The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1905-07-13
BANKS AND FORGERY
CONSTANT VIGILANCE ON THE PART
OF PAYING TELLERS.

the SyvindIer Usually Gets Rid o4
His RascaIiy Products.
Probably there is, nothing which the
average banker breads more than the
rorgery by skilled operators of the
les OF depo5itOrs and the cOnSe-
loss to the banks by payment Of
on forged instruments. The
ba. can guard against loss in loans
by re ,'ag adequate collateral secur-
itT, tie lg Of statements as to the
financial 1anding OF borrowers ana
additional .acurity in the shape of one
or more Endorsements of reliable par
ties OF strong financial resources. He
can exercise extra vigilance in the
opening Of new accounts with his inSti
tuition by having new depositors
vouched for by men OF unquestioned
integrity and financial worth, but no
care or foresight on his part can pre-
vent skilled fOrgerS from attempting at
least to defraud his institution by for
geries What q torpedo boat is to the
fleet Of WarshipS the f0rger is to the
banks and bankers. The public at
large seem to think that a forgery is
generally a very close imitation of the
genuine signature While this may be
true, and, in fact, this is the kind of
forgery that the bankers dread, in
great many cases the forgery may be
utterly unlike the writing of the per-
son whose name is forged.
This kind of forgery is practiced very
frequently, but is dangerous only to
the small tradeSman who cashes
checks for strangers upon some plausi-
BILE preteXt. Frequently in such cases
the fOrger selects the name Of prOmi-
nent man in the community and signs
his name to a check on any bank and
cashes it by making some small pur-
chase, paying for it with the forged
check and taking the balance Of the
check in cash. But this is very crude
work, and the career of the amateur
forger is very short.
To guard against the payment Of
forged checks the banks have adopted
all of the precautions and eXpedients
known Necessarily their chief reli-
ance is on the skill and care of the
tellers, whose duty it is to pass upon
the checks and 'scrUtiniZe them before
payment. Generally this duty de
wolves upon the paying teller or on
one or more of his assistants To a
natural aptitude for the memOrizing
of a handwriting must be added a
vigilance which never flags and q
painstaking care which never wearies.
It will probably be a surprise to peo-
pie outside Of the banking business to
learn that but small percentage of
the forged checks are presented at the
paying teller's window. The large pro-
portion of forged checks are cashed at
stores hotels, railroad Offices or at
banks other than the bank on which
the forged check is drawn. The reason
for this is that to present the forged
check at the bank on which it is drawn
would be to run too great a risk of i'm
mediate detection and arrest An
Identification is necessary to get a
large sum Of money from bank, and
the risk is too great to undertake for
small sum.
Ali careful bankers refuse to pay
cash in large amounts to strangers,
even though the check may be made
payable to bearer. So that in order to
minimize the danger Of apprehension
the willy fOrger cashes his checks any
where else than at the drawee bank.
Hence the bulk of forged checks come
to the bank on which they are drawn
through the clearing house. AS has
been stated before, the teller who pass
es upon these checks possesses q natu-
raj talent for carrying in his memory
the impression OF hundreds of sigma
lures. To this natural aptitude is
added an education of years in the ex-
animation and comparison Of sigma
lures. His ability to distinguish a
forgery becomes greater from constant
practice so that in course of time he
becomes very expert. To him the sig
natures become pictures which are fix
ed in his memory. SO that while it
would seem to an onlooker that the
teller was running over the checks too
rapidly to insure safety and that it
would be impossible for him to pick
out a forgery while working at the
speed with which he is compelled to
work, nevertheless it is remarkable
how unerringly he will throw out a
check which is not genuine or which
exhibits any change from a normal
condition.
This same characteristic Is shown by
expert counters Of money. The opera
tors fingers fly through a bundle Of
bills of various denominations, bills in
different stages of newness, but stop
instantly when a counterfeit is reached,
even though the counterfeit be one
which has for the first time made it's
appearance and has not as yet been
described or seen by the secret service
men. He has no knowledge that such
counterfeit is in existence, but he does
know the genuine bills, and any that
vary from the genuine must be cOun-
terfeit. In the same manner the teller
passes upon signatures. He knows the