IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND PREPARING BANKERS' NOTES, CHEQUES, AND OTHER PAPERS, FOR THE BETTER PREVENTION OF FRAUD
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
Moss, of Gainsford Street, Barnsbury Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by-Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-second day of April, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Moss, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Moss, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Moss, my exors,
adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRINTING AND PREPARING BANKERS' NOTES, CHEQUES, AND OTHER PAPERS, FOR THE
BETTER PREVENTION OF FRAUD;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, that I, the said Thomas Moss, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of iny said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same; reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Moss, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:
The object proposed by my Invention is to place further difficulties in the
way of persons desirous of forging bankers' notes, cheques, and other like
documents, the efficacy of the mode hitherto resorted to by intricate and
elaborate engraving having been more or less impaired by the recent discovery
of means of obtaining impressions or copies from printed surfaces so as closely
to resemble the original documents.
My Invention consists in so impressing patterns on the surface of paper
used as bankers' notes, cheques, and other documents liable to forgery, on
which designs or letters are or are intended to be printed in the ordinary way,
that the paper so treated is caused to be smooth or level on one side, whilst
the other side thereof is indented in patterns, so as to produce to the eye the
appearance of a reticulate surface, but the indentations do not pass through
the paper. By this combination of printing and indenting a document is pro-
duced much less liable to be imitated than it would be if printed on plain paper
in the usual way. I also sometimes obtain a further protection against fraud
by causing the surface of the paper on the side on which it is intended to be
printed, by inking the surface which causes the impression or indentation. In
carrying out this Invention I employ two steel rollers, one being smooth and the
other having engraved in relief the pattern the reverse of that which I wish
to obtain in the paper; such engraving I prefer to perform in a lathe, as is
well understood. These two rollers are hardened in the ordinary manner, and
between these rollers I pass the paper to be used for the purposes above
mentioned, the upper roller (the engraved roller) being pressed heavily down
on to the lower roller, and it will be found that paper passed between such
rollers will be indented with the pattern or design, and if this roller is inked
(as for surface printing) the pattern thereof indented into the paper will at
the same time be colored. It will be obvious that if a banker's note, cheque,
or other such document having elaborate engraving, letters, or writing on one
side, be then subjected to one or both of these processes, so that an intricate
pattern is impressed or indented with or without color on the back of such
engraving, letters, or writing, a document will be produced which will offer
much greater difficulty to the forger than the same document without the
indented impression; for, if any attempt were made to obtain an impression or

page_text: copy of such a document the inequality of thickness and compression of the
paper caused by the process above described would prevent any good impres-
sion or copy being obtained; but even should a fraudulent person succeed in
obtaining a copy of the front of the document, he would still have to copy and
reproduce the indented design on the back, and the obtaining a copy of such
indented design would be as difficult as it was heretofore difficult to copy
engraved designs so long used by bankers and others. I have not found that
paper once so impressed and indented can be restored to uniform thickness, or
is capable of having the impression removed by damp, pressure, or wear, or by
any other means.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would have it under-
stood that what I claim is, the mode berein described of obtaining additional
protection against fraud, by causing bankers' notes, cheques, and other papers
requiring similar protection, to be indented or impressed and printed with
indented designs, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Moss, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Thomas Moss came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.