DEFACING BANK NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 785, 4 November 1882, Page 2

DEFACING BANK NOTES.

It is advisable to warn persons who have been in the habit of stamping bank notes for advertising purposes, that this practice will not only render them liable to a fine of L 5, but any person accepting the note is also liable. The effect of putting a stamp upon a bank note, therefore, will be to make it worthless. The Act under which this provision is brought into force is the Banks and Bankers Act Amendment, passed last session. The clause runs as follows : —“ 15. Any person who shall commit any ot the following acts shall be deemed to have committed an offence, and shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds, to be recovered in a summary way, that is to say, every person (a) who, after the issue thereof, defaces any bank note by writing, printing, or stamping, or marking thereon his name, or the name of any other person, or any matter relating to the trade, business, occupation, or affairs of any person ( b ), who, being party or privy to any bank note being defaced as aforesaid, pays away, parts with, puts in circulation, demands payment of, pr deposits or offers to deposit in any bank any bank note so defaced as aforesaid.” The necessity for this law has become abundantly manifest lately by the extent to which notes have been defaced for advertising purposes. It is every person’s duty now, in self-protection, to.

refuse to accept a note disfigured in the manner described. The result will be to bring the defaced notes now in circulation quickly to the bank from which they were originally issued, and a speedy reform will thereby be accom--1 plished in the paper money in circulation. Those who neglect this precaution will do so at their own peril. The new Act gives definiteness to the customs relating to crossed and endorsed cheques. It renders illegal the payiment by a banker of any crossed cheque, unless it comes to him through another banker. The Act also authorises the proclamation of special local bank holidays upon due notice being publicly given.