a/ /h £ 
 
 '/)NUFAc-rUitE OF Baa/K NoTps 
 
 L o l u nil /a 
 
 So. 
 
/ 
 
 George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
REMARKS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF BANK NOTES 
 
 AND OTHER 
 
 PROMISES TO PAY 
 
 ADDRESSED 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Cantors of t[je |out[iern Conffbrran], 
 
 COLUMBIA, S. C: 
 
 STEAM POWER-PRESS OF F. G. DkFONTAINE A CO. 
 
 1864. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/remarksonmanufac01keat 
 

 CHAPTER I . 
 
 The worthy, witty and garrulous " Fray Antonia 
 Agapida," tells us that a certain Count de Tendilla, 
 being closely beset in the mountains of Granada, be- 
 hind well battered walls, with an army clamorous lor 
 pay, and his affairs, as well as those of the brave 
 Christian defenders of Albania, in a bad way, struck 
 upon a bright idea; one which shows to ihe world 
 that the brave Catholic cavalier had, in addition to 
 his ability for giving or taking hard knocks, a 
 talent for finance, equalled only by the famous 
 " Law, " in the power of making something out of 
 nothing, yet excelling that worthy in the redemption 
 of his pledges. 
 
 The chronicler says that the Count took certain 
 morsels of paper, and, writing the amount of the 
 sum he wished them to represent, affixed his name, 
 and ordered that the inhabitants of Albania should 
 take them in payment at the gold values repre- 
 sented, threatening the severest penalties to all who 
 should refuse their reception. So (according to Fray 
 Antonia) the newly-born assignats, mandate, or shin 
 plasters, had an excellent circulation ; the soldiers' 
 wants were relieved; nay, their extravagances sup- 
 plied, the doubting were re-assured, the brave made 
 
more brave, and "by a subtle and most miraculous 
 kind of alchemy did this Catholic cavalier turn 
 worthless paper into precious gold, and make his late 
 impoverished garrison abound in money." The best 
 of the joke, or experiment, was, that the brave 
 Count redeemed his little notes ; an example, I am 
 sorry to say, that has not, in all cases, been followed 
 by his more vulgar or more dishonest imitators. The 
 worthy Father claims, however, for " the Count," the 
 honor of being the first inventor of paper money, 
 " which has since inundated the civilized world with 
 unbounded opulence."* 
 
 Admitting that the Count de Tendilla was the 
 father of a system eminently convenient, it becomes 
 evident that writing the amounts, numbering and 
 signing of bits or pieces of portable material, repre- 
 senting large or small sums, could not be continued 
 successfully by those who adopted his discovery ; 
 and to meet a rapidly increasing want, and a still 
 more rapidly growing desire to promise to pay in- 
 stead of paying, mechanical appliances were pressed 
 into that service. 
 
 For a long time (Faust nor Guttenberg had yet 
 appeared) the engraving art was still confined to 
 the " Niellatore," or the grotesque and rude cuttings 
 on the drinking vessels of the great and wealthy ; 
 the followers of that art traveling from town to 
 
 * Irving's Conquest of Granada. 
 
town, with the necessary delicate tools carried in 
 the pocket or hat. 
 
 Passing over the long period when the kings of 
 France, England, and other equally great monarchs, 
 ignorant or careless of the honest Count's system, 
 thumb-screwed Jews, and occasionally a Gentile or 
 two, debased their own coin, and by clipping or other 
 process rendered it nearly valueless. It was not 
 until the time of the American Revolution that any 
 step was taken' in banking or the issuing of notes of 
 indebtedness, whereby the security to the holder of 
 such certificates was at all considered, or any pro- 
 tection to them provided. While the plastic arts 
 were encouraged, nay, petted; while great painters, 
 sculptors, and engravers were springing up, and a 
 new Augustan age appeared to be dawning, the idea 
 of applying art to commercial purposes seemed never 
 to have been even thought of, commerce being too 
 vulgar, or, perhaps, art too respectable. 
 
 It was in the midst of our grand struggle for 
 independence that Franklin found time, from his 
 lightning-catching, mail-carrying, diplomatizing and 
 printing, to engrave, en amateur, a set, or several sets, 
 of plates for the Continental money ; and his work, 
 much of which is still in existence, shows nothing 
 more than the coarse, ill-drawn practice of the time, 
 easily and frequently counterfeited, lessening in such 
 proportion the value of what was legally issued. At 
 the still later period of the French Revolution, 
 
