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I'm trying to find a short story that I read, probably in the late 90s but I'd expect the story is a lot older than that.

In the story the main character (actually a family I think) somehow come into possession of a table that has a magical property - it can copy items that are placed on it. I think it's only paper it can copy, but they use it to make perfect copies of bank notes.

The government tracks them down because the copies are perfect, so the serial numbers are always the same.

I think it's revealed at the end that the table isn't magic at all, it's the person using it that has the ability.

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  • I don't remember this one, although I do remember a short story involving a man who buys two talents, of which one is the ability to "make money" which results in him doodling perfect dollar bills whenever he has a pen in hand.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 15:46
  • I've since found a short story involving a money tree that similarly duplicates serial numbers, but nothing involving a table yet.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 16:08
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    This sounds like Murray Leinster's "The fourth dimensional demonstrator", at least until the spoiler. It's science-based, not magic - it pulls duplicates forward from the past. The main character inherits the demonstrator, duplicates money, but gets tracked down because the serial numbers of the bills are the same. The machine isn't limited to paper, it duplicates all sorts of things (not always on purpose), and it ends with the main characters getting rid of all the counterfeits and other duplicates, and 'making do' with the results of duplicating loose change, gold, and jewelry
    – Megha
    Commented Dec 20, 2015 at 5:04
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    In the story I remember, the treasury agent arrives, the man demonstrates the glass-topped table, and the agent promptly smashes it with the butt of his revolver, and then drops the case, realizing that there is no hope of a conviction.
    – Barnaby
    Commented May 5, 2022 at 1:59
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    And there was a surprise ending: the man was actually using a psychic power — the story of the table was intended to give him an out if, when, the treasury department caught up with him. I read this in an Alfred Hitchcock collection.
    – Barnaby
    Commented Jun 11, 2022 at 0:44

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