FOILING BANKNOTE FORGERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20291, 27 December 1927, Page 18

FOILING BANKNOTE FORGERS.

SECRET PROCESSES OF MAXCFAO , TURE. Tho history of making paper money 15 tilie tale of ding-dong warfare between manufacturer and forger. Only recently a. vast organisation for flooding Europe with spurious banknotes was unearthed in I'loronce, and 40 arrests made. With tho exception of the Bank of England notes, paper money whether State currency or tho issue of a banking institution—is executed in colours; and with the issue of the new £1 and 10s denominations, which wll bo printed in brown and blue tints respectively, our own conservative institution will come into line. The maker of paper money aims at three main safeguards; first, the peculiarity of paper; secondly, intricacy of design; thirdly, elaborate printing and watermarks. The paper from which the Bank of England notes are manufactured is made in Berkshire by a firm that alone possesses the secret of its extraordinary lightness and durabilitytwo characteristics,very difficult to imitate. This same firm also possesses tho secret of the elaborate watermark which is impressed during the process of manufacture. In the ordinary way, machine-made paper watermarks are made by means of a fine light-wire cylinder with wire-woven pattern, tho mark being impressed just before (he paper passes from the pulp stage. The watermark of Bank of England notes has always been the despair of forgers, for (ho closely guarded secret has never been found out. Tho ink employed which combines to an extraordinary extent intense blackness and indelibility, is also a closely kept secret (writes George Godwin, in tho Daily Express). Experience has proved that the banknote printed in black offers an easier model for llie clover forger than one printed in colours. In 1853, for example, (here was a flood of spurious Bank of Scoiland notes in circulation. Exports advised revision of design and a change from black to coloured work. After (hat the Bank of Rent hind followed the practice of most other paper-mailing institutions and issued nts notes in three colours. Tin* earlier notes of the Bank of England were made from stecl-cnrrravcd plates by means of mill ami die. Electro-type printing invented by Since and with certain secret processes known only to tho bank’s officials" replace,] the. older method of manufacture. "When the finished banknote is dclivc'-cd It has yet one more safeguard added before being issued. Tin- is the mark which is put on each note by a sclf-rgcistcring machine —a mark known only to the officials of the hank.