bit of fun with his notes. On some, the precision of the design was virtually exact. That is, except that he inserted his face in the center portrait area. He also would sometimes overtly replace the signature of a government treasurer or bank official with his own. Clearly, he had a sense of humor.
Boggs died in 2017, but not until his fame was assured. One of his banknotes resold for a whopping $420,000. Boggs’s work is one of the few exceptions where a professional reproduction has legitimate value far above the real deal. Now, that’s rare.
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