Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

NOTE ISSUES 547On only one occasion has a counterfeit appeared of anynote of this issue. Three specimens of a crude photo-engravingof the $10 note, coloured by hand, were put into circulation inHamilton some years ago, but no more copies have been seen.The yellow tint on the face of the note was of a much deepershade than that on the genuine note, and the rest of thecounterfeit was so crude that it could not deceive anyoneaccustomed to handling Canadian paper currency.The Bank Act of 1871 1 provided that the signatureson bank-notes or bills might be impressed by machinery.In the earlier days the custom was to write by hand bothsignatures on bank-notes, but gradually as the volume ofthe note circulation increased this was found burdensome,and it came to be usual to engrave the signature of thepresident and to write only the countersignature. At therevision of the Bank Act in 1890 the law was changed toconform with what had become the general practice, andthereafter it was obligatory that at least one signature oneach note should be in the actual handwriting of the personauthorized to sign. The makers of this change did not foreseethe great growth so soon to take place in Canada and theconsequent expansion of the note circulation.Ten or twelve years later the work of signing the notes ofThe Canadian Bank of Commerce had become sufficientlyheavy to call for the constant employment of one man atthis most monotonous occupation. Then a multiple-signingmachine was adopted, by the use of which one man could workfour pens and thus sign a whole sheet of notes (four on a sheet)at once. Even this proved insufficient to cope with the demand,which was increased by the continued expansion of the bankduring the years that followed; while the consequent strainupon the staff made it a difficult matter to obtain men for suchwork. Steps were finally taken to bring the situation to theattention of the Government, and it was suggested that whenthe Bank Act came up for revision the requirement that one34 Vic., 1871. c.v.. s. 56.