The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-02
BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES,
Where and How These Valuable
Bits Of Paper Are Printed
Elaborate Pains Taken In Their Manufac-
ture in Order to Render Counter
feiting Difficult - Peculiar
tiles of the Notes.

In picturesque Hampshire nook in
the valley of the River Test, says the
London Answers. stands a busy mill,
/ from which is produced that paper
! whose crispness is music to the human
ear all the world over. Since I7l9 this
Leverstoke mill has been busy in the
| manufacture of the Bank of England
note paper, and at the present time
about fifty thousand of the coveted
| crisp pieces of paper are made there
daily.
To Il careless observer there does not
appear to be much difference between
Bank of England note of the present
day and one of those which were first
issued toward the end of the seven
teenth century, but when looked into
it will be found that the present note
is, as regards the engraved writing, q
much more remarkable production.
The fact is, the Bank of England and
forgers of false notes have been run
ming a race-the bank to turn ont a
note which defies the power of the
forger to initiate it, and these nimble-
fingered and kaen-witted gentry to
keep even with the bank
The notes now in use are most elab-
orately manufactured bits of paper.
The paper itself is remarka BILE in many
ways; none other has that peculiar
feel of crispness and toughness, while
the eye, when it has satisfied itself
with the amount, may dwell with adj
Iairation on the papers remarkable
wilderness. Its thinness and trans
parency are guides against two once
popular modes of forgery, the wash
ing out of the printing by means OF
turpentinc and erasure with the knife
The wire mark, or water mark. ia
another precaution against counter
feiting, and is produced in the paper
while it is in a state of pulp. Ia the
old manufacture OF bank notes this
water mark was caused by an immense
NUN Der of wires tower two thousand)
stitched and sewn together; low il Is
engraved in steel faced die-which
is afterward hardened and then il uses
as punch 10 stamp the pattern out of
plates of sheet brass. The shading OF
the letters of this water mark enor-
mously increases the difficulty of irni-
tation- The paper IS made entirely
from pieces Of new linen ard cotton,
and the toughncss OF II can be roughly
guessed from the fact that single
bank note VIII, when unsized. support
weight Of thirty-siz pounds. while
when sized You may lift ftty-s.x
pounds with it.
Few people would imagine tina. a
Bank of England note was not Of Tia.
same thickness all through |. il not,
though The paper ia thicker IN the
left-haDd corner, 20 enable II 20 take a
better and sharper impression of the /
vignette there, and It IS also consider (
ably thicker in the dark shadows O. /.
the center letters ard under the fig F
ures az the ends Counterfeit notes .
are invariably Of only che thickness 4
throus hou.
The printing is done from electro +
t7pes. the figure of Britannia being +
the design Of Of Eaclise. the late royal /
acadenician-
Even the printing ink Is Of special 4
make, and Is MANUFACTURED, al the
bank Comparing a genuine with
forged note. o2c observes that The
pria; O. the latter Is generally bIuisa
or brown OF tie real note Il Is q VEL
vety black Tie chlef ingredients
used IN making Tie ink are Inseed oil
and the charred has<s and some o:s.er
portions Of EAenish grapes
The notes are printed a. the rate II
three tho2e&ud al honr q. Sapser's
million cf them q rear. representing
three hundred million pounds IL hard
cash