Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-06
DEF1ES DEFT FoRGER
BANK OF ENGLAND NOTE CAN
NEVER BE INITIATED.
Printing Of This Money II q Secret
Guarded with Jealous Care-In-
imltable Delicate Tracery.



The Bank of England note is tho most
easily forged OF all. for 1t IL the simplest.
consisting. as 1t does. OF black printing on q
white paper. The great safeguard lies In
the quality OF the paper, the quality of the
printing and the watermark on the paper
To make the actual paper is beyond tho
skill Of the cleverest forger. II ia made Mt
a small town near London. but so well has
the secret been guarded that the most skill
full note printers in the trade do not under
stand that. though they know most Of the
other secrets.
Note printing is one of the highly skilled
trades which still is virtual monopoly OF
the city of London. 1t has always been so.
and the great banks OF the world come to
the engravers and printers OF London to
have their notes or their plates made. They
turn out the most beautiful printing In Eu.
rope. Some of II Is OF the most complt-
Gated description, and in this fact lies its
great safety.
hands and many brains. When the main
design has been decided upon the parts OF
the picture have to be given over 10 several
engravers. each OF whom is skilled In one
branch of his art, and could not exchange
his part with any of the others.
Subdivisions Of the Work.
One is an architectural engraver. and with
u Hetuit idDors ltT Ntths III tHc ga
fort to convey to the metal a perfect pic
ture of building. Another with skill Of
quite different sort, makes portraits
third draws scenery, while a fourth FASH
ions the letters. Still others contrive corner
pieces, and then there is the machine en-
craving, which is more wonderful still. for
the machine does work so fine that no hu-
man hand can initiate IT,
The complicated work of tracery which
you see on the back and front of Scotch
and foreign notes is minute that the
camera cannot effectively copy II. To re-
produce with photography on zinc II Is
necessary to employ acid. and the acid
would eat away these fine lines. The work
Is done by a machine which is made on
the principle OF the photograph. 1t seems
to consist of a multitude of wheels and &C.
centres and apparatus for guiding ana
checking the needle and sending II in new
directions at all sorts of unexpected angles
and curves.
Operator Not in Secret.
After the design has been worked out on
the machine In accordance with the secret
code, which is kept by the proprietor locked
in the safe the machine does the work it,
self If the operator will go on turning the
driving crank slowly and steadily. The
plan is taken out with numbers which rep
resent the wheels and the code OF figures,
showing the work which is to be done by
each wheel and how IT comes into play.
But the operator cannot know that secret.
The machine simply goes on In its own way
and the least slackenng of any of the parts
will put 1t all out. workman cannot REL
pair the error, for he does not know the
code, and the whole work will be spoiled
until the master comes along and resets
the wheels and other parts in their proper
order.
Only a small part OF the design is worked
out by this delicate mach!ne-Just enough to
give a complete representation OF the pats
tern. Then that portion Ia slammed
soft Steel which is hardened by another
secret process and made into q sort OF q
die. which is used to impress other plates
Of steel till the full border is thus COM
pleted or a band made to go across the
whole face or back of the note.
Colors Defy the Camera.
In the best Of the colored notes three or
four tints are used. and generally you find
that one OF them is blue. 1t defies the CAM
era. The different colors put with
different plates. and each means q sepa-
rate printing The result is that II you hold
one of the notes up to the light you will
find that the lines of the different coloro
run into and through one another making
1t impossible to take a perfect copy even
II the camera could catch them all. which
1t cannot.
No forger can get the tracery done by
hand, because no engraver could do IT. and
he can not get the machine. II he had the
machine IL Woulu TAKE years 10 WOTh OUT
the secret combination OF figures which
make any particular design. There are
only three four OF these machines IN tho
world. Then for his design. in the shape
of portraits and architecture and scenery
and lettering he would want combna>
ton of four or more engrave-s Of high abil-
fly and bad character. which would be az
hard to come by as the machine 1t can{,
not be done.
But the English note is protected by mono
of these things. Its lettering and general
design can be copied quite as easily by the
camera and a good plate reproduced on
zinc for printing. 1t can be photographed
on stone and the printing is ready at once
if the fnrPer can get naner of the right