Part 5

RULE VI.

SIGNATURES AND FILLING UP.

The 6th Rule relates to the signatures, and filling up the No., date, to whom payable, cashier, and president. To notice whether the whole filling up appears in two or three different hands, as it ought to be. In the genuine the No. and date is generally written by a bank clerk, who writes a very neat, rapid business hand--but of course there may be exceptions to this Rule--but in counterfeits the No. and date is almost invariably clumsy and unbusiness-like. Where the officers’ signatures are imitated there will be a slow, studied, and stiff appearance, not easy, natural and original-looking. Some men acquire an almost intuitive knowledge of original handwriting at sight, and the writer has seen many excellent judges of Bank Notes who have acknowledged that they were guided almost entirely by the signatures, even of strange banks. Auto-chirography may be studied as a science, but it can only be acquired by long experience, and it is not infallible: the best judges of writing might possibly be deceived sometimes. In some counterfeits the signatures are lithographed fac-similes, sometimes traced over with a pen. In writing with a pen the ink thoroughly saturates the paper, but leaves a smooth edge to the stroke, and has somewhat of a glossy appearance, while the printed fac-similes always have a stamped appearance, the stroke of a dead color and rough edge, not saturated or lively, like writing ink. If traced over with a pen there will be places, especially in the hair strokes, where the pen does not follow the curves in the stroke correctly. In cases where fraudulent impressions are obtained from the genuine plate, or where the plate itself is stolen, the 6th Rule is all that will detect; but when such a case happens there are always measures taken by the bank to meet it--a new plate is ordered, and the old emission called in.

RULE VII.

PAPER AND GENERAL APPEARANCE.

Rule VII. relates to the paper, printing, and the general appearance of a note. Genuine bank-note paper is made of linen or silk, or a mixture of both, of a firm texture, and of a superior quality, (see the paper on which the steel-plate illustration is printed.) This paper is manufactured expressly for the banks and engraving companies alone, and counterfeiters can seldom get hold of paper of this kind, but are generally compelled to use slazy or half cotton paper. A counterfeit note is seldom printed as well as the genuine, but often blurred, and poor ink. As to the “general appearance,” this is produced by a combination of all the Rules. If all the Rules are good, and the note well printed, the “general appearance” of course will be perfect; but if there is any one or more of the Rules bad, the harmony of the “general appearance” will be interrupted. But if a genuine note is old, worn, and has been wet, the general appearance may be bad, but the other rules will all be good, and prove the note to be genuine.

ANASTATIC TRANSFERS, OR LITHOGRAPHY.

There was an emission, five or ten years ago, of some counterfeits on the National Bank, Providence, 2s and 5s. They were not regularly-engraved plates; and as the exact process by which they were got up is unknown, they are supposed to be anastatic transfers, or lithographs. They have a very smoky, brown, blurred, and indistinct appearance, something similar, but inferior to, mezzotinto engraving. It is supposed that the process, whatever it was, did not succeed well enough, as there never have any appeared like them since. The shading of the letters appeared to be a solid brown coloring--no lines perceptible scarcely, and this was the character of the engraving of the whole note.

The new counterfeit tens on the State Bank of Ohio are exceedingly well done, though easily detected by the Rules. One kind--that with an X in the center of the vignette--appears to be a lithograph, a transfer from the genuine bill; but the impression produced appears to have been faint and dim in many places, and re-touched with a graver;--thus easily detected on examination, although very dangerous counterfeits.

ALTERATIONS FROM BROKEN BANKS.

THE “MAGIC THREE.”

The first seven Rules go to show whether a bill is from a genuine plate or not. We now proceed to discuss Altered Bills. In altered bills, where a genuine bill of a broken bank is altered by the counterfeiter to some sound bank, there are three places in which the alteration must be made, viz: First, the State; Second, Title, or name of the bank; and Third, the Town. They are generally extracted, or the letters dissolved by some chemical process, and the name of another bank, state, and town, substituted in their place. The Ruling Engine shading on the genuine will be imitated by hand in the substituted “title” and “town,” and this will detect it as well as the clumsiness of the letters generally, and also the white streak or bleaching of the paper around and between the substituted letters. Sometimes the “bank” may be in the same State, and there will be only two places to alter besides the signatures; and sometimes the broken bank bills of the same name or title are selected, (for instance the Commercial Bank, Millington, Md.) and there will also be two places to alter besides the signatures, viz: the “State” and “Town.” In dissolving the signatures of the broken bank by some acid and substituting imitations of the proper signatures, they generally look faded, which is caused by a little acid still remaining in the paper--and also the whole filling up, signatures and all, are in one handwriting. By noticing these three points, the “State,” “Title,” and “Town,” (the Magic Three,) and the signatures, the detection of any alteration from a broken bank will be a very simple and easy matter. For instance, one of the best alterations, and one that has deceived thousands of good judges when it was first issued in 1849, were 1s, Madison County Bank, Cazenovia, N. Y. vignette three females. The “New York Safety Fund” and “Cazenovia” were rather clumsily lettered and the MADIS- was shaded by hand, while -ON COUNTY BANK was shaded perfectly by the Ruling Engine. This shows of course an alteration from some other name that ended in -ON; most probably CLINTON. There was no bleaching or scratching of the paper around the substituted letters, and the signatures were not faded, this shows that it was not an altered bill but an altered plate, probably a “wild cat” bank plate, that was sold at auction, in New York, in 1841.

ALTERED DENOMINATIONS.

