IMPROVEMENTS IN CHEQUES AND OTHER DOCUMENTS REPRESENTING VALUES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur William Lovell Reddie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th December 1881.
A communication from abroad by Marcellus Fleming Berry of Brooklyn in the
State of New York, United States of America.
"
ARTHUR WILLIAM LOVELL REDDIE of the Office for Patents 60 Chancery Lane
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent. IMPROVEMENTS IN CHEQUES AND
OTHER DOCUMENTS REPRESENTING VALUES." [A communication from abroad by
Marcellus Fleming Berry of Brooklyn in the State of New York, United States of
America]
The object of this Invention is to provide a simple and unobjectionable method
of preventing the fraudulent alteration of the amount of cheques, receipts, certificates
of stock and deposit, drafts, letters of credit, bills of exchange and other papers
representing values and also, where such papers are bound for use in book form, as
is the case with cheque books, to leave a butt or counterfoil bearing an unalterable
exact, or approximately exact record of the amount for which the cheque or other
paper was drawn.
It is well known by experts that the desired security cannot be obtained by
punching figures in a cheque or paper, nor by punching out figures from a table or
series of figures to represent the value of the cheque or paper, because the perfora-
tions can be so skillfully filled up as to escape detection, and hence any method which
depends wholly or in part on the punching or perforation of the cheque or paper is
practically worthless.
According to one method which has been proposed the cheque or other paper has
attached to it, or printed on its marginal portion a table of digits, each column of
which represents a particular denomination, such as units, tens, hundreds, and
thousands and the proper value of the cheque or paper is indicated by punching
out one of the digits in each column; and according to another method the cheque
or paper is provided with tables on one end representing units, tens, hundreds, and
thousands, which are to be torn off, and with a table of digits on the other end
which is to be punched.
These methods are both objectionable and of little practical utility because, being
dependent for security on the punching out of figures, they leave no record or at

page_text: best only a partial or very imperfect record, of their amounts on the butts or
counterfoils from which they are torn, or on the detached portions themselves, and
because the tearing of the check in a peculiar way, and the subsequent punching
would consume so much time that persons drawing such cheques or papers would,
often rather run the risk of having them altered, than incur such loss of time. This
Invention is intended to overcome these difficulties and it consists in a blank for a
cheque or other paper representing value, provided with a table of figures arranged in
columns of lines all on one side, or end of the blank and reading progressively both
in the columns and from one column to another in succession. This table may be
on the counterfoil side or butt end of the blank when the blank is used in a cheque
book; or it may be on any other side of the blank, either in a book or otherwise. By
severing the cheque or blank from the counterfoil through this table, or by severing
a portion of the table from the check or blank, in a line passing part of the way
along one side of its columns of figures, thence transversely between the figures of
said column and thence along the other side of the said column; the amount left in
column next the transverse severance will represent the maximum amount for
which the cheque is payable. Such a cheque or paper when used in a cheque book
may be torn from its butt or counterfoil as quickly as an ordinary check can, and
by such use, not only is the proper value represented exactly or approximately in
Buch a manner that it cannot be altered without ready detection, but a counterfoil
is left, which will represent a corresponding value.
-The-counterfoil-may-have-blank-spaces-left-for-keeping-an-ordinary-record.-The
printed table of figures representing various amounts is arranged in vertical
columns or lines, so as to read progressively down the columns and from the right
hand side of the table towards the left.
Across the cheque is printed the words "Not good for sum exceeding highest
When the design is
remaining printed marginal figures." or words to this effect.
to prevent the lowering of a cheque or paper such as a restaurant cheque the
amount in the columns should read progressively in such manner or direction
that the figures representing higher amounts would be removed with the cheque
leaving the lower amounts. The words on the cheque may be "requiring pay-
ment of sum not less than the lowest remaining printed marginal figures," or words
to that effect.
The cheques may be torn off as rapidly as ordinary cheques by the use of a
paper cutter having an offset or jog to tear across the column; and if desired
the lines between the figures may be perforated to enable them to be easily torn.