An effort had been made to change the "one" to "five" on the "one" side of the new combined note, but it was done so clumsily that the fraud would have been seen at a glance, and the only hope of passing the notes as fives would have been to pass them over with the $5 side up and trust to the man receiving it not to turn it over before putting it away. The doctored notes came to the notice of the writer through one of the Chicago banks, with the request that they be allowed whatever they were worth. The government always redeems notes at the face value, and as the faces in this case were of a $1 and a $5 note, $6 was allowed. It is not known whether the bank was caught on the split notes or not.
Another scheme for altering bank-notes is practiced with more or less success. It is to take a one dollar silver certificate and by means of powerful acids and fine penwork the large figure "one" on the reverse side is split into two "tens," and the intermediate portion transformed into a scroll. On the other side the "one" over the representation of the silver dollar is obliterated and "ten" substituted, but the "s" is left off the dollar. The single "1" figures in the corners are neatly eaten off and the figure "10" substituted. The small "one" is changed to an "X" and a new series number is printed in red upon the face. The bill would pass anywhere. None but an expert would detect the fraud.
INTERESTING WRITINGS OF VARIOUS KINDS FOR STUDY AND COMPARISON
FOUR ORDINARY SIGNATURES WITH DESCRIPTIONS
A mechanical or artificial hand in copy-book style, lightly and delicately traced.
Characteristic signature, connected and rapidly traced letters expressing great animation and mental activity.