when Painter David divided his time with designs 
 for fetes to the Goddess of Reason, or to litre supreme, 
 making drawings and designs to be " at once clas- 
 sical and convenient " for military school-boys, and 
 sending " aristocrats " and " respectabilities " to look 
 through " the little window," while no less than three 
 engravers sat in the National Assembly, the national 
 assignats and mandate were hardly a shade better 
 in appearance or execution than our own old Con- 
 tinental paper. The legend on the face, that " 1e con- 
 trefaction est mort,'' was supposed to be enough, and, 
 as the powers that were had plenty of chancer to 
 prove that the threat on the face of the assignai 
 was no idle one, they were satisfied. In iact, no 
 provision was made to prevent counterfeiting, ex- 
 cept by the English mode of choking the culprit 
 with a hempen collar, or shortening by a head, like 
 the French ; until the rapidly developing prosperity 
 of America, or rather of its several States, under 
 the life-giving hand of Liberty, evoked a system, 
 the benefit of which has long been felt by our 
 commercial classes, and adopted by nations of the 
 highest civilization, whenever they have experienced 
 the want of a perfect paper .currency. 
 
 To understand clearly what is meant by proper 
 p.'ot.c'ion to the takers of promises .to pay,- whether 
 the promise comes from an individual, from a cor- 
 poration, or from a nation, through its .authorized 
 agents, the party or parties giving such promise is. 
 
or ought to be, in possession, or constructive pos- 
 session, of means to redeem such pledge or pledges; 
 and as the said pledge or pledges may be passed 
 from one hand to another, every security and cer- 
 tainty of the genuineness of such should be care- 
 fully added; for, while A may have no doubt of 
 B's willingness and ability to fulfill his engagements, 
 like the brave, hard-handed Count de Tendilla, both 
 merchants, dwelling in the same street, or in the 
 same city, or in cities thousands of miles apart, 
 custom, commercial faith, and business relations they 
 bear together, give each protection; the method of 
 drawing on each other, signatures and other busi- 
 ness intricacies, render both comparatively secure, and 
 they liken to the " Count " in his relation to the 
 people of Alhama; but when C, D, or E receives 
 the carefully written document from A, in payment of 
 his (A's) liabilities, what certainty have they that 
 the engrossed and signed evidence of B's indebted- 
 ness is genuine, and good to them for the amount 
 expressed on its face ? Mow, it is evident that 
 some mechanical security is required here, and if a 
 pledge to perform some obligation at a future day 
 is made by a corporation, the genuineness of the 
 bond is at once looked to, or it is taken on the 
 good faith of the broker, who seems to act between 
 the purchaser and the seller, additional guarantee 
 is desired; and experience shows that corporations 
 of the highest character have seldom missed an op- 
 
portunity to prevent fraud, either against themselves 
 or those dealing with them, by every available 
 appliance, either in art, or mechanical science in 
 connection with art. A merely written pledge, no 
 matter how elaborately engrossed, and done by a 
 single hand, is so exposed to counterfeiting, that no 
 one would receive it with such security alone. 
 Were it to be done simply by movable types, ac- 
 cessible in any ordinary printing-office, who would 
 take it? Where would be the assurance that it was 
 ever issued by the body from whom it professed to 
 have emanated ? If promises to pay from nations were 
 now to be handed about, produced by some very 
 short-handed process, the possession of some trifling 
 material, and the handicraft skill, (the only differ- 
 ence between the counterfeiter and authorized agent 
 being the authority of the latter to issue, and the 
 punishment of death as a penalty for intruding on 
 such authority,) what would the legal issues be 
 taken for, and by whom, unless when force was 
 applied? Of the transactions between individuals, 
 there need be no further inquiry ; to those between 
 corporations and individuals, we must pay more 
 particular attention. 
 
 In olden times, the evidences of transactions 
 were carefully engrossed and signed by the masters 
 and wardens of corporations, the chairmen of 
 guilds, and were never issued without the seal of 
 such corporation or guild. This is about the first 
 
of the instances of the necessity of mechanical or 
 clerical combination against the forger, independent 
 of the lawfully required unity in the act of those 
 issuing a bond. The carefully written document 
 had no value without the joint signatures; the bond 
 and signatures were still valueless without the seal. 
 Thus, whether by accident or design, were walls put 
 between the counterfeiter and his desire to defraud. 
 In our own day, when education is almost uni- 
 versal, and material with which to do evil is easy 
 of access, no corporation is satisfied with their own 
 obligations, when put out freely, unless they have 
 every security which law and art can give 
 them, that the public may take their pledges with- 
 out doubt, and that they themselves may be pro- 
 tected in turn; in addition to which, General 
 Governments, doubting whether corporations have 
 souls or not, take every possible safeguard to pre- 
 vent an issue beyond the means of the corporation, 
 and require that everything they issue, be it in 
 the shape of a bond or in the likeness or simili- 
 tude of a bank note, be prepared so as to prevent 
 fraudulent imitation. 
 
