San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-02-12
HARD TO COUNTERFEIT.
Bank of England Notes, With Their
Texture and Engraving.

Bank of England Notes, With Thei
Texture and Engraving
: New York SUI.
Sir Gerald Herbert Portal, whose
death has just been announced
came OF a Huguenot family that
settled in Hampshire rather more
than two centuries ago. The family
has had, for several generations
the monopoly of manufacturing
the paper used for producing the
notes of the Bank of England, and
member of the family was the in
VentOr Of the water mark. The
mills of the Portals have long
been situated at Laverstoke, in
Hampshire, and there the famous
Bank of England paper is made.
The Portals, under the spur of
the bank, have already improved
the quality of the paper made Of
the bank notes. tits handmade
paper, the product of workmen
long trained to the business, and
many of them inheritors of the
trade from their fathers. The paper
Is made from pure and clean linen,
and so made that each note shall
have three rough or uncut edges.
The Bank of England has long
persisted in relying for its sole de-
Tense against cOunterfeiting upon
the character Of the paper and the
quality of the engraving. In color
texture and weight the bank note
paper differs from any other
made, and the fact that
the handmade paper makers Of
Great Britain all belong to the
closet and perhaps the strongest of
trades unions makes it exceeding
ly difficult to find workmen among
the criminal classes to produce
paper approaching the quality of
that used in these notes.
More that forty years ago, when
the French government was turn
ing over many curious devices for
securing a bank note paper that
should defy the cOunterfeiters, the
Bank of England notes were simply
models of the engraver's art, as it
was then practiced, executed upon
the finest paper. The Portal
of that day exhibited before a
scientific assembly in London an
unsiZed bank note that sustained
a weight of SO pounds. He said
that when single grain Of sizing
had been distributed through the
paper it would sustain weight Of
at least 80 pounds. A publication
of the day declared that the paper
fully sized would sustain weight
of Sc pounds. Before the paper
and the engraving had reached the
degree Of excellence to which they
had then attained, cOunterfeiting
was frequent, in spite of it being a
capital offense.
The Portals are the only persons
that have ever made bank. note
paper for the Bank of England, and
the bank is constantly represented
at the mills by sworn officials,
whose duty it is to superintend the
processes of manufacture and 10
see that none of the paper shall get
into the hands of strangers. On Au-
gust IL, 1862, quantity of the
paper was stolen from the mills,
but the thieves were arrested and
convicted. The arrest and cOnVic-
ton, however, did not occur until
the thieves had caused to be issued
number Of forged notes, printed
upon this pape
George BOnchrr, William Bur-
nett, Richard Brewer and James
Griffiths were convicted of the
fOrgeries in January, 1868. The
famous Bidwell forgeries Of 1873
were not OF bank notes, but of
| notes of discount.
1t is now declared that any eX-
pert can almost instantly detect
forgery of a Bank Of England note
by the feel of the paper. Should
that test fail the water mark is
another of great value, and the en-
craving OF the figure Of Britannia
Is such as almost to defy successful
| cOunterfeiting.