A PATENT SYSTEM OF FORGERY;

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 938, 31 October 1879, Page 2

A PATENT SYSTEM OF FORGERY;

", A Patent System of Forgery" seems rather a startling method of announcing a new invention which haabeen.brought under public notice m Sydney. Recently the Hon. Saul Samuel, Postmaster; General, < the Government Printer (Mr/ Richards), and Mr. Gibbs met at the office of Messrs. Gibbs, Shallard and Go., for the purpose of , testing a process of forging bank-notes, postage-stamps, cheques, etc., by means of photolithography, m order to show the., value . of an invention patented by Messrs. Thomson and Garlioh, for printing notes m nonactinio colours, which cannot be photographed. It may be_ stated that the patentees claim that by their new discovery ihey can 'produce a perfect f&e simile of any document, card, deed, bank-note, postage stamp, receipt stamp, or cheque, without fear of detection, and at the '< same time that their invention will prevent forgery, and thereby afford a desirable, security; to the Government, the bank, ahdth'e public against fraud, f The secret' of the :process of forgery was known-only to the inventors} but the , fact stands out that they can pull off a .lithographic stone perfect copies of ahnost any thing given to them, even to banknotes and Government stamps. A perfect copy of a sheet of penny postage stamps wasr printed m the presence of a number of gentlemen ; and the danger of fraud more fully demonstrated, when: the lithographic printing of sheets of postage stamps was carried out as fast' as required. The Postmaster-General stood by the machine while the printed sheets were ; being thrown off, and after witnessing the operation for some time and examining the printed sheets, said that the stamps were the most perfect fraud he had ever looked on. Subsequently he ordered the printed sheets to be destroyed, and before he left the building the impression on the lithographic stone was removed. Whether process of non-actinic printing patented by Messrs. Thomson and Garlich will effectually prevent forgery remains to be seen, but it is evident that at present perfect copies of ahnost any document m existence may be struck off by the thousand at a little better than at nominal cost.