SIGNATURE EXPERTS THE SAFETY OF THE MODERN BANK

A New Departure in Banks--Examining All Signatures a Sure Preventive Against Forgery--The "Filling-in" Process--How One Forger Operated--Marvelous Accuracy of a Paying Teller--How He Attained Perfection--How Signature Clerks Work--A Common Dodge of Forgers--Post Dated Checks--A System That Prevents Forged and Raised Checks--Not a Forged or Raised Check Paid in Years.

[The following article has been kindly contributed by the manager of one of the largest English banks, located in London.]

One of the most trying positions in our business, is that of signature expert--the man who has to examine daily every draft that comes in through the clearing house and vouch for its genuineness. Our bank, one of the largest in London, employs six clerks who do nothing all day long but examine checks, and when I tell you that it is no uncommon thing for 10,000 drafts to come in during a single day you will understand that the job is not altogether the sinecure it is popularly supposed to be.

These clerks have not only to scrutinize the signatures both of drawer and drawee, but also examine the "filling-in," the latter being just as important, perhaps more so from a monetary point of view, as the signatures. As a matter of fact, the commonest forgery with which we have to deal is the "raising" of checks, and a forger of this nature generally chooses a check bearing a genuine signature but having very little "filling-in."

For instance, he knows that it would not be difficult to raise a check from 3 to 3000, for all he has to do is to erase the word "pounds,"

insert the word "thousand," and then add the erased word again. I have seen plenty of this kind of work during the time I have been examining checks.

One of the most impudent pieces of forgery, however, that I ever came across was a check raised from 5 to 500. The forger had evidently relied on colossal impudence carrying him through, for he had simply added a couple of ciphers and then between the words "five" and "pounds" had placed an omission mark and written the word "hundred"

above, adding the initials of the drawer of the check just to give the thing a look of careless genuineness.

It was so astounding a piece of cool audacity that we had bets on the check, two of my a.s.sistants declaring it to be O.K., while the other three and myself declared it to be a forgery. Further inquiries, of course, proved that the opinion of the majority was the correct one.

It is marvelous what a vast number of signatures some paying tellers will carry in their mind's eye, as it were, and thus be able to pa.s.s checks by the thousand without once having to refer to the signature books. We had a paying teller here a few years ago who was little less than a wonder. He knew perfectly the signatures of at least 5000 customers, and could detect the alteration of a stroke in any one of them in an instant.

More remarkable still was the fact that he recognized with equal facility the signatures of those customers whose checks only came in once or twice a year. But he made an art of his work, and I afterward discovered that most of his evenings were spent in studying and learning the signatures of the customers, for he was a wonderful hand at copying writing, and whenever a new signature would come in, one with which he was not acquainted, he would at once facsimile it in his pocket-book, and by the next morning would be able to recognize it among 10,000.

Signature clerks are not, as a rule, supposed to make copies of customers' autographs, but many of them do, and some men are clever enough at the work to even deceive themselves.

Of course, it is understood that when the signature clerks are not examining checks they are studying the autograph books in order to familiarize themselves with the calligraphy of every customer. Each check, you must understand, pa.s.ses through the hands of each clerk in turn, so that if one should pa.s.s a forgery or a "raised" draft it is very unlikely that the entire staff would do so. All these checks, of course, come through the clearing house, and if we should pa.s.s a forged draft and not find out our mistake before three o 'clock in the afternoon our bank would be held responsible. One of the commonest dodges adopted by the modern check-forger is to get a customer of some small country bank to introduce him to that inst.i.tution as a likely depositor. On the recommendation of the friend (who is probably quite unaware that the acquaintance he made some few months ago is a "wrong'un") there is no difficulty in accepting their new client's check for 2000, and the following day, when the same customer calls and withdraws 100 to 500, as the case may be, he is politely handed the cash, and then, of course, loses no time in skipping the town.

After the bogus customer's check has pa.s.sed through the clearing house it is returned to the bank on which it has been drawn and the fraud is at once discovered.

Another part of a signature clerk's duties is to see that no checks are post-dated, as of course no drafts must be paid until they fall due. On occasions a careless man will post-date a check, but as a rule the mistake is purposely made. This spotting of post-dated checks, however, is the easiest part of a signature clerk's work, and it is very seldom that a check so dated escapes him. Then, again, we are often notified that payment on certain checks has been stopped, and the clerks have to be on the lookout for these, and it must be a very careless staff indeed that lets them slip by. We are held responsible for all checks pa.s.sed after we have received notice to stop payment.

