The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-31

/ The old system of sending daily letters
1 of advice was cum bersOme and unsatis-
/ factory. Under the new system I'D
! vice 2l64N at the lower corner of the
/. draft tells the whole story. 10 shows the
| face value of the draft within 800 aud
/ indicates almost to a day the date of is
/ suanCe. For instance, the bank at Kan
/ kakee sends 10 its Chicago correspondent
/ q table, showing that the next 100 drafts
/ ranging in amount between 500 and 500
viii be mum bered cOnsecutively thus: IA,
/ s 80, 43 p, etc, the order being entirely
( arbitrary and the numbers subject to in
/ finite variation. If forger gets a draft
/ for Sl02 and wishes to change it to $l.020,
/ he cannot set away from that little
mark III the corner. If he grasses 1t the
/ draft is worthless and II he wishes TO
change it to make il worth between 81. 900
and 81 100, what number shall he use?
lie may have copy Of the key showing
what figures indicate between 81 900 and
81, 100, but he must know just how many
drafts have been issued in that class
| Suppose that the fifth key number is
,. ll6 If he puts in those figures and
draft number RIG in that class has been
paid he is practically self-confessed for
ger the moment he presents the draft for
payment. When he has no access to the
key he is simply in utter darkness When
getting the right number is
one in a hundred. AS there are but
two keys in existence, each locked up in a
bank, the forger's outlook is not particu-
larly hopeful. He may dispose of the
draft to some third bank, but not if that
bank is acquainted with the key system.
At any rate, the bank in which the draft
was drawn is safe. The country bank
with one or two correspondents, it is
claimed, has found the key system pro
lection and convenience. This system
was devised by Henry l.. Kent, an en-
ploye of the First National Bank, and is
being elaborated and introduced by Will
lam c. Shaw, an expert in the matter of
detecting forgeries.
One thing claimed for the key system
is that il can be used conveniently by any
individual or firm drawing a large mum
Der Of checks. The depositor and the
bank have each a small book with the
tabled keys. No check can be forged
outright, as it must have the identifying
number, and any check raised from the
original amount very naturally Detrays
itself
A close student of the methods to de
feat forgery is connected with a large
printing house IN Chicago. During the
past year he has worked out a number of
promising preyentives. one of these is
sure to deceive the check-raiser who
operates on tinted paper with acids This
new safety check appears to be printed
with wavy lines, but, as matter of fact,
this gray tint is a half-tone made by dots
and the entire check is printed at one
impression. But there are two kinds of
ink used The roller which passes over
the middle of the plate from top
to bottom has the best carbon ink on
I il, while in the ends the ink is of a
kind highly susceptible to the influence
of acids. When the forger puts such a
check or draft into an acid bath all the
printed matter suddenly disappears from
each end of the paper, while in the mid
die the letters retain their intense
blackness. although at the edges of the
carbon-ink strip the words fade away into
dull gray, the two kinds of ink being
somewhat mixed. Such a check is value
less, as no printing or lettering can even
make it presentable. In this case the in
dustious check-raiser would lose not only
the contemplated gain, but also the origi-
nal cost of the check
! The expert suggests that many forge
| ries by alienation or by pretiXiug and
adding words. and letters could be pre-
vented if the one drawing the paper be-
| gan writing the amount at the extreme
/ left of the paper and followed it with the
! word dollars at once, instead the
! scratchy line over to the word dollar at
/ the right Of the paper.
! DO YOU notice." said he, THAT the
amount in figures is now put over here al
| the right Up to ABOUT six years ago it
! had no regular place on a check Some
/ times it was placed at the top, on a level
with the number. One day a man came
/ into a Chicago bank with a check for
$ll5. The number was, | believe, 1920.
/ The paying teller looked at it and counted
/ out -, 220 to the man, who took it and
/ went away. l think it was the same
( bank that had the change made"