Mr. 880

[rasputin]

Now that Ol' Roy has passed the win total of the mentor who taught him how to cheat, it occurred to me that this puts him at 880 wins. Seeing that actual number made me think of a notorious counterfeiter who had the Secret Service frustrated for a long time. Even though the quality of his counterfeit bills was terrible, he got away with it for many years, because (1) he only printed up one-dollar bills, which people didn't bother to look at much, and (2) he only printed a few at a time and usually didn't pass them at the same place more than once or twice (he was in NYC).

There was a rather charming movie made about this man, starring Burt Lancaster as the treasury guy trying to catch him, and Edmund Gwenn as Mr. 880 himself (they took liberties with the story to make that character more appealing). The moniker came from the number of the Secret Service's file on him.

Anyway, for some reason, I thought this was a fitting number for Roy.

[plimnko]

I get the counterfeit part...there are AT LEAST 2 counterfeit banners hanging in the dean dome

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

Hope this thread title remains accurate for at least several more weeks.

[JasonEvans]

I had not knows the story of Emerich Juetter until now. It really is an amusing one. His counterfeits were supposedly awful, including bills that misspelled Washington as Wahsington. He made more from selling his story to make the film Mr. 880 than he did from all of his counterfeiting.