US54835A - Mode of preparing bank-notes to prevent counterfeiting - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEO. 'l. JONES, on CINCINNATI, onro.

MODE 0F PREPARING BANK-NOTES TO PREVENT COUNTERFEITING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 54,835, dated May 15, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE T. J ones, of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have made new and useful Improvements in the Mode of Preparing Bank- Notes, Bonds, 860., to Prevent Counterfeiting; and I do hereby declare the following to be'a full, clear, and exact description of the same, sufficient to enable one skilled in the art to which it appertains to use the same.

Myinvention consists in eoveringthe printed sheet with a transparent film, such as bankpaper or other fiber laid on in pulp or in sheet, or such other material capable of being placed thereon in solution or in a sheet, the said covering serving toprotect the printed surface from being tampered with without such defacement as would expose it to detection.

WVhile not confining myself to the exact detail to be described in this paragraph of my specification, I will state a certain mode of procedure, which is as follows: The engraved plate being filled with ink in the ordinary manner, an impression is taken therefrom on unsized paper. The said impression is then, in a vat, paper-machine, or otherwise, caused to take upon its faceafilm of sized pulp, which constitutes a transparent covering above the printed surface of the impression, and the sheet is then dried. This surface protects the ink from the action of acid or alkalies ordinarily used by counterfeiters in transferring an impression from the genuine note to the blank plate, and also prevents the adhesion of the ink of the impression to the said plate.

It will be manifest to the expert thatit would be a hopeless task to attempt to make a tracing from a genuine note thus manufactured with such a nicety and precision as to make a reasonably-good counterfeit; and one object of the invention is to prevent the ink of the genuine impression from being transferred to the plate of the 'eonnterfeiter by interposing between them a film of fiber which shall be a bar to the successful operation of the graver.

In thus covering the impression 011 unsized paper with a film of sized pulp, which constitutes a new paper face upon the printed surface, the size, penetrating the fibrous material of the backing on which the ink is laid, unites the two thicknesses of paper, and the ink is imprisoned between them, and cannotbereaehed without destroying the integrity of one or the other of the paper surfaces, which on the onehand preserves itfrom being transferred by the counterfeiter and on the other hand prevents tampering with the face of the note to change its value.

I do not confine myself to the use of unsized paper for taking an impression, nor to the treatment of the said impression with a size-pulp, because approximate results may be reached by taking the impression on sized paperand by covering the impression with a sized pulp, the two thicknesses of paper uniting with some degree of certainty; but I prefer to use the process I have detailed for reasons which will be made apparent.

A better impression can be taken on unsized than on sized paper, for the reason that the ink is incorporated with the fiber instead of lying upon the sized surface, and the sized pulp is better than the unsized, because it penetrates the backing-paper and causes a close adhesion of the two paper surfaces.

By this mode of preparation of notes, 850., I am enabled to use colors which will not bear the ordinary handling of a note when exposed upon its surface.

Some colors which are bright and appropriate for bank-note ornamentation are so destructible as to prevent their use under theordinary process of preparation of banknotes.

By my process the impression in the expensive ink may be printed from the surface of the plates, the fugitive color being retained by the imposition of the film of paper over the impression. This surface color would, in

many cases, be speedily worn off were no protection afforded to it; and, as I said before, by my process I am enabled to use such ink and in such manner as could not be readily done by the ordinary preparation of notes with the ink of the impression exposed upon the surface. 7

By this mode of preparation of notes I am enabled to prevent the notes from being photographed by the discharge of the inks in detail.

This invention is applicable to bank-notes, bonds, and other evidences of value subject to be tampered with or counterfeited by means of acting upon the ink in one form or another. in the mode of preparing bank-notes, bonds, Having described my invention, what 1 &c., to prevent counterfeiting, I have signed claim therein as new, and desire to secure by my hand this 16th day of December, 1865. Letters Patent, is l GEO. T. JONES.

Covering the impression with a transparent Witnesses: film of paper or other fibrous material, sub- 0. D. SMITH, stantially as described. W. F. HALL.

To the above specification for improvement