Emanuel Ninger: Counterfeiter Caught by Wet Bar Table!

Emanuel "Jim the Penman" Ninger. Emanuel Ninger is a counterfeiter, who drew by hand, various denominations of US banknotes in the late 1880s.

He worked for weeks at a time on each note, and this was profitable because at the time one of those notes was extremely valuable (about $2000 or $4000 in today’s dollars). He gained a following, as the invariably wealthy people that ended up with these banknotes tended to realise their worth as works of art.

He was apprehended by the United State Secret Service in 1896, after a banknote ended up in a small puddle at a bar. A none-too-amused bartender realised that the ink was staining and the note was not genuine. Ninger served six months, and was forced to pay a restitution of $1 (The rumour that the $1 was one of his own works is more than likely an urban legend). He disappeared and probably did not make more works, though the art community was holding out, hoping for more to be discovered. None ever were.

Link: Emanuel Ninger [wiki]