THE HISTORY of money is littered with swindles. In 17th-century England William Chaloner counterfeited coins, banknotes and lottery tickets before being sent to the gallows by Isaac Newton, master of the Royal Mint. During America’s free-banking era in the mid-1800s Andrew Dexter bought five banks in New England and began circulating banknotes with very little to back them. One bank was found to have issued $760,000 in notes, backed by only $86 in gold and silver.