- Making It Hard to Print
"If it is in print, it must be true." - -W. G. Benham
The first document printed was considered a forgery!
Gutenberg's Bible was originally sold as a hand copied text. The deception got Gutenbergs's partner, Johann Fust, arrested for witchcraft. He was released, but shortly thereafter, the first "real" forgeries and counterfeits began to roll off the presses. Attempts to halt these malicious efforts were taken on as challenges by those looking to defraud. Each new anti-forgery device was met in kind by crafty counterfeiters.
If any piece of paper had worth someone has tried to copy, alter, or change it's value. The name of our common "bond" paper comes from the legal documents first written on its predecessor. Those documents were often sealed in a hard wax and stamped with the ring or molded stamp of the writer or some official.
The envelope developed as a means of keeping secrets secret and avoiding alterations to documents in route. At one time post offices charged extra when letters were sealed in an envelope. Even today postcards are cheaper than letters sealed in envelopes.
The use of watermarks was primarily for identity, but sometimes they were used to authenticate the origin of the paper. Early anti-counterfeiting efforts consisted of securing the source of paper and having the paper makers alter their paper to make it harder to duplicate. Additives were mixed with the paper fibers before the sheet was made. Dyes were common, but hardly successful because of fading and a lack of color consistency.
Benjamin Franklin tried adding flakes of mica to his paper that he used for currency. Someone had the idea of bonding the wet paper sheet with a linen gauze. It was not successful. Mixed fibers were added to linen content papers with better success. Even today paper scrip sometimes contains colored silk threads. American paper money contains denim, the makings of blue jeans. Metal and plastic strands have also been made into the paper.
Many bills were hand signed and giving a special flourish to one's signature was a common identification device. Uniform penmanship was taught in schools, but one's signature was allowed to be uniquely different.
The ease of altering Arabic numbers on documents kept European banks using Roman numerals for business transactions long after Arabic numbers were in common use.
Hand-drawn paper money was sometimes made where printed money was not available. A book of blank pages was created. On each leaf of the book a single bill was drawn, and signed. A seal of wax or other official notation was made. Along the edge of the bill a flourish of loops was made. Each numbered bill was cut out of the book leaving part of the decorative edge in the book. The book numbered pages were left with rectangular holes of the missing bills. To test a suspect bill, it was laid against the hole and matched to the edges.
When the government got into the paper money business, special attempts were made to make paper money counterfeit proof . Paul Revere and Ben Franklin both made colonial scrip. Revere used engraved plates with fine delicate lines. Only skilled engravers could copy Revere's notes. Franklin used letterpress printing, which was more common and easier to counterfeit.
Franklin's efforts to thwart the dishonest and keep the honest honest showed his genius. He developed a way of casting a relief image of an actual leaf from a tree. No two leaves are alike in detail and a potential counterfeiter would have to have the original plates. Another idea he had was less successful. On some notes he was printing for the colony he intentionally misspelled words on the notes thinking that an intelligent counterfeiting printer would make the corrections giving away his notes.
The security of postage and tax stamps has also been of interest. Attempts to reuse the stamps by washing off the cancellation marks lead to proposals for stamps printed with a water based ink. The fact that stamps were often carried about in a postal patron's pocket before being used, ruined the stamps and the idea. Another innovation called on printing on the poorest quality paper so it would fall apart if reused. Many of the test stamps fell apart before being used once.
Apart from government obligations the most widely used security device for the private business or citizen has been to have documents printed on "safety paper." Safety paper is generally paper ruled or printed with a background pattern. Any alteration would show up in the pattern.
Making documents of value hard to print has challenged the printer for centuries. There is no reason to suspect that the counterfeiters or forgery artists are ready to give up.
Copyright (C) 1999 by Frank Granger
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