But it is very seldom now, owing to the cleverness of the experts, that any forged checks, "raised" checks, post-dated checks, or stopped checks pa.s.s the vigilant eyes of our staff without being detected, but when one does--well, although the signature clerks are not held monetarily responsible for the loss, it means a bad mark against them in the future, and they feel its effects next time promotions or "rises" are being handed out.

Altogether, though the work is interesting, and even fascinating in a way, the responsibilities are so great that the effect on the nerves is often very trying at times. One thing we are particular about, and that is to take no chances. If we have the slightest doubt about the genuineness of a check we at once communicate, either by telegraph, special messenger, or telephone, with the supposed drawer of the check, and in this way turn doubt into certainty. During the last three years not a single wrong check has pa.s.sed our vigilant optics, and, though I say it who should not, I do not believe there is a cleverer set of experts any where than those who compose my staff.

CHAPTER XIII

HOW TO DETERMINE AGE OF ANY WRITING

The Different Kinds of Ink Met With--Inks That Darken by Exposure to Sunlight and Air--Introduction of Aniline Colors to Determine the Age of Writings--An Almost Infallible Rule to Follow--To Determine Approximate Age of Ink Possible--The Ammonia System a Sure One--A Question of Great Interest to Bankers and Bank Employes--Thick Inks and Thin Inks--So-called Safety Inks That Are Not Safe--How to Restore Faded Inks--An Infallible Rule--Restoring Faded Writing--Restored by the Silk and Cotton System That Anyone Can Arrange--Danger of Exposing Restored Writing to the Sun.

The inks in common use over the United States at the present time, and for some years past, are not as numerous as one might be led to conclude. They are probably fifteen or at most twenty in all, including the most popular blue, red, magenta, and green inks. But among these there is a notable difference in character. Some are thick, heavy, and glossy, in character, and flow sluggishly from the pen. Few of these become much darker by standing. In this cla.s.s will be found the copying inks and those in which a large quant.i.ty of gums or similar thickening agents are used.

Other inks are pale, limpid, and flow easily from the pen, and this cla.s.s usually shows a notable darkening by exposure to sunlight and air. It will be unnecessary here to refer more particularly to the intermediate varieties or to discuss their various composition.

It should be, remembered here that in the last twenty years, or since the introduction into general commerce of aniline colors, which Hofmann discovered in 1856, these latter have been employed more and more in writing fluids; not only in mixtures of which they are the princ.i.p.al ingredients, but to a greater or less degree in all inks.

Their presence, even in small quant.i.ty, in the gallo-tannate of iron and logwood inks can be generally detected by an iridescent and semi-metallic l.u.s.ter.

To a.s.sist in determining the ages of writings by one and the same ink, it is to be observed that the older the writing the less soluble it is in dilute ammonia. If the writing be lightly touched with a brush dipped in ten-per-cent ammonia, the later writing will always give up more or less soluble matter to the ammonia before the earlier. In case of inks of different kinds this test is not serviceable, for characters written in logwood ink, for instance, will always give up their soluble material sooner than nutgall inks, even if the last named be later applied. To estimate the age of writing from the amount of bleaching in a given time by hydrochloric or oxalic acid is very precarious, because the thickness of the ink film in a written character is not always the same, and the acid bleaches the thinner layer sooner than the thicker.

The determination of the age of a written paper is a problem difficult of solution. According to F. Carre the age can be approximately determined if the characters written in iron ink are pressed in a copying press and a commercial hydrochloric acid diluted with eleven parts of water is subst.i.tuted for water; or, if the written characters are treated for some time with this diluted acid.

The explanation is that the ink changes in time, its organic substance disappears little by little, and leaves behind an iron compound, which in part is not attacked even by acids.

An unsized paper is impregnated with the described diluted acid, copied with the press, and a copy from writing eight or ten years old can be obtained as easily as one by means of water from a writing one day old.

A writing thirty years old gives, by this method, a copy hardly legible, and one over sixty years old, a copy hardly visible. In order to protect the paper against the action of the acid, it should be drawn through ammoniacal water.

To determine the exact age of writings by the ink is not easy. The approximate age may be determined with some degree of certainty. If ink-writings are but a few days old, it is easy to distinguish them from other writing years old. But to tell by the ink which of two writings is the older, when one is but two months and the other two years, is, as a rule, impossible.

Where during the progress of a trial a doc.u.ment purporting to be years old is introduced in evidence, and it can be shown that it is but a few days old, having been prepared for the occasion, ordinarily the age of the writing will be comparatively easy of demonstration by the expert. Oxidization will not have set in to any extent, if the ink is very fresh, and this, with a careful watching of the color for any darkening, will determine whether or not the ink is fresh. This ink study should be a question of the utmost interest to bankers and bank employes.

