BANK NOTE FORGERIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5273, 16 February 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

BANK NOTE FORGERIES.

(From tha Scotsman.)

Circumstances have now transpired which prove that the recent attempt to forgo the notes of the Bunk of Ireland was one of the most skillful which have been recently detected, and that a considerable number of persons, three nr four of whom have already been apprehended, were concerned in the conspiracy, not ouly in Ireland but in England. The motes of the Irish and Scotch banks are much more easily imitated than those of the Bank of England, and the result of the detection of the present nefarious scheme, luckily before much harm was done, has already been to direct attention to the subject of improving the form of the various issues. Forgeries have hitherto been perpetrated chiefly by means of engraving, but now photography lias been turned to account with more success, and in view of the increased facilities which science has placed iu the hands of forgers, the dangers to which banks possessing an imperfect form of netts are exposed are really greater than are generally supposed. In these circumstances the efforts of a London firm—Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson, and Go.—to perfect the style of bank notes and similar articles of value may be noticed. This firm has been engaged in this work for many years, ami they have succeeded in producing notes of so perfect a character as seem calculated to defy imitation by any process. They have adopted a method of printing in color, which, while it gives to the note an artistic appearance, at the same time protects it against the attempts of the fraudulent imitator. Between one of their productions ami a photographic copy of it there is not the slightest resemblance. The denominations, the medallions, the whole body of the engraved work in the original disappears iu the latter, and in its place appears a new design, with altogether different figures, and an inscription, “ Antipbotographic Bank Note Printing,” which was invisible in the original. Another ingenious and very handsome design shows what is called ” rainbow printing,” the prismatic colors passing one into the other across the back of the note. The engraving of the notes, &c., executed for the various banks and Governments is of a high standard of excellence. Great importance appears to bo attached to the vignettes and portraits seen in many of the issues, artists of distinction being employed to design and engrave the expressive heads and graceful groups, of which any attempted copy would bo detected even by an uneducated person. Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson, and Co.’s patented process enables them to produce any number of plates in exact fac-aimile of the original, and to renew the steel surface of the plates as often as may be required. It may be stated that the ten Australian banks interested in the floating of the new Victorian Government loan have passed a unanimous resolution that the debentures should be placed in the hands of Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson, and Co., with a view to their protection against forgery. A large number of notes executed by this firm are for banka in Australia.