Part 3

UNIVERSAL COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR,

Applicable to all Banks in the United States.

The Steel-plate Illustrations contain standard specimens of all the different styles of engraving of the notes of all the Banks in the United States--six distinct kinds; four kinds of Engine-work, which is impossible to be imitated by hand. In counterfeits it is attempted, and this book explains the principle in such a manner as to enable any person to detect at sight, infallibly, any counterfeit or altered note.

INTRODUCTION.

Heretofore the best judges of money have had nothing as a guide in judging at sight but experience in handling money, a familiarity with the notes of a few particular banks, and the general appearance of a note. They become familiar with a certain (to them) undefined perfect appearance, generally possessed by genuine notes, and any apparent want of which creates suspicion as to the genuineness of a note; but the first impression, they affirm, is the best, as sometimes upon continued examination the judgment, having no particular guide, wavers, gets confused, and is often at fault. Now this uncertainty may be entirely obviated, and the detection of counterfeits at sight reduced to a perfect science or mathematical certainty; and this great desideratum is held to be perfectly attained in the rules here presented, when combined with a little practice in handling money.

All genuine Bank Notes in the United States are engraved upon one uniform principle, by regular Bank-note Engraving Companies. A company consists of ten to twenty first-class artists, each perfect in his own department; there is required a heavy capital to be invested, and the use of perfect, costly and inimitable machinery. Since the invention of the Geometric Lathe, Ruling Engine, and Medallion Ruling, and the invention of transferring engravings by Perkins, it has been rendered entirely out of the question--in fact, a physical impossibility--for any genuine note to be perfectly imitated. Counterfeiters cannot procure all the machinery; and even supposing they could, it would be against their own interest to invest $50,000 to $100,000 in an illegitimate business, to run the hazardous risk of seizure and confiscation. It would be more to their interest to invest that amount in any honest business. They therefore attempt to imitate the several kinds of inimitable engine-work by hand, and the imitations thus produced vary in character from miserably poor to tolerable, and sometimes exceedingly close imitations--deceiving the best judges who do not understand the principle, but detected at a glance by any one understanding it, as it is explained and illustrated in the following pages. Sometimes they get hold of one or more worn-out stolen genuine dies and use them in their issues--and so far their work will be genuine; but there is always enough else of the other portions of the work to indicate a counterfeit note.

The following items, quoted from newspapers (June, 1850), will serve to show the necessity of the diffusion of some system of infallible detection at sight:--

🖙 “The Western States, it is said, are flooded with $2 bills of the State Bank, Indiana.”--Times.

🖙 The Boston Traveller of Wednesday, June 5th, says, “It is not supposed that counterfeit money is manufactured in this city. The greater part of the money of this description which has for years flooded the country, comes from Canada, where, from various causes, its manufacturers have been left comparatively undisturbed, to carry on their nefarious business. … It is not perhaps an exaggeration to say that traders in our city are cheated out of at least $50,000 annually, by means of counterfeit money.”

Now in New York city, which is four times larger than Boston, this system has been pretty generally diffused among the merchants for nine months past, and it may be safely predicted that for the year 1850 there will not be one-tenth, or even a twentieth of the above sum lost here by counterfeits. Men who handle any money should not refuse to expend the trifling sum to learn this system. They should reflect that besides it being against their own interests to remain ignorant of it, their neglect to learn it is just so much encouragement to counterfeiters, because the less this system is spread the greater the chance for counterfeit money to circulate and defraud the public; therefore, every honest man should put his shoulder to the wheel to facilitate the diffusion of the system, and thereby assist to drive all spurious money out of circulation. The different periodical Bank-note Lists are excellent guides, as far as they go, but they do not and cannot go far enough. They assist too often after the mischief is done. In hundreds of cases their description of counterfeits is necessarily vague and uncertain, especially where the counterfeit is a fac-simile of the genuine: they never make a man a good judge of money at sight. But the greatest trouble is that new counterfeits, it is said, are generally “rushed” in upon the community preconcertedly, from different points at once, and the greatest mischief is often done before they have time to get the description in the List. Now this system will enable the poorest judge to detect any counterfeit, new or old, AT SIGHT. It is arranged systematically into seven rules, simple and comprehensive at a glance of the eye. For self-instruction a magnifying glass will be of great assistance at first in learning the principle, and afterwards the naked eye will be sufficient to detect, but it is advisable to always have a glass on hand. Also a few specimens of bills, good and bad, to compare and examine at first is necessary to make the theory practical. The following is the list of

RULES:

RULE 1. Geometric Lathe, } ” 2. Ruling Engine, } Infallible when imitated. ” 3. Medallions, } ” 4. Vignettes--viz: Stippling, Eyes, Hair, Drapery, Limbs, Scenery, &c. ” 5. Lettering and Engravers’ names. ” 6. Signatures and filling up. ” 7. Paper, printing, and general appearance. Alterations from broken Banks--the Magic Three. Altered Denominations--1st, 2d, 5th and 7th Rules.

