OR IMPROVEMENTS IN INDICATING THE VALUE ON BANKERS' CHEQUES, BILLS, RECEIPTS, AND OTHER MONETARY INSTRUMENTS, SO AS TO FACILITATE THE DETECTION OF ANY FRAUDULENT ALTERATION OF THE VALUE OF THE SAME."
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Angus at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 10th July 1879.
" AN
JAMES ANGUS, of Erdington, in the County of Warwick, Civil Engineer.
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN INDICATING THE VALUE ON BANKERS' CHEQUES,
BILLS, RECEIPTS, AND OTHER MONETARY INSTRUMENTS, SO AS TO FACILITATE THE
DETECTION OF ANY FRAUDULENT ALTERATION OF THE VALUE OF THE SAME."
My Invention has for its object to indicate the value of any cheque, bill, receipt,
or other monetary instrument, that any change made in the written value of the
instrument will be detected, if the said change exceed certain, arranged limits.
I will describe my Invention as applied to a banker's cheque.
I print on the cheque in addition to the ordinary printed matter a series of
numbers, by preference in a row. For example, under the line on which the value
of the cheque is written out in full I print a series of numbers indicating ascending
values, say, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, each of the said values being
surrounded by a circle of perforations. I prefer to make the circles of perforations
surrounding the several values of about one quarter of an inch in diameter, that is,
of about the diameter of an ordinary black lead pencil.
In using the cheque the amount is written in full and indicated in figures in the
usual way. The circular disc situated between the two discs representing the
limits between which the value of the cheque is contained is then torn out, and
there is thus indicated the limits within which the value of the cheque is contained,
and any fraudulent alteration of the amount of it outside the said limits is
immediately discovered on examination of the cheque.
Suppose for example that the true value. of the cheque as drawn is fifty five
pounds, the disc on which 60 is printed is torn out. It is thereby indicated that
the amount of the cheque is between the values on each side of the torn out disc,
that is, between 50 and 70, and any fraudulent alteration of the cheque outside
those limits is thereby indicated.
The series of values surrounded by perforations may be varied by any desired.
amount, so as to indicate within wider or narrower limits the value for which the
cheque is drawn.
The disc on which is printed the value to be removed is readily torn away by
placing the cheque on the desk or table, and pressing the flat end of a black lead
pencil or pencil case upon the said disc; while holding the pencil or pencil case

page_text: tightly upon the disc with one hand, the cheque is lifted by the other hand, and
the disc is thereby readily separated at the perforations.
More-than-one-row_of_values surrounded by perforations may be employed, and
the different values may be arranged otherwise than in rows.
-In-the-last case the-disc removed should. be that next higher in value than
the amount for which the cheque is drawn. I prefer to surround the several
printed values with perforations arranged in circles, but do not limit myself
thereto.
The application of my Invention to monetary instruments other than bankers'
cheques, differs in no essential respect from its application to cheques, as herein
before explained..