, 1896-07-25

III, YES, We COIlAI'lG our "Olh NUTS L
tistio and far superior. The Bank of Eng
land have no elaborate cOloured patterns like
we have. They rely on the watermark and
deckle' or rough edge as the greatest Securi-
ty; but the ease with which watermarks
can be initiated, and the great advance
of colour printing as a preventive Of pho
tographic copying, are gradually Leading to
the use of plain paper only, the security
Of the note Iying entirely III the design and
colours used.
"But [ have not yet explained anything
like the whole process" added Mr.. Heath.
'Another feature in our notes that it would
be impossible t, reproduce is the machine
engraving.'"
What is that 2"
cit is otherwise known as the white line
engraving, and is produced by the geometri-
cal lathe-an invention of Asa Spencer, a
friend of the late Mr.. PEI kins. Now, having
Our plate ready. we come to what is called
fronting the note, t.e., printing the front
part Of the note. Sometim IS the back of the
note may be designed as we'll, and that may
be printed before the front. The fronting
like the 'backiu4) is mostly done by hand,
because it is impossible to wipe the colour off
the plates by any other means. The presses
we employ (they arc known as ID Roller
presses and are another invention of the
late Mr.. Perkins are specially suited to turn
out work quickly. Copper-p plate printing,
you must know is Il very slow process. Next
we come to the
FACING AND OvERTINTING."
'What is meant by these terms %
They are very important processes as q
further protection az inst forgery. The
facing is a desig If lnother colour, super
imposed on the ground design, and the over
tinting is a third overlaying Of tints. We
thus get a combination of colours and
inks that it would be quite impossible
to initiate the design by coloured photo
grophy.
But could not this protective colouring be
removed, So that the original ground design
might be photographed 9"
No; we have had that possibility under
consideration and provided against it. Our
pigments are 50 combined that it woul be
impossible to remove any of them without
destroying The note.
'AltogetI:er it must be a very costly pro-
cess p
Yes, it is true; but the ultimate cost of
each note is reduced by our employing the
hardened steel plates, which scarcely ever
wear out. Al the present time. we are using
for some notes the identical steel plates
from which we have been printing for sew
enty years. Then, again, many of the
bdn"s for which We print Ito not object to
reissue their notes; whereas the Bank of
England, while their notes are less costly to
produce in the first instance, only issue their
notes once.
Il omitted to tell yoo," continued Mr..
Heath, "that While we are Mt work on GER
tam Colonial Government notes an officer
Of the Government locks up the plates
at night III that large safe there that you
passed on your way into the office, and gives
them out to The men each morning"
What ale the further steps and precau-
tons you take?"
There is the drying, the pressing, the
rolling, the examining, the numbering in
duplicate (to allow of the notes being cut in
half for postal transmission), the stitching
into books, and finally, after the necessary
checking, II for abroad, packing i'll tin-lined
cases for deposit in the bullion-room of the.
mail steamer. In the case Of Government
notes the parcels are scaled with the Govern
ment seal, and any rejected or 'spOilt' notes
are burned in the presence Of the officer to
whom | have alluded, i'll IA specially construct
Ell furnace. They are delivered direct into
the charge of the purser or other officer on
board the steamer by our own carmen, so
that the risk Of their being tempered with is
reduced to a minimum"
MIR. Heath then showed me a number of