The Arizona champion., 1891-01-24
PAPER MONEY.
The Various Kinds Used by
 Foreign Countries.
RYSSIgS hAHY C0lOREO CURRENCY
A Bank of England Note,-NoteS of
 the United States.

of coin and the thin bundles of banknotes spread in tempting array behind the plate glass windows of the money changers in Wall street and vicinity. Tt is surpris ing" said Nassau street broker, "how many different kinds of, paper we use for currency in the various foreign countries Each nation seems to have it's own particular kind or brand of paper. Here is Bank of England note. It is printed on Irish linen water lined paper, plain white, with rough edges. You will notice in short time how the paper lacks the smooth, oily feeling of our own bank notes. Then, again, there is an ab- sence of any coloring except black and white. The smallest notes issued by the Bank of England are of the value of e5 or $25. The old fashion of sending these notes from one country to another was to cut the note into two parts and send the pieces in separate envelopes, but that is largely done away with. All such notes finally find their way back to the Bank of England, where they are retired for good. They are never reissued, as the bank only sends out new, clean notes. 1 have heard it said that the average life of a Bank of England note was about three weeks. A Bank of Ireland note, as you will see, does not differ much from q Bank of England note. except that it has more elaborate scroll work.
 "This note with blue and black letter. ing, together with numerous symbolical pictures, is Banque de France note. It Is made of plain white paper, and could be easily initiated, 1 should think. The smallest note issued by the banque is Q 20f note, while the largest is the 1,000f., which is equivalent to about $190 in our money.
 Now, the German bills are printed in green upon paper a good deal lighter than our gold certificates. The Austrian paper currency is printed much the same. The German bills range in denomination from five marks, or SIPS, to 10000 marks, or about $240 of our money. Very few no- tice at first glance that the Austrian bills are printed in German on one side and in Hungarian on the other. This is done, as I understand, to accommodate the ten classes of Francis Joseph's subjects. The paper of an Austrian bill is very light colored, but quite thick and tough. It has none of the fine lines nor the silk fiber marks which are the characteristics of our national or United States treasury notes. The smallest Austrian note is of the value of one guilder or forin, nearly 40 cents here. Tho largest note issued is of the value of 1000 forins, or $SS5 in our money. The engraver must have been of religious turn of mind, if all the angel heads on these notes are of any in dication.
 Some European countries got up their notes regardless of colored ink Thus the Italian 1 1000 lire note Is an elaborate af- fair. The paper is plain white, but the printing is done in pink, blue and car mine. Here Is one which has a very finely engraved vignette of King Hum bert, and the scroll work will compare favorably with the best of any currency. | The smaller Italian bills are about the same size as our old fractional currency. 1 They vary in denomination from one lire, or 20 cents, to 10 lire, or about $2 in our I money.
 Here, perhaps, is the most gorgeously colored bank note of any European coun- try. It is Russian 100 ruble bill. It has almost every color of the rainbow, barred from top to bottom, as though it had been thrown through prism. The 100 ruble bill is quite large, being, think, four by ten inches in size. Here, in the center, is portrait of Catherine l. The paper is not of an especially fine quality, while the lettering is done with dark and light brown ink. Tho 9 and 10 ruble notes are much smaller and almost free from any elaborate display of colors. The note mostly used is the ruble, or about $22 in our money"
 After looking at various other speci mems of foreign paper money, we inquired whether outside of the business ex- changes, there was much used.
 "Yes; there is quite q call for foreign bills, especially at this season of the year, when so many thousands are going to and coming from Europe. Curiously enough, some people will not take paper money. The French and Germans almost always ask for coin, and say that they do not want the paper bills. The Austrians and Hungarians are just the opposite. They generally prefer the paper money of their own country to coin. The Americans usually want coin. As one traveller said l to me not long ago, Gold is good for its face value all over the world, and can get it exchanged if l want bills The Italians who go back to sunny Italy, found, are not very particular.
 Taking engraving and paper into con- sideration, what country do you think turns out the best notesY"
 Well, with due regard for our English cousins, think that the United States notes beat the world Take the item of paper alone. Of course. during the rebel lion the government was obliged to issue within a very short time enormous amounts of paper money in place of gold and silver, which seemed to have been suddenly swallowed up. The government ! then used only plain, commercial bank note paper, which gave the counterfeiters good chance to flood the country with notes like the old greenback issue. But, about twenty years ago, the treasury de- pertinent adopted special paper, the dis tinctive feature of which was . narrow 1 localized line of short blue fiber running the entire length of the sheet of paper i in such a manner as not to lessen it's strength or interfere with the printing. Did you ever examine the paper of | United States note under glassf
 i No; well, if you would you would see l that these fbers have the appearance of coarse black hairs, of all lengths and shapes, scattered promiscuously all over | the surface of the note. This kind Of paper is known as the Wilcox patent. A few years ago the government adopted another feature of the fiber paper with
 two silk threads running lengthwise
 throughout the glazed surface. There
 Is now law against a person using or
 adopting this kind of paper for any obli-
 gation or security, except under the au-
 thority of the secretary of the treasury.
 "Let me tell you," concluded my patri-
 otic informant, that we make more
 money and better money than any other
 people in the world. New. York Co, Globe Democrat.