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Unidentified photographer/creator
Photographic Counterfeiting
1855
Magazine page
Google Books
LL/34422
Published in Merchant's Magazine, Volume 32, 1855, p.351
PHOTOGRAPHIC COUNTERFEITING.
Mr. Finlayne, of Cincinnati, a daguerreotypist, has recently made several photographic copies of bank-notes, which far surpass, in the perfection of their details, anything which has ever been done in the old way of counterfeiting; and when carefully taken on proper bank-note paper, we are informed they defy detection, either by the unaided eye or by microscopic inspection. A correspondent of the Tribune, writing from Cincinnati, says:
One of these photographs, from a $10 bill, was deposited by Mr. S., with other bills, in the Life and Trust Company, and was received without suspicion. He then informed them that there was a bad bill among them; the money was reinspected, and he was positively assured that it was all good, and requested to point out the defective bill; he did so, and after a general examination by the officers present the bill was again pronounced good. Another trial was made by presenting a photographic copy of a bill at the principal banking houses. At the banks of Smead, Collard & Hughes, Gregory & Ingulsbee, and some others, the photograph was received, and, after careful inspection, pronounced a good bill. A still more rigid test was made by presenting photographs and genuine bills to Mr. Booth and other bank-note engravers. After the most careful inspection they were unable to detect the photographic counterfeit, for, as I have observed, the minutest details are perfect under microscopic scrutiny.
It is not only our currency that is assailed by this art, but everything depending on the human pen is liable to counterfeiting. One's autograph may be at any time affixed to a check, promissory note, will, deed, letter of credit, or recommendation, or any number of autographs may be affixed to any document the operator may please the autographs being so perfect, that the writer himself could not detect an error.
It is needless for engravers to increase their skill, as every step they take in advance is followed with mathematical accuracy by photography, which copies the red or brown backs of the notes as easily as their faces. Possibly there may be some art of printing in colors in great variety, on rare paper, which photography will not be able to rival. I think banks should offer a premium for the discovery of some peculiar species of paper, the manufacture to be kept secret, and to be devoted exclusively to the issue of bank-notes.
Under present circumstances an immense amount of fraudulent money may be issued before the public are duly on their guard. Science and Art must give us new safeguards. There are but two methods of detection of which I have any knowledge at present; they are furnished by chemistry and by psychometry, neither of which would probably be brought to bear against bills so apparently perfect in all their details.
The chemical test is based on the fact that the black color of the photographic picture being derived from a preparation of silver, its ground is necessarily different from the inks used by the engraver and the writer; various teats may be devised by good chemists. I would merely mention one; the photographic picture is immediately destroyed or turned white by washing it with a solution of corrosive sublimate.
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