The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-20
new BANK NOTES
Bills Will Be Smaller and Wear
Longer.
George WashingtOn's Face Will
Be on s. Bills.
70 FIGURES ON BACK
Much Useless Scroll and En-
craving Is Abolished.
Government Takes Precautions
Against COunterfeiting.

Washington. Feb. 20.-A great
transformation, more radical than
anything in the past, will be accom-
plished in the paper currency of the
United States when the new issue in
all denominations, recently decided
upon. is put into circulation The
notes will be smaller, much smaller.
They will be backed in every de-
nomination with a design regarded as
the master work of Kenyon Cox, the
famous sculptor, and as the last word
in artistic development of paper cur
rency.
America enthroned between Peace
and Prosperity-three draped feml-
nine figures, Labor bringing his prod
ucts to Prosperity as a gift to America,
and Peace diSpatching Mercury on a
mission of commerce to distribute the
commodities of America to the world
two additional partially draped mascu-
line figures. the whole without back
ground of any SOrt-thiS is the group
that Kenyon Cox has drawn. The de-
sign has been accepted by the United
States. There is not sign of dol
lar mark or any value figure or letter
ing except the II. s A that appears
under the central figure
The fine arts commission has ac-
cepted the design, and the bureau OF
engraving and printing is now rushing
the. work of engraving the plates
More than a thousand will be needed.
While the new back" is to appear
on notes of all denominations, only the
design for the face of the one dollar
bill has been accepted. A photograph
will not be made public of this note
until the middle of April.
Washington on the Dollar Bill.
The face" of the new one dollar
note bears the portrait of George
Washington in miniature, enclosed in
a medallion, with no other engraving
surrounding it except the border of
the note. a simple design in scroll
work, with the value in each of the
four corners. Other past presidents
portraits are to adorn the notes of
other denominations.
The new notes will be six inches
long by two and one-half inches in
width. This is about two-thirds the
dimensions of the money now in cir
cUlation.
The new money will look as paper
money ought to look" according to the
designer. tested by modern standards
of artistic taste and practical con-
venience for handling. 1t is generally
acknowledged that our American cur
rency is clumsy and Anticipated in
style, as compared with that of Euro
pean- countries--France and England,
especially.
Foreign bank notes. as a rule, are
economical in size, fine in texture and
simple. though with elegance and dig
nity in the pictorial design printed
upon them. These are qualities which
fittingly characterize a great nations
currency-not maze of complicated
lathe work or a tangle of meaningless
scrolls. or large surfaces of heavily
shaded engraving, such as is ordirar-
lily put in portrait plate of line
reproduction for black and white
printing of the effects of an oil paint
ing"
Pleased That Back Is Clean.
Designer Cox is especially pleased
that all the official features of the
bank note. all numbering, lettering
and signatures will be on the face
of the bill, leaving the back a clean
slate for the categorical design. All
precautions against counterfeiting. he
considers. are safely entrusted to the
bureau of engraving and printing.
The figures were studied from mod
els. America was drawn from a pro-
fessional model who has figured in
other works by the artist. The model
for Mercury was his own 5 year old
son, a tall, slim, good looking youth.
Mr.. Cox does not regard his design
as revolutionary or iconoclastic. A
cubist conception or a post-im preston
list figure would have justified such
criticism, but he considers his work
as most conservative even in the nov
city that it extends to the new money
of the United States.
Treasury officials expect that with
in two years time practically all of the
bank notes in circulation will be re-
deemed and displaced by the new ones.
The new currency is a thing of