My
friend Louis has passed away - at
78, after recently being released from
prison (again) for Counterfeiting. Ah, my friend Louis - aka "Louie
The Coin"... a truly original
character in my life....
We first met
via eBay, where he was selling his restored
Kelsey presses. I was tied up with my brother on
a large programming project for ATT Worldnet and
I didn't have the time to do press restorations
and I had nothing ready to ship - and the
inquiries kept coming in, so when I saw the
presses he was selling, I began to pass on the
inquiries to him. We finally met in person two
years later, when he really opened my eyes to
just who it was I was dealing with. He told me
his story, showed me newspaper articles about
his adventures and we hit it off nicely.
Lou was a gifted mechanical engineer - no
degree, just the skills. His father had been a
caster of jewelry "findings" - the pieces that
the gems would be mounted in. He learned the
trade early on.
Lou had recently gotten out of federal prison
for having faithfully (& of course, with no
authorization) reproduced the tokens used in
slot machines in Atlantic City and Las Vegas -
millions of dollars' worth.
That's when he earned the nickname "Louie the
Coin" - and he wore it proudly. Of course, his
counterfeit coins were so good that in the end,
he began being hired by the FBI & the
casinos to spot other, less perfect
counterfeits. The FBI agent who finally tracked
him down joined him in public presentations
about counterfeiting. He was indeed, the
expert...
In fact, he even made it into Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Colavecchio
Louis was featured in the series "Breaking
Vegas" - he was the guy who counterfeited their
tokens - and got away with it for quite a while
before they caught up with him . Quite the
story.
He even did a materials assessment of legitimate
tokens to make sure that the metal he used was
exactly the same composition as the metal used
in the legit coins. He was good...
Going Legit - he almost made it...
After he got out of prison, and since he was
intensely mechanically inclined, a friend asked
him to restore her little Kelsey press for her.
After he figured out that restoring presses was
a legitimate means of earning some easy income,
he began doing more. He began picking up old
presses cheap, restoring them very nicely and
selling them on eBay, which is where I found
him.
Some
of the presses Lou restored.
Things
went well between Louis & I.
I knew the presses and how to set them up and
use them, and Louis was a mechanic &
machinist who did a good job with these little
presses. He did a complete dis-assembly and
essentially re-manufactured the presses he
sold. But Louis was not a printer - and
didn't really know how to level a platen (until
I taught him) or fully set up and test-out a
press. He never printed. He would send his
customers down to my shop here in NJ where I
would set up their presses - and teach them how
to use them - often at no cost to them.
It went well - most of the time. But Louis was
more focused on cash flow - getting paid for his
work than on developing and nurturing a
long-term relationship with his customers - as I
was. We disagreed often on how to treat the
customers and, in fact, he earned a very
negative reputation among the letterpress
community. Don't get me wrong - most customers
were 100% satisfied with their presses and quite
pleased with their dealings with Louis - but not
all.
BRIAR PRESS FORUMS
There were some pretty nasty comments about
Louis on Briar Press Forums and when I added my
comments - generally in support of Louis, I was
heavily chastised as a crook myself - and his
partner - which I never was. I never earned a
cent from Louis - although we did some business,
he's the one who earned money from it. I did
send him many parts over the years, but we
bartered most of the time. Little cash passed
between us - although i did buy some presses and
parts from him. But, still in his defense, I
dealt with some of his customers and I must say
that they were not all good to deal with.
When someone on Briar Press discovered his
nickname - "Louie the Coin" and learned of his
counterfeiting work, all hell broke loose online
and the mob attacked him. Mostly they were
ignorant people, saying ignorant things, but
there were, I must admit some legitimate
complaints. And, although I generally offered to
fix any problems buyers encountered with Lou's
presses, no one ever took me up on the offer -
even though I offered to fix their presses for
free.
THE EXCELSIOR
PILOT
When Lou realized the value of the 6 1/2
x10 Chandler & Price Pilot - $2500-3500 vs a
restored Kelsey which would sell for $1250-1500
or so, he became interested in them and shifted
his focus to the more profitable presses. He
would still do Kelseys - because they were easy,
but he began doing more Pilots because they paid
so much more. And when he found a lot of 6 of
them, he scarfed them up and went to work. He
must have done dozens of Pilots over the years -
and many dozens of Kelseys, Victors, etc.
He had already been casting replacement parts
for the Kelseys - but only for the presses he
restored. He felt that making parts for resale
was too fraught with compications and would cut
into his own sales of restored presses. Kelsey
replacement parts often need "fitting" to use on
old presses and would only lead to problems. I
kept pushing him to make parts for all of those
presses that were missing chases, chase-beds,
ink disks, etc., but he avoided doing so.
