The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-11-13
MONEY TO ORDER.
Currency for Foreign Governments
Printed in This Country.


Millions of Dollars Made by Our Printers
and Engravers Which the People
of the United States
Never See.
When a recent temporary ruler IN
Hayti wished to issue some thousands of
dollars in paper money he sent to New
York and had the prettiest kinds OF
notes printed in handsome design on
fine paper and admirably lettered in
choice Haytian French, says the New
York Recorder. In due course that par
ticular ruler suecumbed to rival, and
the latter promptly made new issue OF
paper money and had it printed by the
same firm that did the like work for his
predecessor. Neither Haytian ruler
omitted to pay the market rate for his
printing, and it is unlikely that either
was permitted to pay in the currency OF
his own authorization. Haytian money
is Just as pretty as that of any other
government, and there is no reason to
suppose that the currency OF the
deposed ruler was less beautiful than
that issued by his successor. Doubtless
most of us will live to see new ruler
in Hayti, and it is altogether likely that
he in turn will appeal to the New York
printer that did so handsomely by his
predecessor.
This town prints every year great
many millions of money that its in
habitants never handle. There are
Colombian pesos, and Haytian francs,
the Brazilian milreis, and Peruvian soils,
and nobody knows what not besides
The bank-note printers of New York
probably do most of the currency en-
craving for the South American re-
publics. Beauty of workmanship is
characteristic of such work in the
United States, although the business
in its most artistic development scarce
~ dates back beyond the war of the
rebellion. To be sure, the old state
banks had their notes engraved with
considerable care, but that was before
the day of the geometric lathe, with its
intricate scroll work almost defying the
counterfeiter.
Most of our own governments print
ing, whether of annual reports or notes
and bonds, is done at the bureau of en-
craving and printing in Washington,
although the earlier issues of paper
money were printed by private hands
In this city,
A government goes about having its
money made much as it would go about
having guns cast or uniforms manufac-
tured. Perhaps bids are obtained for the
work or perhaps not. The resident consul
or special agent furnishes the copy"
decides upon designs, quality OF paper
and other details, has the ''proofs" read
lust as he would If the matter printed
was a play or a sermon, and in due time
paws for the money and sees it safely
shipped to it's destination. Such notes
are usually packed in tin boxes and sent
by steamer. When they leave here
they are worth no more than the paper
they are printed on and the price of
printing. A blank is usually left to be
flled in with the signatures of the
proper government officials.
The plates from which foreign money
is engraved are trustfully left behind in
the hands of the engraving companies,
for the unsigned bills would be of little
avail, and, besides, in this business it
paws to be honest. Wholesale counter
feiting of the necessary signatures
would probably soon be detected, and a
single instance of the kind traced to an
engraving house would mean ruin. The
interest of the bank-note companies is
all on the side of honesty in such mat
tiers. Nevertheless, the plates would
be dangerous implements in the hands
of skilled workmen, and all plates are
carefully slowed away in vaults to
which very few persons have access.
The immense engraving business OF
governments, railway companies and
various corporations that issue securi-
ties has resulted in educating a large
corps of skilled commercial engravers.
As the artist engraver has given way
before the etcher and before the inven-
ton of various cheap processes of photo
engraving, the commercial engraver
has come to the front. A few of the
older artist engravers have been driven
into commercial engraving, but for the
most part the work of security engrav-
ing is done by a younger race of men.
There are few apprentices in the trade,
and the wages of skilled men are excel
lent.
The stock exchange lists no bonds
that are not engraved. The cost of
that counterfeiting is hardly profitable,
and the stock exchange regards an en-
graved bond as a guarantee against
fraud. The price of a well-engraved
bond plate alone is about fifteen hum
dred dollars, even when the plate is
made and the bonds are printed in an
establishment doing a million dollars
worth of such work per year. 1t re-
Quires about three weeks to produce an
engraved plate and, when once the
plate has been approved and the order
has been given to go ahead and print
the bonds, about seven hundred bonds
per day can be delivered. Railway
companies leave their bond plates in
the hands of the engraving company,
and there must be great many pounds
of such plates stored away in vaults
down town. Various cheapening proc
esses are resorted to when the cost Of
producing the bonds bears such pro-
portion to the full value of the issue as
to make the price a question worth
considering. The bank-note companies
keep on hand great variety of vignettes
to be used as ornaments in bond print
ing, and the smaller corporations often
accept one of these vignettes instead of
having their own dies specially de-
signed. A cheaper process than or
binary engraving is also used for the
ornamental border of many bonds.
Bonds that are not to be listed on the
stock exchange are often wholly pro-
duced by photographic process. The best
of the cheaper work, however, looks to
the ordinary observer exactly like en-
craving; and the chief objection to it is
that it can be more easily counterfeited
than engraved work.
TOLD BY PHoToeRAPHEKs.
A YOUNG lady in Lewiston, Me-, en-