This “Genius” Can Draw £5 Notes

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 42, 19 February 1937, Page 12

This “Genius” Can Draw £5 Notes

“DANGEROUS FORGERY WITH PEN ONLY,” ALLEGES COUNSEL The “genius’’ of a man, said to bo able to make Bank of England notes without the aid of machinery, was revealed at North London Police Court. William Reynolds, aged G 5, clerk, of BryantwooQ road, Islington, was accused of forging a £5 note and uttering a forged £1 note. He was remanded. Air Christmas Humphreys (prosecuting) said two police officers saw Reynolds take notes out of his pocket and examine them under a lamp before he went into a shop. “The remarkable part of this series of forgeries is that hero there is no elaborate press,’’ said Mr Humphreys. ‘ ‘There are no elaborate printing instruments. This man is a genius with a pen. Ho takes an ordinary piece of paper, and with Indian and other inks he traces a £5 Bank of England note successfully. “The same thing is done in coloured ink with one pound and ten shilling notes.’ Mr Humphreys said the water-mark was made by painting on the back of

the note with Chinese white. Except from the viewpoint of a Bank of England expert, this was a dangerous forgery which would not be detected in the half-light of a shop. Reynolds, continued Mr Humphreys, made a statement which was a complete confession. Ln that statement he said: “I want to make a clean breast of everything. Since my wife died I had no money and could get no work, so 1 started to make forged notes, doing just enough to live on/’