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.