State v. Collins, 10 N.C. 191, 3 Hawks 191 (1824)

June 1824 · Supreme Court of North Carolina

10 N.C. 191, 3 Hawks 191

State v. Collins.

y {■ From Lincoln. J

An indictment charging Defendant with having in hig possession “ one pair of dies, upon which were made the likeness, similitude, figure and resemblance of the sides of a lawful Spanish milled silver dollar, &c. for the purpose of making and counterfeiting money in the likeness and similitude of Spanish milled silver dollars,” was held to charge, with sufficient certainty, the offence designated in the act Of 1811, ch. 814, vV. R.

The indictment charged, that the Defendant, “ on the 1st day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, witli force and arms in the county aforesaid, one pair of dies, upon which then and'there were made and impressed, the likeness, similitude, figure and resemblance of the sides of a lawful, Spanish milled dollar, without, any lawful authority, then and there feloniously had in possession,” &c. “ for the purpose of then and there making and counterfeiting money, in the likeness and similitude of Spanish milled silver dollars, contrary to the Statute in that case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the •State.”

The Defendant was found guilty before Nash, Judge, and moved in arrest, that the words of the act of Assembly which create the offence, are not used in the indictment. Motion in arrest overruled, judgment and appeal.

Tavxor, Chief-Justice.

It does not admit of any Reasonable doubt, that a pail* of dies is an instrument or instruments, within the 4th 'sec. of the act of 1811, ch. 814, upon which the first count is framed ,* and being more generally used, in coinage, than any other instru-js one. up0n which the act would be most likely to operate frequently. It may be said, that as the dies are described, as haying impressed upon them, only the likeness, similitude, figure and resemblance of the sides of a Spanish milled dollar, and not the edges, that they cannot answer the purpose described in the act, of makinga counterfeit similitude, or likeness, of a Spanish milled dollar. But it is for the Jury to consider, whether the dies be calculated to impress the counterfeit similitude, or likeness of a dollar ; for these words in the act, extend the offence beyond an exact imitation of the figures and marks of the coin. For, if the instrument, in point of fact, will impose on the world, in general, it is sufficient, whether the imitation be exact or not. And this is the construction upon those highly penal acts, relative to the coin, in England. Thus, having knowingly, in possession, a puncheon, for the purpose of coining, is within the Statute of 8 <%■ 9 Will. 3, though that alone, without the counter puncheon, will not make the figure: and though such puncheon liad not the letters, yet it was field sufficiently described in the indictment, as a puncheon, which would impress the resemblance of tiie iiead-side of a shilling. — (1 East. P. C. 171.) But if the parts of this indictment, which are employed in a description of tiie dies, were altogether omitted, the charge would fie within the act, for it would then read, that the Defendants had, in their possession, a pair of dies, for the purpose of making coqnterfe.it dollars, which is the crime, in substance, created by the act. As I do not perceive any ground for any other objection, arising from the record, the case having been submitted without agument, my opinion is, that the reasons in arrest fie overruled.

And in this opinion the rest of the Court concurred.