A ten-per-cent solution of ammonia applied to two inks in question will show which is the fresher. The older ink will resist the action of the ammonia longer and give up less soluble matter than the newer writing. Nutgall, and logwood inks, of course, should not be tested comparatively by this method, as the logwood ink will respond to the ammonia sooner than the nutgall ink.

F. Carre also gives another method for determining, approximately, the age of ink-writings. If the writing is in iron ink, and is moistened with a solution of one part of hydrochloric acid to eleven parts of water and put in letter-copying press and copy transferred to copy paper it should give a strong copy, if but ten years old; a hardly legible copy, if thirty years old; and if sixty years old, a few marks will be copied, but they will not be legible.

If the same solution be used in place of water, as in the ordinary letter-copying process and the copying paper be saturated with it, the result will be the same.

To determine the age of writing by applying bleaching acids and watching results and counting the seconds is a dangerous method. Thick inks will respond to the acids slower than thin, and the time comparisons are misleading.

Safety inks, so-called, designed to resist the action of acids and alkalies have been repeatedly put upon the market, but no such ink has ever successfully challenged the world and proved its t.i.tle of safety.

Many chemicals are recommended as restorations for faded writing, but these should be avoided as far as possible, as they are liable to stain, disfigure the paper, and in the end make matters materially worse. Familiarity with particular handwritings after some practice will enable the reader to make out otherwise unintelligible words without any other a.s.sistant than a powerful magnifying gla.s.s.

If the ink is very faint, the simplest and most harmless restorative is sulphate of ammonia, but its loathsome smell once encountered is not easily forgotten. The experiment in consequence is very seldom repeated for the result is scarcely good enough to risk a repet.i.tion of so horrible a smell.

The writing on old and faded doc.u.ments may be restored, by chemical treatment, turning the iron salt still remaining into ferrous sulphate.

A process which will restore the writing temporarily is as follows: A box four or five inches deep and long and broad enough to hold the doc.u.ment, with a gla.s.s, is needed. A net of fine white silk or cotton threads is stretched across the box at about one half the depth. Two saucers containing yellow ammonium hydrosulphide are placed in the bottom of the box. By means of a clean sponge or brush, moisten the paper with distilled water; then place it on the net with the writing side down. The action of the vapor of the ammonium hydrosulphide will cause the obliterated writing to slowly turn brown, then black. But within a short time after removal from the box the writing will again disappear.

Another method is to wash the doc.u.ment carefully in a solution of hydrochloric acid, one part, and distilled water, one hundred parts.

Dry the moistened paper somewhat, leaving it just moist enough to hold a uniform layer of fine yellow prussiate of potash. A plate of gla.s.s with a light pressure should be placed on this. In a few hours dry the paper thoroughly, and carefully brush off the yellow prussiate of potash. The writing should come out a Prussian blue. This restored writing will be permanent unless exposed too much to the light.

The hydrochloric acid must be thoroughly removed; otherwise, it will destroy the paper. Crystallized soda, two parts, and distilled water, one hundred parts, in solution, will counteract the hydrochloric acid, if the doc.u.ment is allowed to float on it for twenty-four hours.

CHAPTER XIV

DETECTING FRAUD AND FORGERY IN PAPERS AND DOc.u.mENTS

Infallible Rules for the Detection of Same--New Methods of Research--Changing Wills and Books of Accounts--Judgment of the Naked Eye--Using a Microscope or Magnifying Gla.s.s--Changeable Effects of Ink--How to Detect the Use of Different Inks--Sized Papers Not Easily Altered--Inks That Produce Chemical Effects--Inks That Destroy Fiber of Paper--How to Test Tampered or Altered Doc.u.ments--Treating Papers Suspected of Forgery--Using Water to Detect Fraud--Discovering Scratched Paper--Means Forgers Use to Mask Fraudulent Operations--How to Prepare and Handle Test Papers--Detecting Paper That Has Been Washed--Various Other Valuable Tests to Determine Forgery--A Simple Operation That Anyone Can Apply--Iodine Used On Papers and Doc.u.ments--An Alcohol Test That is Certain--Bringing Out Telltale Spots--Double Advantage of Certain Tests--Reappearance of Former Letters or Figures--What Genuine Writing Reveals--When an Entire Paper or Doc.u.ment is Forged.

The art of detecting forgery or fraud, in checks, drafts, doc.u.ments, seals, writing materials, or in the characters themselves is a study that has attracted handwriting experts since its study was taken up.

There are almost infallible rules for the work and in this chapter is given several new methods of research that will prove of the utmost value to the public.