The Detection of Forgery Part 3

An examination will show that about ten capitals can be formed with two disconnected strokes. They are _A_, _B_, _F_, _H_, _K_, _P_, _Q_, _R_, _T_ and _X_. These are known as double capitals. These doubles should be carefully looked for, and the frequency, or otherwise, of their recurrence noted, as it is probable they will be found to be nearly always used under the same circ.u.mstances; that is, a writer may have a habit of beginning with a double capital when possible, but revert to the single form of the same letter in the body of the writing. Another writer will almost invariably disconnect the capitals from the rest of the word, while a third as regularly connects them. Some writers affect the more simple form, approximating to the printed character. Others again indulge in inordinate flourishes, particularly in their signatures. Such writers prove easy prey to the forger.

A feature very easy of detection in capitals is the "diamond." It is formed by a sudden thickening of the downstroke. It is particularly noticeable in the writing of those who have been instructed in the old-fas.h.i.+oned school, where a distinction between the heavy downstroke and the light upstroke was insisted upon. The diamond habit once formed is very difficult to eradicate, and traces of it always remain in the writing of persons thus taught.

An important and significant part of a capital letter is the beard. It is an automatic trick, and always repays careful examination. It may be a spurred, ticked or dotted beard, but in any case the initial stroke must be carefully examined, whatever form it may a.s.sume, for the oft-emphasized reason that it belongs so essentially to the clue-providing cla.s.s of unguarded and unpremeditated automatic strokes that are overlooked by the writer.

Variations in the form of a capital must be noted, and a record kept, for, however great the variety, it will be found that one particular form is more used than another, and may be regarded as the normal type of the writer.

A peculiarity of some writers is the use of an enlarged form of the small letter for a capital. The letters so made to serve a double purpose are generally _A_, _C_, _E_, _G_, _M_, _N_, _O_, _P_, _Q_, _S_, _U_, _V_ and _W_. They are referred to as small capitals.

CHAPTER VIII.

PUNCTUATION.

The ampersand (&) is a symbol that provides excellent material for clues to tricks and mannerisms. It varies in form from a mere _v_-shaped tick of almost indeterminate character to an ornate thing of loops and flourishes. It is very sparingly employed by illiterate persons, and some educated writers avoid its use under the impression that, like the abbreviation of words, it is vulgar. In a few high-cla.s.s ladies' schools its use is sternly repressed, and there are many fluent and habitual writers who never employ this sign. This in itself supplies a useful clue to characterisation. Others, again, only employ it in such combinations as "& Co.," "&c.," though this latter abbreviation is, as often as not, written "etc." by many persons.

The dash (--) occurs very largely in many writings, and particularly in those of ladies, who regard it as a universal punctuation mark, and employ it indiscriminately as comma and full stop. Many persons of both s.e.xes invariably make a dash below the address on an envelope, using it as a kind of final flourish. A close examination of the samples provided in such a writing will reveal many valuable idiosyncrasies. It may be a bold, firm horizontal line, a curve with a tick at either end, or both; a wavy line or even an upward or downward line. Note, also, the ragged edge, as it affords an important clue to the style of holding the pen.

The dash is so essentially an unpremeditated and mechanically-formed hand-gesture that it often betrays more of the character of the writer than any other letter. Cases have been known in which the writer of an anonymous letter has successfully concealed all his characteristics, but in putting the final stroke in the form of a dash he has so far forgotten himself as to produce, quite unconsciously, what was probably one of his most p.r.o.nounced hand-gestures, thus providing a clue which led to ultimate conviction.

Punctuation is rarely a marked feature of English handwriting. It is said that many of our leading literary men practically leave this important phase of their work to the printer's proof-reader. An examination of a hundred private letters by different hands will show a marvellous scarcity of punctuation marks, and few correspondents use or appear to know the use of any stop other than the comma and full point, the dash being made to do service for all else. The mark of interrogation is fairly often used, and its formation gives scope and material for careful examination. The examples offer suggestions of the form and direction eccentricity sometimes takes.

