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Establishment of the Secret Service Division
- When
- July 5, 1865
- Where
- Washington, D.C.
The Secret Service was established in Washington, D.C. on July 5, 1865, as a division of the Department of the Treasury to combat counterfeiting.
Commissioned as the "Secret Service Division," the agency was created to suppress counterfeiting of United States currency. This mission addressed the rampant financial crimes following the Civil War. The agency was placed under the Department of the Treasury, reflecting its initial focus on economic security rather than physical protection.
Sources
- United States Secret Service Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.