BANK OF ENGLAND COUNTERFEITS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4611, 31 December 1875, Page 3

BANK OF ENGLAND COUNTERFEITS.

(From the Journal of Commerce ) In the report of the parliamentary select committee on the banks of issue some very curious information is given about forgeries on the Bank of England. A table was prepared for the committee by the bank officials, stating the number and kinds of forged notes presented at the bank for the past seventy years. In the early part of the century these forgeries were of very common occurrence. The £1 note was the favorite with counterfeiters. In 1820 28,000 false notes of this denomination were presented at the bank, with small proportions of higher nominal value. Since IS2O there has been a rapid decline in the circulation of counterfeits of all kinds on the Bank of England, and in 1874 only fifty-six counterfeited £1 notes came to light, and thirty-five of other denominations. The forged £1 notes appear to be mostly the work of a former age. For fifty years the bank has ceased to issue this denomination. The new counterfeits which appear are chiefly of the £5 note. Of these twenty-seven were presented in 1574, against 745 in 1820. The total face value of all the counterfeits taken from circulation in the latter year was £33,CS3,against£47s in 1874. This remarkable contrast is almost wholly owing to the unsparing energy of the Bank of England in discovering and arresting those who tamper with its issues, and the very severe penalty inflicted on convicted counterfeiters. The paper, the watermark, the engraving, and the signatures offer no obstacles to the ingenuity of rogues. These can all be imitated. But bold is the man who dares to take the chances of bringing the bank sleuth-hounds on his track. They will follow him all over the world to catch him ; and on his conviction he is sent to prison, from which there is no escape through political influence or executive clemency. If the Government of the United States would exhibit a little more of this aptitude for chasing up and arresting, counterfeiters—not at intervals to make a sensation, but continuously—we should hear but little complaint of forged notes in circulation.