 If it is necessary thus to guard against fraud, 
 where the chances of its detection are abundant, 
 how much more careful should General Governments 
 be to protect those for whom they are the executors, 
 particularly, where enormous sums are scattered 
 broadcast, where every denomination is current, and 
 
10 
 
 where the few cents of the laborer, and the five 
 hundreds of the merchant prince, spring from the 
 same source, be it a State, an assemblage of 
 States, or a Kingdom ? 
 
 The greater part of the civilized world has real- 
 ized the fact and the importance of the approval and 
 adoption of a system, which originating on this 
 continent, and growing out of its prosperity, has 
 been hailed as a success, and adopted as a security. 
 
 Soon after the American war, England, though 
 still embroiled in a saturnalia of blood, was (com- 
 mercially) exceedingly prosperous. The different States 
 of America, emerging from a long and bloody strug- 
 gle, with a new-found liberty, untrammelled by 
 foreign alliance, an enormous domain, extensive sea- 
 coast, and a hardy and self-reliant people, experienced 
 business prosperity and success unexampled in the 
 history of the world. Both countries felt a want 
 hitherto unknown in their mutual transactions, (an 
 extensive trade following the war;) a lack of some- 
 thing to represent values well ascertained; but from 
 scarcity of bullion, its difficulty of transport, the risk 
 attending its transmission, and the want of a new 
 system of paper money, the subject agitated the minds 
 of the whole business community. The English tried 
 hanging extensively, and without effect; commissions 
 of inquiry as to the invention or introduction of a 
 method of producing bank notes were established — 
 one under Sir William Congreve, to which all the 
 
11 
 
 best artists of England wore invited, and liberal 
 rewards were offered. The most brilliant artists of 
 the day in England promptly responded; beautiful 
 drawings and engravings were submitted, and the 
 collective artist voice of England answered that 
 there was no protection against the forger and 
 counterfeiter, unless by the highest expression of 
 the arts of drawing and engraving, and the finest 
 and most complicated lettering, coupled with the use 
 of carefully prepared paper. The employment of the 
 Rose engine was also suggested as an additional 
 security. About the same time that the artists of 
 England were thus exercising themselves, an Ameri- 
 can engraver, Mr. Joshua Perkins, was cracking the 
 nut of the difficulty, which was nearly as great at 
 that time in the American States as in England. 
 (In a few years, but for Mr. Perkins, it would 
 have been much greater.) With a thorough knowledge 
 of the engraving art, Mr. Perkins, remarkable for 
 skill in mechanics, and deep knowledge, for the 
 time, in the management of steel, its carbonization 
 and decarbonization, had come to the same conclu- 
 sion as the English artists, viz : the importance 
 of the introduction of the highest development of 
 the commercial art of the dav. He went much 
 further, and proved that it was not only the great- 
 est protection, but also successfully met the objections 
 which arose from the statements of the English 
 artists, who endeavored to prove that, no matter 
 
12 
 
 how desirable, high art could not be employed, from 
 the scarcity of skilled labor indispensable to that 
 end. The only method suggested by them of pro- 
 duction or reproduction was, that upon the receipt 
 of an elaborate drawing, the engraver was to closet 
 himself for months, if need be, and carefully pro- 
 duce a work of art which, after having the addi- 
 tion of the necessary lettering, would be published to 
 the world as a bank note. The objections to this 
 mode are several, and self-evident. First: Plates 
 wear out rapidly, and the sickness or death of the 
 artist would involve the destruction of the original 
 plate when worn, it being next to impossible to 
 make an accurate or successful copy ; again, it 
 would put the Government in the hands of the 
 first artist who might make enormous demands to 
 reproduce his own work; but the insuperable bar- 
 rier existed, that there were not skilled artists 
 enough in the country, nori probably in the world, 
 to meet with the daily and increasing wants of 
 the nation. The invention of Mr. Perkins, and 
 a description of his method of reproducing the 
 finest engravings, and their application, is worthy of 
 another chapter. 
 
IS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The preservation and reproduction of the finest 
 work of the engraving art in "petit" was all of 
 Mr. Perkins' invention. Knowing that the steel upon 
 which the skilled and patient artist had curiously 
 and cunningly wrought the careful tracery of face 
 and form, of hill and dale, the classic and gro- 
 tesque, the heroic and the humble, would, under 
 the hand of the printer, soon become obliterated, 
 he, fortunately for art, introduced, or rather invented, 
 an application of well known chemical laws to the 
 preservation of the art gem so carefully manipu- 
 lated, and, by an inversion of his processes, multi- 
 plied it ad infinitum. 
 
