[00:00:00] Hi everyone. Today you'll hear about how a counterfeiting case from long ago has something to tell us about the state of our profession as we head into uncertain times. I'm your host, Bill Coffin. Welcome to another episode of the Ethicast.
[00:00:25] I have a story to tell you. Eleven years ago, I began researching my family history and ran into a dreaded brick wall that no one in my extended family has ever managed to break through, despite decades of effort determining the identity of our great, great, great great grandfather. Now, theories on who this person could be abound. And the one that I've decided to chase is a fellow named Eleazar Coffin, who lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in Hunterton County, New Jersey, in the years shortly after the American Revolution. I am pretty sure that Eleazar is our guy. But since we don't yet have firm evidence of it, I keep researching him. And as I did, I discovered that he had been busted for counterfeiting in 1794.
[00:01:07] As far as I can tell from various court documents, in May 1794, Eleazar gets hauled into court to pay an outstanding debt of £35 to someone named Joshua Anderson. Now, £35 doesn't seem like a lot, but bear in mind that the average annual US salary at the time was only £14. If somebody owed me twice my annual salary, I'd call the sheriff on them too.
[00:01:31] In July 1794, Eleazar and an accomplice, Philip Bevin, are indicted for milling fake silver coins and are ordered to pay 35 pounds plus another 70 pounds interest. It sure looks like Eleazar tried to pay off Joshua Anderson in fake money, even though the New Jersey state currency bore the warning to counterfeit is death defrauding Joshua Anderson. And the public is low down. But roping in this Philip Bevin joke to help you do it is even more so.
[00:02:00] In September 1794, Coffin and Bevin tell the court that there is no way that they could pay what they owe. So in October 1794, the court ups that amount to an astounding £300 at more than 21 times the average salary. A personal fine of that size on a fraud minded deadbeat appears to be never show your face around here again kind of money. And I think the Eleazar took the hint because there is no further official record of him in New Jersey or Pennsylvania after that. No census data, no land records, no church records, no obituary, no nothing. I suspect he changed his name and went to ground to evade further creditors. When I relayed all this to my wife. She referenced someone in our family with a history of sketchy behavior and says, so that's where they get it from. As always, she makes a strong point.
[00:02:50] We are entering challenging times as a community that is dedicated to business integrity. A CEO was shot dead in broad daylight and people cheered about it. Online companies are proclaiming the closure or rollback of their DEI offices and public leaders are finding brazen new ways to signal their bad faith. Trust in public institutions remains rock bottom, but trust in businesses in particular has taken its first big step down in recent memory. It all feels like a collective objection to a truth that we hold to be self evident that building strong ethical frameworks also build sustainable value. Thankfully, Ethisphere has over the years gathered no small amount of data to prove that point, including the vaunted five year ethical premium that shows how companies that create best in class ethics programs, like World's Most Ethical Companies honorees, outperform their peers.
[00:03:40] But the figure that I'm going to keep going back to is 35 pounds, the sum that launched Eleazar's descent into Eraser. When he saw to counterfeit his death, he probably wasn't thinking about his own place in history. There's probably a reason why his kids never kept any record of him, and there's a reason why the local authorities were probably glad to see the back of him. There are always going to be eleazars among us, cutting corners, flaunting rules and violating the legal, social and personal promises that bind us together. Even now there are eleazars in our everyday lives. Some are that guy in sales who thinks that he can pay a bribe and get away with it. Some sit in the highest offices of the land.
[00:04:22] The irony is that they are all doing these behaviors without realizing that such methods are ultimately self destructive. To counterfeit is death indeed. The truth is as unruly and disquieting as our immediate future promises to be. It is worth remembering that business integrity activity actually went up in 2016 as organizations knew that strong ethics made better long term business sense than the alternative. That has not changed.
[00:04:49] People are always going to be messy and complicated creatures. Eleazars are always going to Eleazar. And as long as that remains so, then the value and need for people who make it their profession to advance business integrity will never truly come into question. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to deal with some knucklehead who wants me to get in on creating a cryptocurrency bearing my great great great great grandfather's name.
[00:05:12] This editorial is from the upcoming Winter 2025 issue of Ethisphere magazine, which will feature a special focus on ethical culture, terrific content from Ethisphere, Athena Major, Lindsay in Africa, Design it and more. The Winter issue goes live at the start of February and you can get your digital copy for
[email protected] this show is about showcasing excellence in action and the best thought leaders in the ethics and compliance community. If you would like to appear as a guest on the Ethicast to share a best practice success story or proof point on how business integrity builds value, we would love to hear from you. Drop us a line at the links in this episode's show. Notes I'm Bill Coffin and this has been the Ethicast. We hope you've enjoyed the show. For more content like this every week, please subscribe here on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also get our free weekly
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