Bank Notes

Bank Notes act as a substitute for coin, as described under Banking. Their manufacture necessarily involves elaborate precautions against forgery. Bank of England notes are printed with a peculiar ink on a specially made paper, very light, crisp, and tough, bearing a peculiar watermark. When once returned to the Bank, unlike the notes of a private banker, they are never reissued. They are defaced, in order to cancel them, but before being destroyed are kept for a term of years in case it should be necessary to find out through whose hands they have passed while in circulation. Since 1855 they have been printed by electrotype. Scotch and foreign bank notes are usually partly printed in coloured inks, two or more shades being used in the same note to make forgery more difficult. In the United States the additional precaution is taken of using methods of engraving which can only be carried out by elaborate and expensive machinery.