oll-work surrounding the large figure are
blotted out with a pencil and are not visible. The figure "2" in the
lower right-hand corner is erased with acids, and the bill is in all
respects a first-class imitation of the genuine article. Treasury
officials say that this is something new in the way of bill-raising,
and is very dangerous.

Many people who are not used to handling money have been swindled by
what is known as "Imitation Money." The United States Treasury
Department is making strenuous efforts to break up the practice of
issuing imitations of the national currency, to which many commercial
colleges and business firms are addicted. This bogus currency has been
extensively used by sharpers all over the country to swindle ignorant
people and its manufacture is in violation of law.

So vague is the general idea as to how a bank note is made that we
give an explanation of the various processes it goes through before it
is issued as a part of the "money of the realm," saying, by way of
introduction, that this country leads the world in bank-note
engraving. Unfortunately, the first consideration in making a
bank-note is to prevent bad men from making a counterfeit of it, and
therefore all the notes of a certain denomination or value must be
exact duplicates of each other. If they were engraved by hand this
would not be the case; and, another thing, hand engraving is more
easily counterfeited than the work done by the processes we herewith
describe.

Every note is printed from a steel plate, in the preparation of which
many persons take part. If you will look at a $5 "greenback" you will
see a picture in the center; a small portrait, called a vignette, on
the left, and in each of the upper corners a network of fine lines
with a dark ground, one of them containing the letter "V" and the
other the figure "5." These four parts are made on separate plates.

To make a vignette it is necessary, first, to make a large drawing on
paper with great care, and a daguerreotype is then taken of the
drawing the exact size of the engraving desired.

The daguerreotype is then given to the engraver, who uses a steel
point to mark on it all the outlines of the picture. The plate is
inked and a print taken from it. While the ink is still damp the print
is laid face down on a steel plate, which has been softened by heating
it red hot and letting it cool slowly. It is then put in a press and
an exact copy of the outline is thus made