The colon and semicolon are very little used by average writers, and when they are, it is generally inaccurately, but nearly always under the same circ.u.mstances, which should be carefully noted. The quotation marks (" ") are still more rarely employed, and it will be found on examination that most people form them wrongly. The accurate style is this, " ", but as often as not the initial quotation has the dot at the top instead of the bottom.

Another almost universal omission is that of the full point after initials to a name, after "Esq.," and in the initials of postal districts, as E.C., W.C. The addressing of an envelope affords interesting and valuable material for clues, for it will generally be found that a writer who uses punctuation marks at all will do so with automatic regularity under the same circ.u.mstances.

The shape and general formation of stops and marks must be carefully examined and cla.s.sified, for they belong to the significant unpremeditated cla.s.s of hand-gestures, and are, therefore, valuable as clues to peculiarities.

The "Esq." that generally follows a man's name on a letter addressed to him partakes much of the character of a symbol like the "?" or "!", and, being automatic through usage, is therefore valuable. Most writers use a uniform style in shaping it, and the three letters that go to make up the abbreviation are fortunately of a kind that lend themselves to characterisation.

Notice, also, the position of the possessive sign in such words as "men's," "writer's." If accurately placed, the writer may be presumed to understand punctuation, and will give evidence of it in a long writing.

CHAPTER IX.

PAPER AND WATERMARKS.

The brownish tint of old age which paper needs to help out a fraud is obtained in various ways--sometimes by steeping in a weak solution of coffee, but in other cases by holding it before a bright hot fire. This latter device is, fortunately, not easy of accomplishment, considerable care, judgment and even luck being needed to ensure a satisfactory result. In our own case we have failed persistently in the attempt, the paper becoming tinted so unequally as to excite remark at first sight.

All the old pattern of letter paper was almost uniform in size--post quarto, and the watermark is invariably very distinct, explainable by the fact that the art of close weaving the wire mould was not then brought to its present state of perfection.

The watermarks are very fairly imitated by means of a pointed stick dipped in a solution of spermaceti and linseed oil melted in water and stirred till cold; or, equal quant.i.ties of turpentine and Canada balsam shaken together. The same result may be obtained by the use of megilp, a mixture employed by artists.

The detection of this watermark fraud is simple and infallible. If the suspected doc.u.ment be moistened with lukewarm water the spurious watermark disappears immediately, but if genuine, it becomes plainer.

The worn and dingy appearance inseparable from age in a letter is accentuated by rubbing it lightly with a dirty duster. The effect is usually obvious under a strong gla.s.s, the pa.s.sage of the dirty cloth revealing itself in minute parallel lines.

Very little care is needed to distinguish between paper that has been taken from books and the genuine letter paper of the period. To begin with, such letters are always on single sheets. In genuine cases, the sheet is as often as not a folio of four pages. In the majority of cases the bogus sheet is of no recognised size. If taken from a book larger than post quarto, it has had to be cut to conceal the tear. This operation has made an irregular sized sheet--too small for post quarto, too large for the next size. In the genuine writing paper, all four edges are usually rough like those of a bank note. If the sheet has been abstracted from a book, one edge must have been cut or trimmed.

Again, such paper is of unequal thickness, the writing paper of the period being much smoother and finer than the printing paper, while in parts it is almost certain the ink has run, as it does on a coa.r.s.e, absorbent paper. This is a sure sign that the paper is printing and not writing.

Further, such paper is certain to show signs of wear at the bottom edges where they have been handled and exposed, while that part of the page which has been closest to the inside edge of the cover is generally cleaner, and shows less sign of wear. In many cases the impression of the book binding is plainly visible.

A careful examination and comparison of a few sheets of genuine letter paper of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the blank leaves found in printed books will reveal differences so marked that mistake is scarcely possible afterwards.

It often occurs that grease marks interrupt the forger. Knowing that he cannot write over them, and that they are hardly likely to have existed on the paper when it was new, and when the letter was supposed to be written, he avoids them. The result becomes apparent in unequal s.p.a.cing of words and even letters.

On one occasion a really excellent forgery, which had successfully withstood all the tests we had applied, had its real character revealed by a curious oversight on the part of the forger.

