Stephen Burroughs

(1765 - 1840)

Born in Connecticut, the noted counterfeiter and memoirist Stephen Burroughs printed fake banknotes for an indebted America after the Revolutionary War. After serving time for his monetary schemes, he set up shop in Canada, printing a steady flow of counterfeit money for all the states and paying his neighbors handsomely to protect him. When the banking and publishing firm Gilbert & Dean announced their counterfeit-proof bill, Burroughs mailed them a false copy of their own currency as a taunt. Though eventually arrested in Canada, he won a pardon and died a free and wealthy man. Most of his story is known from his memoirs, which he first published at age thirty-three and expanded throughout his life.