The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-20
GUARDING OUR MONEY.
A New Process for Counterfeiting Has
Been Thwarted.
From the New York Press.

Been Thwarted.
From the New York Press.
| The chief Of the bureau of engraving
and printing at Washington has Just
heard from one of the bank note COM
panies in this city of a new way to coun-
| terfeit money. The information came
from the president of the company which
| IS now printing the government stamps.
! What the process is he would not tell you
or me, because his object is to prevent
Gounterfeltlng and not TO make it possible.
| ears ago the bank note companies printed
currency for the government, and for a
long time after the establishment of the
bureau OF engraving and printing at Wash
lngton they continued to print one face of
the government notes, while the bureau
printed the other. Now the only govern
ment work which they do print is the
printing of postage stamps, and even that
contract is TO be taken away.
But these companies print both cur
| rency and stamps for other countries
notably for those Of South and Central
America And TO protect the work from
possible counterfeiters they experiment
constantly in the hope of anticipating the
| next move of Counterfeiters. A bank
note man showed me n few days ago a
steel plate, on which was engraved some
| nne lnterlacing lines. They looked like
| work of the famous geometric lathe, made
familiar in the borders of vignettes on
national bank notes and national currency.
IL was, in fact. "a reproduction OF some of
the lathe work
THWARTING COUNTERFEITERs.
This process, = said he to the Press re-
! porter lis not known to the government
yet. It was discovered by one of our
! scientists. We have also a photographer
and complete Photographic outfit. We
want to learn what weaknesses, if any.
there are in our work. A great deal of
! counterfeiting has been done by process
| work-by photo-engraying. This work
here was done without the Intervention
of the camera. 1t is so clever that can
take this engraving" taking very in
tricate print from his desk-"and repro
duce 1t so that you will not know it from
the original. 1t is very dangerous
! process, and we must discover some way
to guard against it. | have an idea now
of something that may answer the pur-
pose. We are experimenting all of the
! time"
Two sheets of paper covered with what
looked like irregular smudges of yellow
tint, lay at the elbow of the banknote
man.
Here is a specimen of precautiou we
| take which is not taken by the govern
ment," he said. This tint is in regu-
lar pattern" He held strong reading
glass in front of the paper. 1t brought
out a regular pattern in hOucycomO de-
| sign. "Wc use that in printing currency
for other other countries. But even the
fine pattern of this underlying tint can be
reproduced by the new process"
In the big building of one of the bank
note companies of this city are nine safes
in which are $4,000 engraved plates. They
| represent bonds, stock certificates, cur
rency, stamps and every class of security.
If one of them was missing il might make
great trouble for a big government down
south. The value of these plates could
hardly be estimated with any accuracy.
Even the cost OF them is not matter of
exact record.
1t costs 500 for the engraving of the
vignette and $3.50 for the border of a
postage stamp, and if all of these plates
represented direct hand work their value
would be many millions. But the trans
fer process has made the duplication of
engraved work cheap and simple When
a stamp die is prepared only one of the
stamp faces is engraved. The engraved
steel is hardened and cylinder of soft
steel is rolled backward and forward
over it until the design reversed is trans
ferred to the cylinder. The cylinder is
then hardened, and by rolling it over soft
steel any number of duplicates of
the original engraving can be obtained.
| There are at least POO plates of the the
2-cent Columbian stamp in the vaults of
one bank note company They will be
turned over to the postoffice department,
now that the last of the Columbian
General Bissell will have them broken
up and melted.
SECRETS KEPT BY EMPLOYEES.
ga1xv vi ora alIowad 70 r,o
through the work rooms of bank note
| company. The trustees are afraid that
some of their competitors will learn their
methods of work l asked my informant
how he kept the secret of his work.
''Our people stay with u.s." he said.
Owe have one man in our employ who
has been with US more than sixty years
| have been here nearly half a century.
| Before the end of this year l can claim
! 500 which our company gives to any one
| who remains in its employ for fifty years.
! Several men have received it. One of our
engravers resigned last year at my sug-
| gestion at the age of so years. Capt
| Low, of Boston. has been with us more
than forty years. One of our engravers
| died recently at the age of S5."
| A man who resigns from the employ
ment of one of the bank note companies
without going to work for another of
! II
| skilled engraver is under the eye of the
| secret service of the treasury department
continually. Some of the best confer
! feiters have been captured at their work
not because they were under suspicion of
being engaged in any particular infrac-
! ton of the law, but because of recognizing
| their possibilities for evil, the secret SER
vice people think it Just as well to keep
| an eye on them. In this way the famous
counterfeiter Brockway was captured
when engaged in his most important
| piece of iniquity.
There is not first class engraver in
the country on whom the secret service
people cannot lay their hands at any
minute. In this work of watching the
movements of skilled engravers, the
bank note company and the bureau of
engraving and printing work hand in
hand Whenever one of them discovers
new counterfeiter's trick the other soon
hears of it very quickly.
DANGER IN A CATS BITE.