In fact, it was
one sale to a gentleman in Texas - of a
press lacking a chase - that lead me to
develop the Excelsior Chase Base for
photo-polymer plates. The customer needed a
chase and wanted a base for mounting photo
polymer plates, so I made the first
Excelsior Chase-Base which filled both needs
with one piece. The ECB became quite popular
and I have made many of them over the years
- for all sizes of presses. And I still do -
when I have the time...
So then, while discussing Pilots one day - and
the value they had in the current market, I
suggested that he cast all of the parts for a
Pilot and make them new - but not at the 6 1/2 x
10 size that had been the standard since Henry
Thorpe began making them in 1888. I suggested a
7x11 chase size to make them competitive with
the even more popular Golding Pearl #11.
So, The Excelsior Pilot
was born.
Over the next few years, I financed the R&D
- with some Pilots I had, a Victor which he
restored and resold -and many, many other press
parts that he needed for a variety of
restorations. I helped with expenses, Lou did
all of the work. We knew the presses; we knew
the weak points and we both knew how to make
presses.
The result was a complete set of resin patterns
to manufacture the first new platen press in
over fifty years - The Excelsior Pilot. Lou had
adopted the business name Excelsior Press
Company - which caused a lot of confusion with
my business - The Excelsior Press, but he had
the right to the name. The Kelsey Company, which
had manufactured the Kelsey Excelsior for about
100 years, had closed its doors in the 1990's,
so there was no patent infringement or other
conflicts.
Besides, the Excelsior Pilot was a new press. It
is based upon H. Thorpe's original "Standard
Press" design of 1888 - and later popularized as
the Chandler & Price Pilot after Thorpe sold
the rights to Chandler & Price, but, unlike
the Pilot clones made in the past by American
Printing Equipment, Craftsmen Machinery and
others, this press was all new.
The common-failing parts were strengthened, the
chase is larger and, although it looks like and
would be mistaken for a Pilot, it was a new
press.
One was made. Only one press.
And it sold for less than the cost of
manufacture. Of course, at this time, Lou did
not have his own machine shop or foundry, so he
paid to have the parts cast, then paid to have
the machining done. Between those two outside
expenses, the cost exceeded the selling price.
It was a bust.
So, Lou decided to sell the patterns to someone
who was willing to try and make a go of it. The
patterns were assembled into a functional model
and he offered it for sale on Briar Press. But
those idiots on the forum saw only a "plastic
printing press" and disparaged it and his
efforts.
So I bought it. Now I have the functional model
of the Excelsior Pilot among our collection at
the Excelsior Press Museum. At the time I took
it, I still had plans to assemble myown machine
shop to mill the pieces as they came from the
foundry. That never happened due to some major
health issues - and my own advancing age, it may
not come to pass.
But, if someone is interested, equipped and
prepared to manufacture a new table top platen
press, the casting patterns are here. Hopefully,
they will be used some day....
- Alan Runfeldt 7/17/2020
EPILOGUE
MORE COUNTERFEITING
&tc.
Lou & I had been out of contact for a few
years, but there is more to his story.
He told me that he had stopped restoring presses
- and he sold me his parts and some of his tools
and was going to "retire" He had developed
Epstein-Barre Syndrome and could no longer do
the work. I figured that Lou had finally retired
- but he hadn't...
He should have stayed with printing presses, but
he got into it again - and went back to prison
for counterfeiting - again - http://cooljustice.blogspot.com/2019/10/louis-coin-away-again-for-while-reports.html
He did, strangely enough (even as a convicted
felon) manage to get a Rhode Island State
license to grow medical marijuana - and, as
usual, did a really good job at that. He was so
successful that he grew more than he was
authorized to and was "busted". But during his
trial, the judge decided that the only thing he
was really guilty of was "having a green thumb"
and growing more than he was authorized to.
So the let him off... (or so he told me..)
But there
is more....
Unbeknownst to me, Lou had gotten back into
counterfeiting during our time apart - $100
bills this time - and he got caught - and went
to prison again. That's where he was as his
health deteriorated further.
Funny thing - the presses we restored together
were table top platen presses - in no way
capable of counterfeiting money. He must have
gotten an engraving press or - easier - an
offset press. But Louis was no printer. Coins
were stamped; I could see him doing that, but
printing? That surprised me. I'll bet he was
actually engraving - like the Feds do. Most
counterfeiters try using offset presses - and
that's how they get caught. I wonder how he did
it?
I know nothing about his counterfeiting
operation - it all began long after we had
parted company, but apparently, he was not as
successful as in similar ventures in the past. I
only learned of it while reading his obituary
online. But he got busted and went back to
prison for another year or so... then came home
to hospice and passed away...
Another
recent article about Lou - by Katie Mulvane
of the Providence Journal ..
He published a book about
his adventures - https://louisthecoinbook.com/
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