Show FORGERY IN GOLD Nation's Busiest Forger Keeps Out of Prison Only Block Away The busiest forger In the country plies his trade Just a block from Iowa's state But he has no fear his vocation will lead him behind the grim walls as it has hundreds of other law-abiding James Jordan is well started on a career of counterfeiting signatures at the age of Already he has forged more than including those of Herbert Hoover and Douglas MacArthur but he's never been at odds with the Every day since October Jim has duplicated about 20 signatures per nearly three every James Jordan nf Is shown the inn he has engraved on Sheaffer fountain pens during the past working And he forges only on Jordan Is the signature engraver nt the Sheaffer Pen whose factory in Fort 19 miles from is Just a throw from the Sheaffer products include special fountain mechanical pencils and which bear a gold band containing the signature of the It's Jim's job to reproduce the engraving them on the gold His kind of forgery Is more difficult than the illegal varieties that land their makers in jail after discovery by hawk-eyed bank tellers or The illegal forger does his signature imitations on flat paper with pen and Legal forger Jordan has to cut his on a rounded surface of hard If you would have a Jim recommends compact It's harder to duplicate than a signature in flowing Most difficult for him to copy are John Hancocks with many loops and criss-cross Cutting the loops and crossovers into the gold is a tough JORDAN ALSO does other kinds of free-hand engraving on special gold-banded It was he who gave the used at the San Francisco signing of the Japanese peace treaty their Identification by engraving Peace on their Those pens have become collectors' Forging signatures on writing Instruments is Jim's first engraving He was born and raised In this After four years as a shipping clerk he studied engraving at Kansas City where he served his In he joined Sheaffer's working under Ambrose perhaps the world's most prolific forger who engraved more than different signatures In his When died last Jim succeeded Jordan naturally prefers the title His spouse balks at being known as Forger's One signature Jim finds just as hard to duplicate as any is his His Imitations have satisfied more than including sports figures and business But when he attended a bazaar at the State Penitentiary and offered to pay for his purchases by he was asked to give His signature on the check differed too much from that on his driver's |