[Ads-l] "cogniac" (counterfeiters' slang --or not?)

[Joel Berson]

As far as I see, this subject was last discussed in May 2004.
Stephen Mihm's "A Nation of Counterfeiters" (Harvard University Press, 2007) has a chapter titled "Cogniac Street Capitalism".  On page 64 he mentions the terms "koniacker" and "coniacker", as well as "cogniac" for counterfeit money.  He quotes William Coffey, 1823; I assume this is the citation that George Thompson reported.

Mihm locates a "Cogniac Street" via a Fitch Reed, a minister in St. Armand in the 1820s, and quotes from Reed " 'Coniac' being a vulgar name for counterfeiting money", citing however what are on their surface secondary sources (p. 67 and note 5).  This may be a second early use.


 I see that Cogniac Street is now Chemin Hudon, Dunham, Quebec, which town is close to the northwest Vermont border.  St. Armand is a town in Essex County, N.Y., near the northeast corner, abutting Vermont and close to Canada.

I leave it to others who may be interested to follow this up.  Thirteen years after George's contribution, these three words are still not in the OED.

Joel



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