For as long as money has been around, so has counterfeiting. Early settlers on American soil took less valuable white shells the Indians used as currency and dyed them black to increase them in value. Later counterfeiting took on a patriotic air, as the British flooded the colonies with fake bills, hoping to destabilize their economy. During the Civil War an ad hoc organization sprung up seemingly under control of no agency to deal with the threat of counterfeits, and also to investigate rumors of a possible assassination attempt of President Lincoln. That was the precursor of the modern-day Secret Service.

On this day, June 23, in 1860, Congress passed an act to transfer control of the Secret Service to the Secretary of the Treasury. The organization still kept its double role in protecting the president and deterring counterfeiting.

Today, Secret Service agents that are charged with protecting the president are selected for their quick thinking as well as their bravery: they are trained to, and at one point actually did, take a bullet meant for the president. When a crazed gunman attempted to assassinate President Reagan, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy spread himself between the president and the gunman. McCarthy was wounded by a shot that likely would have killed the president.