AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF AND MEANS FOR PREVENTING FRAUD OR DEFALCATIONS BY COLLECTORS OF Rates, TAXES, AND COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Henry Robinson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th October 1871.
I, ARTHUR HENRY ROBINSON, of the City of Dublin; do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM
OF AND MEANS FOR PREVENTING FRAUD OR DEFALCATIONS BY COLLECTORS OF Rates,
TAXES, AND COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the application and use to and in the
collection of rates, taxes, and commercial accounts generally, of a
peculiar system of checks and receipt forms which will effectually
prevent or lead to the immediate detection of falsification of the counter-
parts of the receipts issued by the collector.
In carrying out my Invention I employ a sheet or roll of adhesive
stamps which I call "check stamps," each stamp representing any
convenient amount, say, from five shillings upwards, according to
the magnitude of the amounts to be collected, and having printed across
them the name of the public body or firm by whom the same are issued.
With a view to rendering this sheet of "check stamps" conveniently

page_text: portable, I attach it to a roller or stretcher, on or within which it is
coiled and drawn off or pulled out according as the "check stamps" are
to be detached for use, a hook or other provision being made for
attaching the roll or case of stamps to the side of the collector, so as to
ensure its not being forgotten.
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E
The collector according to my system will be compelled on giving a
receipt for any amount to detach from the said sheet or roll one or more
"check stamps," corresponding to the amount paid in pounds or shillings
as the case may be, and to affix the said stamp or stamps to the printed
form of receipt issued by him, and finally, to obliterate the said stamp 1
either by perforation through the stamp and form of receipt, or by
writing the name of the payer across it, the said stamp being affixed on
to a special blank space left for that purpose in the printed form of
receipt; or each receipt form may have a hole cut in the blank space or
at the part left for the name of the payer, which hole must be made 1
good or covered by the adhesive "check stamp" before the name of the
payer can be filled up.
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Each printed receipt form will contain a cautionary notice that it is
the duty of the collector to issue no receipt without affixing thereto
check stamps sufficient to represent the amount paid, and to obliterate :
the same in the manner described. Two or more check stamps of
different sizes, in proportion to the amounts they represent, may be
combined in one square on the sheet, so that by taking the whole or any
portion of the said square stamps for almost any required amount can be
detached from the sheet, and affixed with facility to the printed receipt
form. Every ten stamps in the rows of stamps on the sheet or roll may
be colored differently, with a view to facilitating the reckoning on the
collector's return by the examiner of the collector's accounts, the number
of stamps issued by the said collector since the last inspection of his
sheet or roll of check stamps.