 Without troubling the reader with the philo- 
 sophical details of Mr. Perkins' process, we will 
 simply state his manner of procedure. Into an 
 air-tight box, filled with finely powdered animal 
 charcoal, the glittering and beautiful piece of steel 
 is imbedded; the metal box and its precious con- 
 tents are then submitted to the action of an 
 intense fire for several hours. The steel, previously 
 robbed of its carbon, to render it soft enough for 
 the steel instrument of the engraver, sucks, as it 
 were, from the carbon by which it is surrounded, 
 under the influence of the fiery god, that which 
 it had formerly. Its hardness secured by the 
 
14 
 
 workman plunging the reddened plate into water 
 or oil. It now bids defiance to the instrument 
 that previously could plough through its polished 
 surface. The plate hardened, has become brittle, 
 and, under a severe blow, would almost crumble; 
 still its hardness enables it to despise friction, and 
 the tablet is in a condition which may yield hun- 
 dreds of thousands of impressions. The , artist, pur- 
 suing his object, and not content with securing his 
 original engraving, determines that it shall serve 
 as the matrix of copies innumerable. On the per- 
 iphery of a cylinder of steel, thoroughly decarbon- 
 ized, and under the rolling pressure of the transfer 
 press, all the delicate lines in intaglio, every scratch, 
 cut, or even the nervous trace of the carelessly 
 imposed hand, is, however, taken up en relievo. 
 This roll, or cylinder, is, then, in turn, submitted 
 to the hardening process, which, if successfully 
 prosecuted, gives to the engraver a tool by which 
 his art treasures can be multiplied millions of 
 times. 
 
 It is deemed proper in this paper to avoid all 
 technical, chemical, or philosophic terms, although 
 the memory of Mr. Perkins may be wronged, when 
 the deep thought, the careful analysis, and fre- 
 quent experiment, is not sufficiently dwelt upon 
 and lauded, for he not only made the egg to 
 stand on its end, but accomplished what the artist 
 world of France and England deemed an impossi- 
 
15 
 
 bility. His process perfected, Perkins, and three 
 other artist compatriots, went to England. That 
 nation, still smarting, every portion of its human 
 economy being touched, if not hurt, received them 
 coldly — warmth was scarcely to be expected, and 
 these gentlemen met, in their attempt to answer a 
 national call, contempt, rudeness, and (but for the 
 presence of some Americans of wealth) poverty, 
 and, perhaps, a sheriff's prison. Even Sir William 
 Cokgreve, in his report, dispatches the invention 
 of Perkins, and the labor of his coadjutors, with 
 the expression, that " our American friends were 
 ignorant of the state of the fine arts in England." 
 
 It is strange that Sir William should not have 
 recognized the fact that thi foreign artists did not 
 wish to destroy the engraving art, but only 
 to perpetuate its finest or best expression, to 
 to make it comparatively free to the public, and 
 give to the masses what was then only obtainable 
 by the wealthy; and for the purposes of banks, 
 either national or local, a security the}' never 
 before possessed. First, by reproducing, with great 
 rapidity and trifling cost, the finest works of the 
 engraver; secondly, the absolute veri-similitude of 
 each transfer from the original ; thirdly, the di- 
 vision of labor, when bank notes were required, 
 involving, without increasing the real cost, the labor 
 of the following described artists and workmen : 
 
 The designer or modeler of the note or bond. 
 
16 
 
 The draughtsman of the specific vignettes or 
 ornamentations. 
 
 The etcher of the before-named subjects. 
 
 The finisher, or artist, who adds the final touch. 
 
 The letterers, (usually divided into three classes). 
 
 The artist, who cuts, by the geometrical lathe, 
 the intricate denomination counters, etc. 
 
 The machinist, who presides over the process of 
 carbonization, etc. 
 
 The transferer. 
 
 Now, here is named the staff indispensable to the 
 production of a bank note plate, according to the 
 system of Mr. Perkins. It is true, that very often 
 artists may be found who unite in themselves the 
 designer and the engraver, the etcher and the 
 finisher, the chemist and the transferer, but no 
 instance is recorded of any one man possessing 
 sufficient knowledge to successfully produce a set 
 of duplicate plates of such high artistic merit as 
 has been required by the bankers of this continent 
 for the last fifty years. The practice recommended 
 by Sir William Congreve placed all the security 
 in the skill of one man; the mode suggested by 
 Perkins, Fairman, and other American artists, in- 
 creased the difficulty and the security, by dividing 
 the labor and multiplying the skill. By the in- 
 tricate appliances of mechanical ability, compara- 
 tively easy to obtain, the labor of six months was 
 reproduced in so many hours, and the creative 
 
