Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-08-04
FIGHTING THE coUNTERFEITER.

Fighting THE coUNTERFEITER
China and England Depend on the
Death Penalty to Deter oFrgers.
To say that Americans make the
best bank notes in the world may
sound at first rather boastful, and yet
any history Of the art and industry of
note engraving which failed to record
that fact would be incomplete. Paul
Revere was the first American bank
note artist. and from the time Of the
chartering of the Bank Of North
America under the direction Of Rob-
ert Morris, in 1881, up to the present,
American engravers have excelled not
only in the artistic quality Of their
designs, but in their provisions against
counterfeiting.
Marco Polo found bank notes In
China ages ago. printed on paper
made from the bark Of the mulberry
tree. One Of the notes, upon which
the great Venetian traveller himself
may have gazed, is on exhibition at
this day in the office Of an American
company. 1t Is one Of a series issued
by the Ming dynasty about 1899 A. d.
-"current anywhere under heaven"
and seems to have been printed
from wooden blocks on sheet of pa
per by 13 inches-a bigger surface
| q
hands outstretched. 1t is good for
"one string of cash" The provision
against forgery is simple to the point
| of severity-"Counterfe hereof
will be executed. Persons giving in
formation of counterfeiters will be re-
Warded with taels $50, and, in addi-
| ton, will receive the property belong
Ing to the criminal" The head Of the
emperor who gave the order and the
| Topped heads of the counterfeiters
have long since mouldered into impal-
pable dust, the property Of the crimi-
nal vanished, and left not so much as
shade, but the faded old bank note,
pressed between sheets of glass and
framed in carved teak, still croaks its
harsh warning to him who can under
stand it.
Another great government has plac-
ed much dependence upon death as a
| deterrent to imitators Of its promises
to pay. When Jacob Perkins, Of New
buryport, Mass, invented the method
of transferring designs from hardened
steel plates to steel cylinders and re-
| transferring to fiat plates, thus en-
abling the engraved to devote the time
necessary to accomplish his best work
in the original and reproduce 1t at
will, the new process aroused interna-
tional interest Mr. Perkins and his
associates went to London in 1919, at
the instance of the British minister at
Washington, to help the Bank of Eng
| land issue notes not easily counter
feited. But the conservative old bank
refused to adopt the new method, pre-
ferring, as one of the Americans said,
| to rely upon the hangman rather than
| the engraver. Nevertheless, the En-
glish began In time to follow American
| methods, after the geOmetric lathe had
| been invented by Asa Spencer, Of New
London, Conn, and improved by Cy-
rus Durand.
The governments of continental Eu-
rope depend exclusively upon color
work to protect their paper currency,
and several Of the large banks Of issue
have civil engineers In charge of their
bureau of engraving and printing
| though what connection there may be
between engineering and engraving is
| a mystery. Many Italian bank notes
are easy to counterfeit The Bank Of
Spain has of late abandoned it's own
plant, because its notes were initiated
50 successfully that counterfeits were
| accepted by the bank without ques-
| ton. A private concern now does the
| work. The Bank of Greece now uses
the American methCd; having had sad
| experiences with notes of Austrian,
German and English fashioning.
A myth that probably will never die
| tells us that the notes of the Bank Of
| England cannot be counterfeited. AS
a matter of fact, they can be initiated
readily enough, for little attempt Is
made to protect the notes beyond the
use of water-mark paper. The wa
ter-mark can be easily copied. A sem
sitized gelatine film, soaked in cold
water. after contact with an original
water-mark will show every detail in
clear relief. A thin film of copper de-
posted upon this forms the basis upon
which matrix in celluloid is made. If
a sheet of paper is pasted upon this
matriX and rubbed with glass-paper
the exact water-mark Is reproduced.
| Nevertheless the shadow of the hang
man still seems to deter English coun-
| terfeiters.
One practical safeguard of great ef-
| fectiveneSS Is the custom Of the Bank
of England to cancel every note that is
returned to the bank and issue anoth-
er in its place. This and the practice
of keeping record Of the numbers of
all banknotes used in every business
establishment. keep alive a keen sense
of responsibility, which adds to secur-
| ity. The custom of circulating soied
banknoteS, of course, gives the coun-
tSrfeiter his best opportunity Forgery
is much more readily detected in a
crisp, stiff, new bill than in a rumpled
and dirty one. The United States gov
ernment recently has begun to wash
old notes, press them and restore
them to circulation. Probably the
process of evolution will lead us in
time 10 depend upon the printing
press rather than the laundry
The American style of banknote has
become the standard in the countries
Of Central and South America. The
experience Of the Brazilian govern
ment led The way in this. after vari-
Gus diSappointments. First the much
vaunted Aus trian system was tried. the
notes being engraved and printed In
England under that system They
proved q complete failure. Counter
| feiterS flouriShed. The BraZilans
| trled DanKnOteS made In france, and
these were promptly and extensively
initiated Il soon as the counterfeiters
could get tneir plates and paper ready.
PraZil tried German and English eS-
Establishments, but still without secur-
ing protection to the banknOte circu-
lation. and at last turned to the Unit
ed States and found a type of bills
practically impossible to counterfeit
SO it is no boast but mere record Of
fact to state that Americans make the
best banknOteS i'm the wOrld.-DetrOit
| News.
George Was a Cheerful-An ingen-
ious young man once took his fiancee