It was an early seventeenth century doc.u.ment, and our attention was arrested by a peculiar uniform smudgy appearance, such as results from blotting with a hard, unabsorbent, much-worn sheet of blotting paper. At the period of the presumed date of this doc.u.ment blotting paper was unknown, writings being dried by means of a specially prepared fine powder called pounce, sand, or a powder containing fine crystals of metal intended to give an ornamental gloss to the ink. Close examination under the microscope revealed the truth. There were no signs of pounce or any other drying powder, the crystals of which are usually plain to the una.s.sisted eye, but there were distinct signs of the fibre of the blotting paper left in the ink.

Another forgery we discovered through the presence in the centre of the sheet of paper of a very faint square outline which enclosed a slight discolouration. The sheet had, as usual, been removed from a book, and the square outline was a faint impression of a book-plate which had been affixed to the opposite page. The discolouration was caused by the ink on the book-plate.

It should be superfluous to have to remind intelligent and educated persons that it is necessary for a collector of old doc.u.ments to make himself familiar with the peculiarities, habits and customs of the period in whose literary curiosities he is dealing. Yet fact compels the admission that extraordinary laxity and even ignorance exist on these points. We are acquainted with a collector, by no means uneducated, who gave a good price for a letter purporting to be by Sir Humphrey Davy, the inventor of the miners' safety lamp, enclosed in an envelope. He was ignorant of the fact that envelopes were unknown until 1840, thirty years later than the date of this particular letter. Envelopes supposed to have been addressed by d.i.c.kens have been offered for sale and purchased, bearing postage stamps not in circulation at the period.

One would imagine that a forger would pay sufficient attention to his materials to be on his guard against the blunder which earned the perpetrator of the Whalley Will Forgery penal servitude. He put forward a will dated 1862, written on paper bearing in a plain watermark the date 1870! Another indiscreet person asked the Court to accept a will written and signed with an aniline copying pencil, but dated years before that instrument had been invented.

Both the works by Dr. Scott and Mr. Davies, given in the list, show samples of watermarks of the various periods affected by forgers of literary doc.u.ments.

CHAPTER X.

INKS.

Examination for determining whether a writing has been done at one time, or added to later, necessitates some acquaintance with the nature and qualities of ink. In the ordinary case the a.s.sistance of a chemist is necessary, but an enlarged photograph shows up minute differences with amazing accuracy.

In the majority of instances alterations are made some time after the original has been written, in which case a difference in the shade of the ink will be perceptible, even to the una.s.sisted eye. This is particularly true when the now almost universal blue-black ink is used.

The period required for an addition to become as black as the older writing depends very much upon the character of the paper. If this be smooth and hard, and the writing has not been dried with blotting paper, but allowed to dry naturally and slowly, it will become black much quicker than if the paper be rough and of an absorbent nature.

A fairly reliable test is to touch a thick stroke of the suspected addition with a drop of diluted muriatic acid--as much as will cling to the point of a pin. Apply the drop to the suspected addition and to the older writing at the same moment, and carefully watch the result. The newer writing will become faint and watery, with a bluish tinge almost instantly, but the change will be slower in the case of the older writing, taking ten or even twenty seconds. The longer the period required for the change, the older the writing.

This same acid test is applied to prove whether a writing is in ordinary ink, or has been lithographed or photographed. If the two latter, the acid will have no effect.

On more than one occasion collectors have purchased as original autographs of celebrities which proved to have been lithographed or photographed, but the persons so deceived have generally been inexperienced amateurs.

When the difference between a written and printed signature has been once noticed it is hardly likely that an observant person will be deceived. It is, however, as well to be carefully on guard against this contingency, for modern photography and process printing have been brought to such a degree of imitative perfection that it is easy for a not too keen-eyed person to experience great difficulty in forming an opinion in the absence of the acid test. Fortunately that is infallible.

It must, however, be admitted that up to the present no great success has attended efforts to determine how long an interval has pa.s.sed between the writing of the original and the suspected addition. Broadly speaking, the most that the expert can hope to gain from an examination of ink under these circ.u.mstances are hints, clues and suggestions rather than definite, reliable facts. Fortunately it often occurs that a suggestion so obtained proves of immense value to the trained or careful observer, though it might convey no conviction to others.