17 
 
 hand and mind was left to the production of fresh 
 beauties, instead of slowly and drudgingly copying 
 itself in its works. It is scarcely necessary to urge 
 that no community should put itself into the 
 hands of one man. In business, as in politics, 
 there is but one result — the whim of the dictator 
 "in purple and fine linen." or the whim, or 
 death, of a single artist. The American artists, 
 after being well informed of the fact that the 
 English commission and the English artists had 
 come to the conclusion that no good could come 
 out of an American Nazareth, returned home, 
 Perkins having first secured a patent, and estab- 
 lished a house, under the title of Perkins, Bacon 
 & Co. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 It was natural that the parent should reject 
 words of wisdom or instruction from the child ; 
 England, "still unconquered and uncivilized,"* would 
 not be instructed by a rebel scion, and continued 
 to hang fellows for forgery, after first giving them 
 an inducement and a premium for doing so, by 
 rendering it so easy to be done. In the year 1813, 
 a printer, a common workman, was hanged in 
 
 * Shee'a Rhvmes on Art. 
 
IS 
 
 Dublin, Ireland, for forgery, id est, printing forged 
 notes ; and on the same day, before the body of 
 the culprit was quite cold, his son was arrested 
 while working the same press, and committing the 
 same crime, for which his father had suffered the 
 penalty of the law. The son was hanged. But if 
 the Government of England had continued hanging 
 offenders against its paper currency until this day, 
 it would not have lessened the commission of the 
 crime. It was forced, as much by its wants as 
 the example of foreign countries, to effect a radical 
 change in its mode of issue, and, by rendering the 
 crime more difficult of execution, gave protection 
 to the public. Twenty-five years after the visit 
 of Mr. Perkins to Great Britain, the National Bank 
 of Ireland had adopted his plan in its entirety ; 
 and nearly all the banks of England adopted some 
 modification, when not used completely. All the 
 American States, and the British American Prov- 
 inces, had, from its invention, their bank notes 
 produced in that way. The enormous amount of 
 employment thus thrown into the hands of the 
 engravers, who devoted their attention and skill to 
 what is technically termed "bank note engraving," 
 enabled them to spend large sums in the produc- 
 tion of beautiful specimens of art, and subjects in 
 portraiture, history, mythology, landscape, etc., 
 became common to the faces of the circulating 
 bank bill. At the same time, no effort was spared 
 
19 
 
 to improve or devise instruments of the utmost 
 intricacy for the production, mechanically, of orna- 
 naments, the forging of which, by the human 
 hand, was an impossibility. In short, no effort 
 was left unmade to guard the public, that the 
 highest expression of art, combined with the great- 
 est mechanical ingenuity, could afford. One of the 
 strongest evidences of how completely baffled the 
 forger had become, was the report, some seven 
 years since, of the Secretary of the Treasury of 
 the United States, wherein it was stated "that 
 the number of frauds against the metallic currencj^, 
 as compared to those against the paper circulation, 
 was as twenty to one in favor of the bank notes 
 as a public security." 
 
 That foreign nations have recognized the value 
 of the invention, and the extent of its develop- 
 ment, is proved in several instances. During the 
 residence of ex-Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, 
 at the Court of Russia, through his intervention, 
 probably, the entire paper currency of the empire 
 was changed into one made in America, and a large 
 and completely fitted out establishment, with artists 
 and machinists, was sent out to St. Petersburg. 
 The Emperor of Brazil, also, adopted a similarly 
 made issue. The British Government, for its colo- 
 nial postage stamps, King Otho; for the national 
 notes of the Kingdom of Greece; and many of the 
 South American Republics; all, by their adoption 
 
20 
 
 of the mode, and intrusting the execution of their 
 notes to the American engravers, gave the highest 
 testimony of the excellence of the system employed. 
 Despite, however, of the many advantages that 
 bank note plates made by transferring from the 
 original hardened steel possess, yet many countries 
 continue to follow the old -methods, as in the case 
 of the Bank of England, where the printing of 
 the notes is done from raised surfaces, or blocks, 
 similar to brass stamps that book-binders use for 
 ornamenting the covers of books ; the main pro- 
 tection being in the peculiarity of the paper, and 
 the system of numbering, the English bill never 
 being for a smaller sum than five pounds sterling, 
 and when received for redemption is never re- 
 issued. Bank of England notes seldom "find their 
 way into the hands or pockets of the working or 
 laboring people, their use being mostly confined to 
 the wealthy or mercantile classes. By that means, 
 when a fraudulent note is issued, it can be (com- 
 paratively) easily traced to the source it sprung 
 from. Probably their excellent police system, and 
 the certainty of severe punishment being inflicted 
 on the criminal when caught, may assist in the 
 prevention of forgery. Extensive frauds have, how- 
 ever, occurred, and thefts of paper are not un- 
 common. 
 
