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Show . Money Making as a Fine Art I !ei fTlO SAY that Americans make the best banknotes iu the world may sound at first rather boastful, and yet any history of the art and industry of note engraving which failed to record that fact would be incomplete'. incom-plete'. Paul Revere was the first American banknote artist, and from the time of the chartering ot the Bank of North America, under the direction of Robert Morris, in 1781, up to the present, American engravers have excelled not only in the artistic quality of their design, but iu their provisions against counterfeiting. Marco Polo found banknotes in China ages ago, printed on paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree. One of these notes, upon which the great Venetian traveler himself may have gazed, is on exhibition ex-hibition at this day in the office of an American Amer-ican company. It is one of a series issued by the Ming dynasty about 1390 A. D. , "current anywhere under the heavens" and seems to have been printed from wooden blocks ou a sheet of paper nine by thirteen inches a bigger surface thau auy mnu could cover with both hands outstretched. It is good for "one string of cash." The provision pro-vision against forgery is simple to the point - of severity "Counterfeiters hereof will be executed. Persons giving information of counterfeiters will be rewarded with tads 2o0, and, in addition, will receive the property prop-erty belonging to the criminal." The head of the emperor who gave the order and the lopped heads of the counterfeiters have loug since moldered into impalpable dust, the property of the criminal vanished aud left not so much as a shade, but the faded old banknote, pressed between the sheets ot glass and framed in carveu teak, still croaks its harsh warning to him who can understand under-stand it. Another great government has placed much dependence upon death as a deterrent to imitators imi-tators of its promises to pay. When .lacob Perkins, of Xewburyport, Mass., invented the melhod of transferring destns from hardened steel plates to steel cylinders and rctransferring to flat, plates, thus enabling the engraver to devote the time necessary to accomplish his best work iu the original and reproduce it at will, the new process aroused international interest. Mr. Perkins and his ussoeiates weut to London iu 1S10, at the instance in-stance of the British minister at Vashillg-tou, Vashillg-tou, to aid the Bank of F.ngland to issue notes not easily counterfeited. But the conservative con-servative old bunk refused to adopt the new method, preferring, as one of the Americans Ameri-cans said, to rely upou the baugmau than the 'engraver. Nevertheless, the Eugliik 1- tV in time to follow AmerieaD method-, 'I the geometric lathe had been invea'.: (T Asa Spencer, of New London, Conn.. ft improved by-Cyrus Durand. $ The governments of continental!' depend exclusively upon color work t:; , tect their paper currency, and several .' liuge banks of issue have civil enpsw charge of their bureaus of eugravl:, printing, although what conrjeetio: '- . may be between engineering aud tr.:. ' is a mystery. Many Italian Ininkti'::- ' easy to counterfeit. The Barak of Spi::.' 51 years ago abandoned its uvn -f-cause its notes were so sucres?!'::!.' " 1 tated that counterfeits were ar-vr'.ert : -bank without question. A private , iiow does the work. The Hunk of tf - ' now uses the American method, lia-:; J-sad J-sad experiences with notes ot A'.' German and Kuglish fashioning. -A myth that probably will never if- ' us that the notes of the Bank of cannot be coimterfeited with Fin'oe. 1 matter of fact, they can be imiial'Jr: :; enough, for little attempt is mn'lclo; the notes beyond the use of a Ji ;" paper. The water-mark can t " ' copied. - One great practical safeguard of er' ness is the custom of tlieliaoko!-land tlieliaoko!-land to cancel every note that i5 ' , to the hank and to issue another in iis; 1 j) This and the practice of keeping s 1 of the numbers of all banknotes t. every business establishment keep keen sense of responsibility, which security. The American style of banknote -;' . come the standard in the countries ot L- aud South America. The expense! Brazilian Government led the way i-nfter i-nfter various disappointments-much-vaunted Austrian : system wastt.--notcs being engraved and printed in!-- under that system. They proved j -J J" failure. Counterfeiters flonriM ; Brazilians tried banknotes made in t- and these were promptly ami .. imitated as soon as the coir.itrriot'.i-' get their plates and paper ro J : tried Gorman and English est:!-'1" a but still without success in the P -the banknote circulation, and ct la-y . to the luttod States and foaw a;.;: bills practically impossible to c'--'( . with success. So it is no boart. . record of fact, to state that Amf"" the best banknotes in the world- |