Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-04-03
HIGH ART IN BANK NOTES
Designers Chief Concern Is to Ba1k
the Ingenious Counterfeiter.

Designers Chief Concern Is to Ba1k
the Ingenious Counterfeiter.
First in consideration in making a
bank note is to prevent others from
making counterfeit of it. Therefore
all the notes of certain denomination
or value must be exact duplicates of
one another. If they were engraved by
hand this would not be the case Hand
engraving Is more easily counterfeit
ed than the work done by the process
actually used.
Every note" said an official Of one
Of the leading bank note companies,
lis printed from a steel plate, in the
preparation of which many persons
take part. If you will look at a So
greenback you will see a picture in the
center, small portrait, called the Wig
nette, on the left and in each of the
upper corners a network of fine lines
with dark ground, one containing the
letter V and the other the figure 8.
ITO make vignette it is first neces-
cary to make large drawing on pa
per with great care, and a daguerreo-
type Is then given to the engrav yer,
who uses steel point to make on it
all the outlines of the picture. The
plate Is linked and a print is taken
from it.
while the ink is still damp the print
Is laid face down on a steel plate,
which has been softened by heating it
red hot and letting it cool slowly. It
Is then put in press and an exact
copy of the outline is thus made on
the steel plate. This the engraver fin.
lshes with his graver, little tool with
three-cornered point, which cuts q
clean line without leaving rough
edge.
"Now, this plate is used for max
ing other plates-it is never used to
print from. It must be made very
hard, and this is done by heating 1t
and cooling it quickly. A little roller
Of softened steel is then rolled over it
by a powerful machine until it's sur
face has been forced into all the lines
cut into the plate. The outlines of the
vtgnette are thus transferred to the
roller in raised lines, and after the
over plates of softened steel and thus
make in them sunken lines exactly like
those in the plate originally engraved.
"The center picture is engraved and
transferred to a roller, like the Wig
nette, but the network in the upper
corners and also on the back of the
note is made by the lathe This ma
chine costs $1,000 price that puts
1t beyond the reach of counterfeiters
Its work is so perfect that it cannot
be initiated by hand. The lathe en-
graves the network On softened steel
and the figure in the middle of it is
then engraved by hand. 1t is now
like the others.
''The plates from which the notes
are to be printed are of softened steel
and large enough to print four notes at
once. -Four engravings Of the note
must, therefore, be made on it, and
this is done by rolling the hardened
steel rollers containing the raised pic
tures over it in their appropriate
places until the pictures are pressed
into it's surface.
1.-The fine lettering around the bor-
ders of the note is transferred in the
same way, but the other lettering is
put on by hand. This process saves
a great deal Of time and it secures alb
solute uniformity in the four engrav-
tngs on the plate.
'.The back parts of the note are
printed first and when the ink is dry
the green back is printed, tc be fol-
lowed by the red stamps and numbers.
1t is then signed and issued. For
greater security one part of the note
is engraved and printed at one place
and another part at another place,
when it Is sent to Washington to be
finished and signed.
"But, needless to say, after all this
care and all these safeguards many
skillfully executed counterfeits have
been made and issued, some of them
SO good as to deceive expert judges Of
money."-New York Herald.