 Iii the German States, on the Continent of 
 Europe, wood cuts, with mortices for type letters, 
 
21 
 
 are much used, and are of the rudest execution ; 
 the paper used in the printing being made under 
 royal authority, the printing itself is often in a 
 combination of colors, prepared by eminent chemists, 
 in national laboratories, and their composition pre- 
 served as a profound secret. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Lithography, or the art of printing on stone, 
 has of late years become extensively used in 
 various ways. Its simplicity, its easy adaptation to 
 every variety of pictorial representation, its cheap- 
 ness, the facility of reproducing or multiplying 
 itself, has rendered it a most useful addition to 
 printing processes, and a formidable rival to the 
 more ancient, but more perfect, art of engraving 
 on copper and steel. 
 
 There are three departments cf lithographic pro- 
 duction which are all in general u?e, and are 
 totally distinct from each other, having each its 
 peculiar merits and facilities for supplying the 
 wants of the public. The first is used exclusively 
 for pictorial purposes, from the rough caricature to 
 the highly finished and artistic historical picture. 
 The admirable chalk drawings of Julien Lemercier, 
 of Paris, the gorgeous chromo-lithographs, are fa- 
 
9,9, 
 
 miliar to all. This branch of the art affords line 
 scope for artistic talent, and possesses a peculiar 
 charm for all lovers of the picturesque, and has 
 been brought to a high point of perfection by its 
 disciples in France and England. 
 
 Second. Engraving on stone is found useful prin- 
 cipally in the production .of topographical maps, 
 book illustrations, scientific diagrams, labels, etc/; 
 it is practiced chiefly in Germany, where it has 
 mostly superceded engraving on steel and copper. 
 It is, however, incapable of highly finished produc- 
 tions, and the attempts at pictorial representations 
 are feeble, flat, and altogether wanting in effect. 
 
 Third. This branch of lithography, which is 
 nearly dependent on the efforts of the steel engraver, 
 and has been in vogue for many years, principally 
 in England, and of late introduced to this country, 
 where it has met with very great success, is sim- 
 ply the transferring of impressions of engraved 
 plates to stone, and printing from the transfer. 
 The enormous multiplying power of this mode 
 will readily be perceived by the reader, on being- 
 informed of the fact that an engraved steel plate 
 will print, say twenty-five thousand copies, and 
 each one of these impressions, when transferred to 
 stone, will yield, when printed by a careful hand, 
 six thousand. This branch of the business is de- 
 voted mainly to what is technically called "com- 
 mercial work," such as bank checks, bills of 
 
23 
 
 exchange, promissory notes, and all the blank 
 documents required in commercial transactions. Not- 
 withstanding the cheapness and utility of this 
 method of reproduction, it carries upon its face 
 the inevitable stamp of inferiority, and has never 
 been brought into requisition by banks of issue 
 in this country for their notes of circulation. 
 
 An impression from a steel plate, taken on the 
 enameled paper of the lithographer, however beau- 
 tiful and perfect the engraving may be, when laid 
 on the stone, and passed through the press re- 
 repeatedly, under a powerful pressure, loses a great 
 portion of the delicate tracing and finish of the 
 lighter parts, as well as the rich velvety tones of 
 the shadows of the original; the sharp, well de- 
 fined lines of the artist's "burin'," the free and 
 Mowing expressions of the practiced etcher in land- 
 scape, the clear and carefully traced details of the 
 human form, the delicate gradations of light and 
 shadow in a sky or cloud, are partially lost, and 
 what remains, is but a grey, broken mass of lines, 
 offensive to the eye of the true connoisseur; again, 
 impressions from stone are liable to the same ob- 
 jections as may be urged against all "surface 
 printing," the paper receiving a mere film of ink 
 from stone, and, consequently, soon obliterated by 
 constant handling; it is a well known fact that the 
 quantity of ink deposited on the paper from an en- 
 graved steel or copper plate, would be sufficient to 
 
24 
 
 produce ten or more from the transfer on stone ; this 
 fact accounts for the great durability, so to speak, of 
 the engraved bank note ; the ink used, being a pure 
 carbon, will retain its color and sharpness as long 
 as the paper upon which it has been deposited will 
 hold together. Notes which were issued by our 
 Government at the commencement of the war, en- 
 graved by Keatinge & Ball, were in circulation, 
 (having been re-issued many times,) up to the time 
 of funding them, while stacks upon stacks of the 
 lithographic issue were cancelled or destroyed, never 
 being in a fit condition for re-issue, even after a few 
 months' circulation. 
 
