Arizona republican., 1893-09-20
BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES.
Where and How These Valuable
Bits OF Paper Are Printed.
elaborate Pains Taken In Their ManufRc,
tuEe 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 busy mill,
from which is produced that paper
whose erispness lis music to the human
ear all the world over. Since 1719 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 a 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 race--the bank TO turn out a
note which defies the power of the
forger to initiate it, and these nimble-
fingered and keen-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 remarkable 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 ad-
miration on the papers remarkable
Wilderness. Its thinness and trans
pareney are guides against two once
popular modes of forgery, the wash
ing out of the printing by means Of
turpentine and erasure with the knife
The wire mark, or water mark, Is
another precaution against counter
| feiting, and is produced in the paper
while it is in state of pulp. In the
old manufacture of bank notes this
water mark was caused by an immense
number of wires lover two thousand)
stitched and sewn together; now it is
engraved in steel faced die-which
Is afterward hardened and. then is used
as punch to stamp the pattern out OF
| plates of sheet brass. The shading of
the letters of this water mark enor-
mously increases the difficulty of imi-
tation. The paper is made entirely
from pieces of new linen and cotton,
and the toughness of it can be roughly
| guessed from the fact that a single
bank note will, when unsized, support
a weight of thirty-six pounds, while
when sized you may lift fifty-six
pounds with it.
Few people would imagine that a
Bank of England note was not of the
same thickness all through. 1t is not,
though. The paper is thicker in the
left-hand corner, to enable it to take
better and sharper impression of the
vignette there, and it is also consider
| ably thicker in the dark shadows of
the center letters and under the fig
( ures at the ends. Counterfeit notes
are invariably of only one thickness
| throughout.
The printing is done from electro
types, the figure Of Britannia being
the design of Of Maclise, the late royal
academician.
Even the printing ink is of special
make, and is manufactured at the
bank. Comparing genuine with o
forged note, one observes that the
print on the latter is generally blush
or brown. On the real note it is vel
vety black. The chief ingredients
used In making the ink are linseed oil
and the charred husks and some other
portions Of Rhenish grapes.
The notes are printed at the rate of
three thousand an hour at Napier's
steam press, and the bank issues nine
million of them year, representing
three hundred million pounds in hard
cash.