How to Detect Counterfeit Bank Notes

How To Detect Counterfeit Bank Notes by George Peyton. This practical treatise, originally published in 1861, trains readers to distinguish genuine bank notes from counterfeit, altered, and spurious issues. Peyton argues that true skill comes from an intimate knowledge of genuine engraving and offers a methodical program that reduces currency authentication to a few fundamental principles. The book explains how modern bank-note engraving—lathe-work, transfer-press, geometrical lathe-work, parallel ruling, bas-relief, and carefully composed vignettes—gives the currency its security features, and why experts can detect fraud by examining lines, textures, fonts, signatures, and imagery. Based on plates engraved for the work by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, the text provides illustrated examples and a structured set of rules for recognizing genuine features and common counterfeit errors. It also covers altered notes and photographic counterfeiting and introduces Descriptive Lists and detectors as practical references for everyday use by merchants and the public.