 The pressing wants of our Government have forced 
 into use this process of lithography , in which, it is 
 easy to perceive, there is little protection, and, un- 
 fortunately, offers a premium to crime by simpli- 
 fying its commission. 
 
 As before explained, there is, in the preparation 
 of bank notes, a great number of skilled and 
 accomplished artists engaged ; by lithography, the 
 ease with which copies of the works of these artists 
 are produced, or rather reproduced, is so great that its 
 merits as a distributer of their productions becomes 
 the strongest reason why its employment should not 
 be resorted to whenever or wherever a more elabo- 
 rate or complicated method of making a bank note 
 can be adopted. The banks and bankers of Europe 
 and America have, long ago, pronounced against it, 
 
25 
 
 unless where some specific protection was afforded 
 outside the art, or mechanical security offered by the 
 mere printing or engraving. 
 
 Another consideration in connection with this sub- 
 ject demands the attention of all interested in the 
 purity or genuineness of our paper circulation. In 
 an establishment, either Governmental or private, 
 having authority to issue paper money, the abstrac- 
 tion of sheets or notes by officers or clerks is of very 
 rare occurrence, the individuals employed in such 
 institutions being, in all cases, men of known probity 
 and under heavy bonds. The history of the bank 
 note engraving and printing establishments of America, 
 furnishes the remarkable fact, that fraudulent con- 
 duct on the part of employees has seldom or never 
 occurred ; the system adopted, being the result 
 of long experience, has rendered theft or abstraction, 
 to any extent, quite impossible; besides, it has been 
 found that persons regularly employed in the prose- 
 cution of that business, have always been known to 
 be extremely zealous in the prevention of fraud as 
 well as in the detection of the counterfeiter. 
 
 In lithography, or where movable types are used, 
 the case with which fraud can be committed, un- 
 fortunately, renders crime too frequent. An im- 
 pression of the most elaborate plate, taken with 
 what is known as " transfer ink," easy of access and 
 not at all difficult to make from the abundant re- 
 ceipts and instructions published, can, if a workman 
 4 
 
is so disposed, be taken off, concealed, taken else- 
 where, transferred to stone, and copies, to any 
 extent, put into circulation, differing from the genu- 
 ine only in the signatures, which afford no protection 
 to the public, and require the keen-eyed expert for 
 their detection. Knowing that great frauds have 
 been committed, have we not a perfect right to doubt 
 the security of a system that gives to a common 
 workman the opportunity as well as the temptatkn 
 of enriching himself, with so little risk, and so few 
 chances of detection, and of the punishment due 
 to his crime ? 
 
 C II A P T E R V . 
 
 The different methods employed as safeguards against 
 the efforts of the counterfeiter have been the sub- 
 ject of much thought and investigation among the 
 members of the various establishments of bank note 
 engravers. Many have been from time to time 
 adopted and abandoned but the most effectual at 
 the present are believed to be: First, the sub- 
 division of labor in the engraving department, which, 
 with the employment of the best talent, obtains the 
 highest degree of perfection in the various produc- 
 tions of that branch, thereby rendering it impossible 
 for one man, successfully, to imitate them. 
 
Second, the repetition of the denominations of the 
 note in a variety of ways, and carried to any ex- 
 tent by means of the transfer press. This work may 
 be incorporated with the body of the note or printed 
 from a separate plate in a color. This is found to 
 be a great addition to its security: the original 
 word or words being engraved with a view to its 
 perfection, is repeated to infinity, if necessary, and 
 absolute similarity is obtained throughout the whole, 
 which would be impossible when done by hand. 
 y^vy beautiful "denomination counters" are pro- 
 duced in a similar manner, and present still greater 
 difficulties to the counterfeiter. 
 
 Third, the Medallion Ruling Machine. The beau- 
 tiful work produced by this machine, so much admired 
 by the lovers of classic and the antique, was in 
 very general use twenty years ago, and considered, 
 at that time, as an effectual bar to imitation, but 
 is now considered less as a security than as a 
 means of ornamentation. The machine is of such 
 simple construction and so easy to be obtained, 
 that its use, as a security, has been nearly aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Fourth, the Geometric Lathe has been esteemed, 
 at all times, as the sheet anchor of public securitv 
 against the dangers of forgery. This wonderful and 
 truly " eccentric " machine has a power of produc- 
 tion, as regards change and variety of combination 
 and effect, that is reallv amazing. The least change 
 
28 
 
 of a wheel of the eccentric, or turn of a set screw, 
 produces a new pattern that shames the kaleido- 
 scope. It defies the efforts of the mathematician to 
 calculate the extent of its variations; the lines inter- 
 twining and crossing each other at all angles are 
 perfection itself, conforming to any shape the opera- 
 tor chooses to adopt; and when the transfer press 
 is brought to its aid, to give additional change to 
 the character of its work, human ingenuity fails in 
 the attempt to produce an imitation. 
 