It is believed, and experience has proved, that the above combination of rules is arranged in the most judicious and effective order, and the best adapted for practical use in detecting at sight that could be devised. It is in fact nearly the order in which a genuine plate is originally got up. First the “Geometric Lathe” dies, “Medallions,” and “Vignettes” are transferred; then the “Lettering” and “Ruling Engine” work, next the “Paper and Printing,” “Signatures and filling up,” and lastly, after all is finished, the “General appearance” of the whole.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

That this work merits the encouraging praise and high appreciation it has met with seems to be confirmed by its rapid sale and by the permanent, steady demand yet existing for it, as well now as when it was first issued in 1849. Various miserable imitations of it (infringements of the copyright) have been attempted in the form of circulars, pamphlets, and pretended outlines of it published in newspapers and Bank-note Lists, but of such a superficial and abortive character as to entirely fail of being a truthful synopsis and answering no particularly useful purpose in the detection of counterfeits. This work stands pre-eminent and alone. The only objection heretofore made to it was its high price. It is now reduced to as low a price as it can possibly be afforded, and the present edition improved.

H. C. F.

RULES.

RULE I.

THE GEOMETRIC LATHE.

(Infallible when imitated.)

The “Geometric Lathe” is a very perfect and costly Engraving Engine, which produces very fine and beautiful ornamental patterns of geometric circles of such complication, uniformity, and exquisite perfection, that it cannot possibly be imitated in any manner. It engraves or turns the circular or oval patterns on the dies, on which the figures representing the denomination of the note are placed. A sketch of this engine is quoted from “Nicholson’s Operative Mechanic.”

“One of the most important securities to the paper currency of nearly the whole commercial world at the present time arises from the invention of transferring engravings, and the work produced by the Geometric Lathe, invented by Mr. ASA SPENCER, while a resident of New London, in the State of Connecticut. The application of this Lathe-work for the security of Bank Notes was first made by Messrs. FAIRMAN, DRAPER & CO., of Philadelphia, in 1816, and from its great beauty and difficulty of imitation, Mr. Spencer was induced to repair to England in 1819, for the purpose of securing the paper currency of that country. As had been expected, this work was put to the severest test which the combined talent of its great metropolis could invent, and having passed this trial in a very satisfactory manner, it was subsequently adopted very generally by the Banks and Bankers of England and Scotland.

“The Geometric Lathe differs materially from any other turning engine hitherto invented. The only one which has any similarity in the work produced, is the “Rose Engine;” but that is only capable of copying patterns previously made upon guides, while the Geometric Lathe forms its own patterns, which are all originals, and as various and unlimited as the ‘Kaleidoscope.’…

“The impossibility of successfully imitating this work by any process of hand-work within the reach of the whole combined talent of counterfeiters will not be doubted when the severe test to which it has been submitted is recollected: and even supposing any combination of counterfeiters to be in possession of the different machines and appendages necessary to effect their object, they would soon find that the time which would be required to learn the use of these implements in secret, could be more profitably employed in any honest occupation.”

The patterns produced by the Geometric Lathe are concentric, eccentric, or geometric circles, radiating from a common centre, and beautifully interwoven into each other, forming a perfectly regular and uniform ‘fancy’ pattern, so exactly true and uniform in its radiations, that there never is the slightest possible irregularity or imperfection. It is because the patterns are of such exquisite beauty and perfection, and at the same time extremely fine and complicated, that it is utterly impossible to imitate it by hand or by any process whatever. The Geometric Lathe does not engrave the patterns immediately upon the plate itself, but the patterns are transferred to the plate from roller dies or cylinders, generally in two places, as a majority of bills contain two dies alike, sometimes four, one in each corner. Being single-transferred the patterns are reversed, and are then white circles or lines upon a black ground. Of course whenever there are two or four dies that pretend to be alike in a genuine bill, they will all be exactly alike, being all transferred from the same one die. See the two transfers of the die in the steel plate containing the ‘3.’ In imitations of Lathe-work in counterfeit bills there will be a failure in two ways: first, in imitating regularity of the pattern, which is attempted to be done by hand, and also it is cut directly on the plate instead of transferring, so that what in the genuine is black spaces, is engraved black in the counterfeits, leaving white spaces and black dots, resembling cobble-stones--the white spaces between which made to resemble white lines, while it can easily be seen that it is only irregular black dots and scratches instead of white lines or geometric circles. Secondly, a failure in getting two dies exactly alike in the same bill--that is, where they pretend to be alike. If done by hand there cannot be two fine and complicated patterns made exactly alike; but in the genuine, where the pattern on one die or cylinder is rolled or transferred in two or more places, they will all of course be exactly alike. This same work is to be seen on the backs of watches, called “Engine Turning.”

Magnified 5 to 10 times.

C D

Magnified 10 to 20 times.