This is altering from a smaller to a larger denomination--as 1s altered to 5s, &c. &c. This is done in various ways. One way it is done by pasting; but it is more generally done by extracting the ink of the figure and the die containing it by some chemical fluid, and printing in its place a counterfeit die, or sometimes a stolen genuine die containing a larger denomination. The words, “ONE DOLLAR,” which generally is shaded by the Ruling Engine, are extracted, and “FIVE DOLLARS” substituted in its place and shaded by hand. A difference also in the color of the ink of the substituted denominations from the rest of the note will generally be seen. Sometimes the letters of the substituted denomination are common printer’s type, the “old English letter,” 🖙 Twenty Dollars.

OLD-STYLE PLATES.

Counterfeits upon the old-fashioned plates, “Perkin’s stereotype plate” and others, all that contain any transferred dies, the pattern white upon a black ground, can be detected by the imitation of transferring. Diagrams E, F, on page 16, also diagrams, L, M, will illustrate this principle. In the genuine it is machine waved-ruling transferred from dies, while in the counterfeit this is imitated by engraving the black spaces immediately upon the plate itself, and attempting to make it fit so as to have the appearance of being transferred. L represents the genuine, (though imperfect,) M represents the counterfeit. There are four out of the seven Rules that will apply to the old fashioned “Perkin’s stereotype” and most other old-style plates, viz: the 1st Rule, or Transferring; the 5th Rule, the Lettering, especially the mass of small lettering, “One Dollar,” “One Dollar,” in the body of the note; 6th Rule, the Signatures and filling up; 7th Rule, Paper and general appearance.

THE PIECING OPERATION.

This process of increasing the number of bills from a given quantity by piecing--as making ten bills out of nine--appears to be done--as seen in a specimen lately--by cutting off perpendicularly a piece, one ninth of a bill, and pasting in its place a piece of a counterfeit on the same bank and denomination to match. The same process will be then carried on with the nine bills, only that in each bill the piece would be cut out in a different place. When the nine bills are thus all pieced there would be just enough surplus pieces left of the genuine to paste together with one piece of the counterfeit to make a complete bill like the rest, and this would be the profit on the operation. The counterfeit part of the bills appeared to be intentionally defaced, so as to be nearly illegible, in order to escape detection. The banks will only redeem such bills at their estimated proportionate value.

SUMMING UP.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE RULES.

No matter how much a bill may be worn and defaced, if the name of the bank and the denomination can be seen, the application of these rules will enable a person to decide at sight whether a bill is genuine or not. The 1st Rule, the Geometric Lathe-work being infallible, any imitation can be detected at a glance, when of course the bill must be a counterfeit without looking any further. But a great many counterfeits contain stolen genuine dies, when of course the 1st Rule will fail to detect; but there is always enough else to detect a bad bill. The 2d Rule, the Ruling Engine work--any imitation of this can be detected at a glance. This rule detects oftener than almost any other rule, and therefore it is one of the most useful of all the rules. In some old-fashioned genuine plates, especially in some of the old New England plates, there may occur an exception to this rule, the shading of the letters being done by hand. Now and then, but very rarely, a counterfeit is seen containing genuine Ruling Engine work; but in such a case there are plenty of the other rules to fail. Counterfeiters may get some genuine work, but they cannot get a perfect combination of all the work genuine. There is always something lacking. It is against their interest to invest so much capital as would enable them to get everything perfect. Besides, they can never get the services of a sufficient number of first-class artists, and all the necessary machinery. 3d Rule, the Medallions--see if the heads or other ornamental patterns of this work look raised, distinct, clear and smooth, and the lines all full length, and the most skillful imitations by hand can be detected at a glance. 4th Rule, the Vignettes--whether they come up to the usual standard of perfection, especially the human eye and face. Sometimes the vignette in a counterfeit is a stolen genuine die, generally much worn. A lot of old worn out dies were sold at auction in New York in 1841 to the highest bidder, and some got into counterfeiters’ hands. 5th Rule, the Lettering and Engravers’ Names. It is an exceedingly rare thing indeed to find anything near first-class lettering in a counterfeit; but the Engravers’ names always fail--the writer has never seen a single exception. 6th Rule, the Signatures and Filling Up. Counterfeits are so often palpably filled up all in one handwriting as to make this an important rule; also look out for lithographed ‘fac-similes.’ 7th Rule, Paper and General Appearance. Experience has proved that it is always best in judging a doubtful bill to apply the rules in their proper order, one after the other, commencing with the 1st, otherwise a person might forget one or two rules, and neglect to apply the very rule that would most palpably condemn the bill. The writer has never seen a counterfeit where less than two of the rules would condemn it at sight, and the rest genuine work. But the majority of counterfeits are condemned by three, four, five, six, and very often the whole seven rules.

THE STEEL-PLATE ILLUSTRATION.

The steel plate, next to the title-page, contains a standard specimen of all the different styles of genuine engraving on all bank notes of all banks in the United States. But those particular patterns or dies do not belong to any regular Bank-note Engraving Co. in the U.S. They, with others, were sold at auction some years since, and duplicate dies have been made from them and scattered over the country, New York, Boston and Philadelphia, and some of them have got into counterfeiters’ hands, who use them in their spurious issues. Therefore no pattern like any one of these will ever be seen in a genuine note; but one or more of the duplicates of them will often be seen in a counterfeit. The plate therefore serves two purposes--1st, illustrating genuine and perfect work; 2d, to guard against genuine auction dies used in counterfeits.

Another auction vignette die, often seen in counterfeits, but never in a genuine bill, is a woman sitting by a sheaf of wheat, canal lock on the right and locomotive and bridge on the left.