Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-28
MAKING PAPER MONEY
Plates Prepared in Anticipation ofthe
Silver Bills Passage.
THE WONDERFUL WORKSHOP
All Ready 70 Go Ahead and Print Nine
Fresh Kinds OF Cash-H0w the Rureau
Gets Up . New NOse-Whas f. Done
With the Wealth.


ESIGNS for an entirely new issue OF
| Inn United States paper money in nine diff
! 3EE kierent denominations were submitted to
! 4Ott the Secretary Of the Treasury some days
$ ago for his approval in anticipation of
the passage of a silver bill. For business
reasons it ID necessary that the government
should always have the plates ready for print
ing fresh style of notes or certificates about
as quickly as the demand is made. Accord
ingly the Bureau Of Engraving and Printing
never fails to be prepared in advance for a
( possible order with suitable engravings on
steel that can be put ON the presses at short
notice.
The patterns submitted as suggestions for
the anticipated silver paper money. STAR re-
porter was informed, we're considered highly
| satisfactory by the Secretary of the Treasury.
They will not be especially elaborate, but chaste
| In design with a portrait in an oval at the
| right end of the face of each. 1t has not yet
| been determined positively whose portraits
| will be thus displayed. A line of Secretaries
| OF the Treasury was originally thought Of
nlne OF them on the various denominations re-
! specnvely-but Mr.. Window demurred to this
on the ground that some of his old-time pre-
| decessors are practically unknown to the pres
ent generation. Almost certainly a selection
| OF men distinguished in various ways will be
| made Tor the purpose, and two of them will
| probably be Gen. Sheridan and Senator Nor
rlil. The notes will be black and white on the
lace and green on the back; they will be ones
| twos, lives, tens, twenIies, htues, one hum
| dreds, five hundreds and one thousands. No
two OF the nine designs will be at all alike, as
precaution against coUnterfeiters. Already
the plates for both backs and faces have been
prepared, blanks having been left for putting
| In such details of the legend the word bull
hon, or whatever else, depending upon the
wording Of the bill expected to be passed by
| Congress.
HOW DESIGNS ARE PREPARED.
| Nothing could well be more interesting than
the manner in which the design for fresh
style of United States note or certificate is got
up. To begin with, the chief artist OF that de-
! partment has large collection of engravings
on steel of all sorts of original patterns repre-
sentlng different parts of possible certificates
or notes. When he and his assistant designers
are not otherwise busy they devote their time
to drawing fresh ideas in this way for use at
some future time when they may be wanted
Drawings produced in this way are reproduced
| upon steel by the engravers and little proofs
! printed from the steel are pasted into big
[ scrap book. Thus, if design for fiye-dollar
bill, for instance, Is wanted III hurry the chief
| artist, instead of having to start in at making
/ patterns. simply looks over his scrap book to
/ see what he has in stock. 1t must be under
stood that none of these stock patterns has
ever been used; 1t would not do to repeat de-
! signs on Uncle Sans money, because that
would render counterfeiters' work easier. The
! chief artist first draws upon sheet of paper
| parailelogram precisely the size and shape of
the note wanted. Then he looks in his scrap
book and finds a pretty little section of
border that he thinks will do, with the
! word five" running in and out in scroll
a hIspOyara tf.rp
for each of the four corners, ornamental and
elaborate, and ali different These give him the
outside edge of the IS bill Later on a good
sized figure five can be cut out of each cor
| ner piece on the steel plate. Now it Is a ques-
ton of finding suitable viguette. Such a one ia
readily obtained from another page of the scrap
book, representing historical subject perhaps.
This will nil up the lefthand end of the face of
the note very nicely. portrait is needed for
the rlght-hand end, and 1t is simply matter
of choosing which distinguished man shall be
put on out OF fairly large collection. 1t takes
four or five months to engrave one of these
portraits and considerably longer for vigne tie
so it pays to have few manufactured in ad-
vance, The S5 bill Is now pretty nearly planned
out, SO far as its face is concerned. One or two
big figure fiyes are arranged for the corners and
then it only remaius to determine what shall be
the story OF the note.
PAPER MONEY sroRIEs
| Each such piece Of paper money has what
the engravers and designers call its "story,"
which simply means the legend inscribed upon
the note. national bank note tells what in
stitution issued it and mentions the fact that
| 1t is legal tender DC. II silver certificate
were concerned its story would be to the eff
! feet that five dollars, payable to bearer,
! had been deposited in the United States
| Treasury. and SO forth. The words Of paper
| money stories do not vary very much, and all
| styles of engravings of various parts OF them
m ar fhnca
| story desired is quickly made up. As for the
| back OF the note, it is chiefly geometrical lathe
work. and is simply made as complicated as
| possible to defeat the counterfeiters. Plenty
! of patterns for backs are always to be found in
| the scrap book.
PREPARED IN SHORT ORDER.
In this way the chief artist is able to compose
an entirely fresh note or certificate within a
few minutes, one might say, very likely with
| out executing bit of work in addition to
| what he has on hand. If any little addendum
| is wanted it will not take him long to draw it
| and place it in the hands of engravers for re-
production on the steel So far he has simply
| a lot OF little patches of steel engravings
| which. put together, make up the whole design
| The rest, however. is merely mechanical
| affair. TO begin with the little piece of steel
! on which is engraved the section of border
| chosen is hardened with fire and an impression
| OF 1t made upon a solid roller of soft steel.
1He TOiItT ID tueu ndTutne0 ana under
| great pressure, run across sheet of soft steel
upon which the original engraving is thereby
| reproduced. This sheet of steel is to be the
| plate for the note, and the scrap of
| border il the first part of the engrav-
! ing for the note made upon it. The
| same border pattern is continued all around
| the edges of the parallelogram marked for the
| note on the steel, wherever it is wanted, by
simply applying the roller with the engraved
section on it again and again. The corner
pieces are put on in precisely the same manner,
being taken from hard steel stock pieces upon
| soft rollers and impressed upon the plate
by the rollers after hardening Next the
yignette is ready to be rolled on in the same
way, in its proper place on the plate, and like
wise with the portrait Finally the ''story" is
rolled on also-frst an inscription in large
letters on scroll, reading Omitted States
of America" and SO On. So in a
comparatively brief time the whole face of
the note, which would have taken more than
a year may be to engrave directly on the
plate, has been finished. The back of the note
Is rolled of on another plate from stock spec
linen Of geometrical lathe work and everything
is ready to print of the new style of fve-dollar
bill, or what not as soon as the engrayers have
touched up tho plates little and made any
trihlng additions or improvements thew NAV
think Of. Fire is applied to harden the plates.
the entire designs of which are taken off upon
soft rollers From the rollers when hardened
| as many fresh engravings Of the note as are de.
sired can be rolled of on other plates to print
from. This wonderful labor saving method of
reproducing engravings is an American inyen-