It is not known when the senior Philip Alston learned and started counterfeiting. 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. As authorities were targeting counterfeiters in North Carolina, as well as the neighboring colonies of Virginia and South Carolina, the Alston brothers fled in 1772 or 1773 to Natchez, British West Florida, on the Mississippi River. This former French colonial city was located about 200 miles upriver from New Orleans.