 Fifth, the Transfer Press is the triumph of Mr. 
 Perkins' invention ; it is the foundation upon which 
 the whole superstructure of the art of bank note 
 engraving rests. It may be likened to the lever of 
 Archimedes, in its power to u move the world." A 
 powerful compound lever over a solid bed of iron, 
 upon which the hardened plate is placed, the soft 
 cylinder or " die " then placed in position, the pon- 
 derous lever closes on it, a rolling motion forward 
 and backwards is communicated, and in a few minutes 
 the ductile metal receives the reverse of the engrav- 
 ing with the certainty and accuracy of the electrotype 
 battery. Recent improvements have added greatly 
 to the general utility of this machine. Many of the 
 most beautiful and elaborate ornaments on our notes 
 are produced by transferring process, and though the 
 production of new plates and the "retouching" of 
 those worn by the hand of the printer, brings it 
 into daily and hourly requisition, yet it knows no 
 
" idle time " in the various other duties it is expected 
 to perform. 
 
 The competition for patronage which has always 
 existed among the various establishments engaged in 
 the business of bank note engraving, which, while it 
 gave rise to many important mechanical improvements, 
 and impulse to the creative faculties of the artist, 
 yet in the inordinate desire for the introduction of 
 novelties, has, in some respects, vitiated the tastes 
 of the community. This is observed in the over- 
 crowded, many-colored, badly-modeled notes of the 
 present day, giving to the bank note much the ap- 
 pearance of a fanciful label on a cologne water bot- 
 tle; and so far from adding to the difficulty of coun- 
 terfeiting, it is argued that a poor imitation of one of 
 these parti-colored notes is more likely to be success- 
 ful than that of a note of a more simple design. A 
 counterfeit is oftener detected at a single glance than 
 by close examination; that is to say, the first look 
 at a note determines either its genuineness or its 
 doubtful character, and it is only on elos.e examina- 
 tion that certainty is obtained; the least change, 
 either in general appearance or any of the details, 
 will be perceived instantaneously, where the embel- 
 lishments are well placed and distinct from each 
 other, while the gorgeous, calico-patterned note of 
 present fashion fatigues and confuses the eye, de- 
 priving that organ of its keenness of observation, 
 and exposing its owner to loss and vexation. 
 
30 
 
 Perfection, or an approximation to it, in every 
 department or detail connected with the production 
 of a bank note, is the true safeguard against fraud. 
 The artist, the machinist, the printer, and every 
 operative employed, should be of the highest ability. 
 The thousand and one different materials used 
 should be of the best of their kind, all and each 
 of* these contributing to the final result ; thus, 
 rendering every step towards the successful imita- 
 tion of a note more difficult, as the lack of any 
 one of these many requirements has a marked 
 effect upon the efforts of the forger, and baffles 
 the ingenuity of the most skillful. 
 
 It is in the want of material that the prosecu- 
 tion of bank note engraving and printing in the 
 Confederacy has met with the greatest difficulties. 
 Many of the most important articles are not to 
 be obtained in Europe of the quality desired; oth- 
 ers have to be improvised, as it were, on the 
 spot. The swamps of South Carolina furnish the 
 vegetable carbon for the inks, and the hills of 
 North Carolina and Virginia, the oils. Plates and 
 dies made from the crude steel. The manufacture 
 of machinery and presses gives employment to me- 
 chanism of an entirely novel character in the 
 South; in fact, to establishments of this kind, ne- 
 cessity has added to the machine shop the labora- 
 tory of the chemist. 
 
 One of the peculiarities of this business is, that 
 
31 
 
 time, as well as capital, is necessary for its suc- 
 cessful prosecution, where large demands are made 
 upon it; the accumulation of the labor of the .artist, 
 the immense variety of embellishment required at 
 his hands can be obtained only by patient and 
 persevering labor. The progress made, under these 
 difficulties and peculiarities, in the Confederacy is, 
 therefore, gratifying, and gives assurance that when 
 the clouds of war arc dissipated, the commerce of 
 the world admitted again to our silent wharves, 
 and peace, with healing wings, brings health, ac- 
 tivity, and her innumerable blessings to the once 
 happy people of the Confederacy, this important 
 branch' of industry will take its legitimate rank, 
 bestowing its benefits upon the commonwealth, as 
 well as honor and profit upon those engaged in its 
 prosecution. 
 
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