Philip Alston (counterfeiter)

He was an early American settler in Natchez, as well as in the Cumberland and Red River valleys in Kentucky and Tennessee.

In 1770–1771 he and his brother John Alston were wanted by the law for counterfeiting activities in North Carolina and in 1773 in the colony of Virginia.

Upon arriving in the Natchez District of British West Florida, in 1772 or 1773, Alston became "a prosperous land speculator and wealthy planter, and, in 1776, possessed some of the finest palatial mansions in that gay city.

[5] Along with allied Choctaw Indians, they led an uprising in 1783 against Spanish authorities, who officially took possession of British territory in this area of North America that year, under the Treaty of Paris.

Alston, his brother, and John Turner wanted to execute the Spanish garrison and raise the American flag.

On June 23, 1783, Spanish soldiers retook Fort Panmure without firing a shot, capturing Blommart and John Alston.

Other leaders had fled, Hutchins to the Carolinas and Philip Alston to the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee, where he had already established a second home.

[10] The Pennsylvania Gazette, a colonial newspaper, in Philadelphia, reprinted a letter in the fall of 1783 that said Alston was the "famous money counterfeiter" and a leader of the band raiding Spanish shipping on the Mississippi.

He settled in what is now Logan County, Kentucky, in the western part of the state, where he built Alston's Station, or fort, near the Red River.

In 1795, the settlers around Alston's Station included Jesse and William Green, Dromgoole (also spelled Drumgole), and Stuart and Matthew McClean.

[14] But historian Otto A. Rothert said that Roswell or "Bloody Jack" Sturdivant did not arrive at Cave-in-Rock for at least another generation.

[16] In 1790, Alston was working with James O'Fallon in the Yazoo land scandal, which was intended to settle Americans in southern Mississippi, who would have been aligned with the Spanish.

[18][19] One account notes that Alston and his son, Peter conducted their counterfeiting operation at Stack Island, in the lower Mississippi River valley about 170 miles upriver from Natchez.

The Natchez District in British West Florida along the Mississippi River where Philip Alston and his brother, John lived from 1772 or 1773 to 1783. Fort Panmure is on the bluff of the city where the pro-American Spanish Army troops were garrisoned .
In the 1790s, Philip Alston and his criminal associate, John Duff , carried out their counterfeiting operation at Cave-in-Rock , a relatively secluded site.
Part of a counterfeit coin mold similar to the type used by Philip Alston and his associate John Duff . The coin mold had two halves that would be lined with clay to make an impression of a genuine coin. Molten mixture would be poured into the funnel feeder cut into the side of the mold, and the fake coin later plated with a thin layer of silver . Legitimate coins were made by government mints and stamped from silver or gold coin discs; most counterfeit coins were molded.
The Spanish silver peso was the most common currency found on the American frontier . [ citation needed ] Alston and Duff were illegally " coining " this type of money at Cave-In-Rock . The "Spanish milled dollar", minted in Mexico , was considered legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857 .