IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DESIGN AND USE THEREOF OF MONETARY AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FOR COMMERCIAL AND OTHER PURPOSES WITH A VIEW TO THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD
Year: 1881

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Arthur Auckland Cochrane at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th September 1881.
ARTHUR AUCKLAND COCHRANE, of the City of Westminister, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DESIGN AND USE THEREOF OF
MONETARY AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FOR COMMERCIAL AND OTHER PURPOSES
WITH A VIEW TO THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD."
My Invention has reference to a mode or modes of so preparing bankers' cheques,
post office orders, bills of exchange, receipts, warrants, bills of lading, and such like
deeds or documents relating to property of all kinds requiring inviolability, as to
successfully prevent the possibility of their being tampered with in any way
tending to destroy their intended value, and by the use of which modes such
documents would be un-negociable for any but their legitimate or intended
object. Fraud would by these means be effectually prevented; and this object I
propose to effect by printed or figured, tabulated forms consisting of a com-
bination of letters or symbols and figures attached to the said documents, which,
by means of perforations or punctures, stamping, erasures, removals, or any other
convenient device, may be used for indicating the amounts or values to be repre-
sented by such document, as hereinafter described. The amounts so expressed or
indicated by means of the key letters or symbols and figures treated in the manner
hereinafter described, conduce to render any alteration which may be made in the
form perfectly futile; and to make my Invention better understood it will suffice to
quote one or two cases by way of illustration. See Fig. 1, which is a banker's cheque,
and has the tabulated form embodied in it. The form comprises four rows of figures,
units, tens, hundreds, and thousands, at the end of each row of which is prefixed the
first four letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, D, or other symbols. These safety
cheques, as they may fitly be called, may be filled in the ordinary way; and in
addition thereto this Invention may be applied so that, by the obliteration or
cancelling of the amount required to be drawn for thus, its value may be defined.
If it be proposed to draw a cheque for £10, cancel by a puncture or otherwise deface
the key letters A, B, D, or other symbols, and Figure 10 in line C, the puncturing
Din C21

page_text: being a sign to the banker that the drawer did not use figures in the other lines
A, B, D, nor any other figure in line C than the number 10. The spaces containing
the several figures may be separated by means of a punctured line, as in sheets of
postage stamps, the figures representing the amount for which the cheque is drawn
may be entirely removed instead of being punctured, or it may be punctured in
any device or otherwise defaced. The same method of fixing the value of a banker's
cheque is also applicable to any document which has to express the value of
property to which it refers in numbers, weight, measure, or quantity. The various
uses to which this system may be applied are obvious to those engaged in
commerce, but among the numerous cases may be mentioned bankers' cheques,
bills of exchange, post office orders, and telegraph money orders, Government bills,
wills, bills of lading, stock and share receipts, warrants, &c., &c., all involving
amounts of money, value, goods, or property which depend on numerical enumer-
ation being correctly maintained, the application being universal in its character.
Where the transactions require numbers exceeding those in the illustration, Fig. 1,
say, for millions, for shillings and pence, or of any other denomination, additional
lines may be placed above or below the four shewn in Fig. 1, and may be carried
to any extent, each line having its key letter or symbol attached thereto, the same
system being observed as previously described. For the purpose of puncturing the
figure spaces or squares a stamp with one or more projecting cutting points may
be used either with or without coloring matter or chemicals. It may be here
remarked that as it is intended that only one figure on each line should be used by
the drawer, if the banker observes that more than one figure has been punctured
in the same line he will at once detect that a fraud has been attempted rendering
the cheque invalid. The tabular form may be arranged in various ways but with the
same object, viz., the illustration Fig. 1 refers to bankers' cheques, or to transfers, or
letters of value, with perforated lines, as postage stamps, or with surrounding margins,
as Fig. 3, with or without perforations; these forms apply equally to sales of goods in
quantity, weight, or measure. Fig. 3*, as well as Fig. 6, may be used either with one
central row of key letters common to the two forms, puncturing the key letters on
each side, cancelling or otherwise defacing them on the side next to each form, or by
a row at the end of each form; Figs. 4 and 5 refer to the use of numerals without
key letters with cancellings by diagonal or other lines; and Fig. 6 to the purchase
and sale of securities of value.
Having now particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be carried out, and the means-which-I-adopt-for-preventing the
fraudulent alteration of numbers in documents involving the record of figures
whether in cheques or other records, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise form or proportions of the forms herein specified so
long as the main features of my Invention are retained; but that which I do claim
is the combination of key letters or symbols and numerals in the form herein
described or substantially so when used in conjunction or otherwise with the
ordinary form of money cheques or other documents, as hereinbefore described,
involving money value, goods in quantity, weight, or measure, being a system of
expressing and recording unalterably figures representing money value, weights,
measures, and quantities. In drawing a cheque by the permanently cancelling,
defacing, or removing the key letters A, B, C, D, &c., it is a sign to the banker
that the drawer of the said cheque did not intend to use any of the figures in those
lines, but when a number in any line is used it would be defaced in one of the
ways herein described and the key letter left intact, and if a number in each line
is cancelled or defaced, then all the key letters A, B, C, D, remain intact.
I also claim the use of the tabulated form of figures without the key letters,
substantially as herein described, and in using which the figures of value are left
intact, and the other figures are cancelled by diagonal or other lines, or removed, as
shewn in Fig. 4.
I also claim the use of the tabulated form of figures without the key letters by
puncturing or defacing the figures of value required, and cancelling the figures on

page_text: the remaining rows of numerals by diagonal or other lines, or removed as described
substantially in Fig. 5, but I prefer the first method described in Figs. 1, 2, 3,
or 6, as being in every respect simpler and more expeditious.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Auckland Cochrane, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this 7th day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
Wituess to the signature of
A. A. Cochrane,
AMHT H. RENTON.
ARTHUR A. COCHRANE. (L.S.)
Wituess to the signature of
A. A. Cochrane,
AMHT H. RENTON.