The 6th Rule relates to the signatures, and filling up the No., date, to
whom payable, cashier, and president. To notice whether the whole filling
up appears in two or three different hands, as it ought to be. In the
genuine the _No._ and _date_ is generally written by a bank clerk, who
writes a very neat, rapid _business_ hand--but of course there may be
exceptions to this Rule--but in counterfeits the No. and date is _almost
invariably clumsy and unbusiness-like_. Where the officers’ signatures are
imitated there will be a slow, studied, and stiff appearance, not easy,
natural and _original_-looking. Some men acquire an almost intuitive
knowledge of _original_ handwriting at sight, and the writer has seen many
excellent judges of Bank Notes who have acknowledged that they were guided
almost entirely by the signatures, even of strange banks. Auto-chirography
may be studied as a science, but it can only be acquired by long
experience, and it is not infallible: the best judges of writing might
possibly be deceived sometimes. In some counterfeits the signatures are
lithographed _fac-similes_, sometimes traced over with a pen. In writing
with a pen the ink thoroughly saturates the paper, but leaves a smooth
edge to the stroke, and has somewhat of a glossy appearance, while the
printed _fac-similes_ always have a _stamped_ appearance, the stroke of a
dead color and rough edge, not saturated or lively, like writing ink. If
traced over with a pen there will be places, especially in the hair
strokes, where the pen does not follow the curves in the stroke correctly.
In cases where fraudulent impressions are obtained from the genuine
plate, or where the plate itself is stolen, the 6th Rule is all that will
detect; but when such a case happens there are always measures taken by
the bank to meet it--a new plate is ordered, and the old emission called
in.