FORGERY BY TRACING
Forgery by tracing is one of the most common and most dangerous
methods of forgery.
There are two general methods of perpetrating forgeries, one by the
aid of tracing, the other by free-hand writing. These methods differ
widely in details, according to the circumstances of each case.
Tracing can only be employed when a signature or writing is present in
the exact or approxima
e form of the desired reproduction. It may then
be done by placing the writing to be forged upon a transparency over a
strong light, and then superimposing the paper upon which the forgery
is to be made. The outline of the writing underneath will then appear
sufficiently plain to enable it to be traced with pen or pencil, so as
to produce a very accurate copy upon the superimposed paper. If the
outline is with a pencil, it is afterward marked over with ink.
Again, tracings are made by placing transparent tracing-paper over the
writing to be copied and then tracing the lines over with a pencil.
This tracing is then penciled or blackened upon the obverse side. When
it is placed upon the paper on which the forgery is made, the lines
upon the tracing are retraced with a stylus or other smooth hard
point, which impresses upon the paper underneath a faint outline,
which serves as a guide to the forged imitation.
In forgeries perpetrated by the aid of tracing, the internal evidence
is more or less conclusive according to the skill of the forger. In
the perpetration of a forgery the mind, instead of being occupied in
the usual function of supplying matter to be recorded, devotes its
special attention to superintendence of the hand, directing its
movements, so that the hand no longer glides naturally and
automatically over the paper, but moves slowly with a halting,
vacillating motion, as the eye passes to and from the copy to the pen,
moving under the specific control of the will. Evidence of such a
forgery is manifest in the formal, broken, nervous lines, the uneven
flow of the ink, and the often retouched lines and shades. These
evidences are unmistakable when studied with the aid of a microscope.
Also, further evidence is adduced by a careful comparison of the
disputed writing, noting the pen-pressure or absence of any of the
delicate unconscious forms, relations, shades, etc., characteristic of
the standard writing.
Forgeries by tracings usually present a close resemblance in general
form to the genuine, and are therefore most sure to deceive the
unfamiliar or casual observer. It sometimes happens that the original
writing from which the tracings were made is discovered, in which case
the closely duplicated forms will be positive evidence of forgery. The
degree to which one signature of writing duplicates another may be
readily seen by placing one over the other, and holding them to a
window or other strong light, or by close comparative measurements.
Traced forgeries, however, are not, as is usually supposed,
necessarily exact duplicates of their originals, since it is very easy
to move the paper by accident or design while the tracing is being
made, or while making the transfer copy from it; so that while it
serves as a guide to the general features of the original, it will
not, when tested, be an exact duplication. The danger of an exact
duplication is quite generally understood by persons having any
knowledge of forgery, and is therefore avoided. Another difficulty is
that the very delicate features of the original writing are more or
less obscured by the opaqueness of two sheets of paper, and are
therefore changed or omitted from the forged simulation, and their
absence is usually supplied, through force of habit, by equally
delicate unconscious characteristics from the writing of the forger.
Again, the forger rarely possesses the requisite skill to exactly
reproduce his tracing. Much of the minutiae of the original writing is
more or less microscopic, and from that reason passes unobserved by
the forger. Outlines of writing to be forged are sometimes simply
drawn with a pencil, and then worked up in ink. Such outlines will not
usually furnish so good an imitation as to form, since they depend
wholly upon the imitative skill of the forger.
Besides the forementioned evidences of forgery by tracing, where
pencil or carbon guide-lines are used which must necessarily be
removed by rubber, there are liable to remain some slight fragments of
the tracing lines, while the mill finish of the paper will be impaired
and its fiber more or less torn out, so as to lie loose upon the
surface. Also the ink will be more or less ground off from the paper,
thus giving the lines a gray and lifeless appearance. And as
retouchings are usually made after the guide-lines have been removed,
the ink, wherever they occur, will have a more black and fresh
appearance than elsewhere. All these phenomena are plainly manifest
under the microscope. Where the tracing is made directly with pen and
ink over a transparency, as is often done, no rubbing is necessary,
and of course, the phenomena from rubbering does not appear.
Where signatures or other writings have been forged by previously
making a study and practice of the writing, to be copied until it has
been to a greater or less degree idealized, the hand must be trained
to its imitation so that it can be written with a more or less
approximation as to form and natural freedom.
Forgeries and tracings made by skilful imitators are the most
difficult of detection, as the internal evidence of forgery by tracing
is mostly absent. The evidence of free-hand forgery and tracing is
chiefly in the greater liability of the forger to inject into the
writing his own unconscious habit and to fail to reproduce with
sufficient accuracy that of the original writing, so that when
subjected to rigid analysis and microscopic inspection, the
spuriousness is made manifest and demonstrable. Specific attention
should be given to any hesitancy in form or movement in tracing which
is manifest in angularity or change of direction of lines, changed
relations and proportions of letters, slant of the writing, its
mechanical arrangement, disconnected lines, retouched shades, etc.
Photographs, greatly enlarged, of both the signatures in question and
the exemplars placed side by side for comparison will greatly aid in
making plain any evidence of forgery.
If practicable, use for comparison as standards both the imitated
writing and that of the imitator's traced writing. These methods,
employed by skilled and experienced examiners, will rarely fail of
establishing the true relationship between any two disputed
handwritings and more especially where the question of a forged or
traced signature is under discussion.
Under the microscope tracing by the pen-nibs are usually easily
visible, and they differ with every variety of pen employed. A stiff,
fine-pointed pen makes two comparatively deep lines a short distance
apart, which appear blacker in the writing than the space between
them, because they fill with ink, which afterwards dries and produces
a thicker layer of black sediment than those elsewhere. The variations
of pressure upon the pen can be easily noticed by the alternate
widening and narrowing of the band between these two furrows. The
tracing appears knotty and uneven when made by an untrained hand,
while it appears uniformly thin, and generally tremulous or in zigzags
when made by a weak but trained hand.
Where the tracing is made directly with pen and ink over a
transparency, as is often done, no rubbing is necessary, and of course
the phenomena from rubbering do not appear.
Where signatures or other writings have been forged by previously
making a study and practice of the writing to be copied until it has
been to a greater or less degree idealized, the hand must be trained
to its imitation so that it can be written with a more or less
approximation as to form and with natural freedom.
Forgeries thus made by skilful imitators are the most difficult of
detection, as the internal evidence of forgery by tracing is mostly
absent. The evidence of free-hand forgery is chiefly in the greater
liability of the forger to inject into the writing his own unconscious
habit, and to fail to reproduce with sufficient accuracy that of the
original writing, so that when subjected to rigid analysis and
microscopic inspection, the spuriousness is made manifest and
demonstrable. Specific attention should be given to any hesitancy in
form or movement, manifest in angularity or change of direction of
lines, changed relations and proportions of letters, slant of the
writing, its mechanical arrangement, disconnected lines, retouched
shades, etc.
Photographs, greatly enlarged, of both the signatures in question and
the exemplars placed side by side for comparison will greatly aid in
making plain any evidences of forgery by tracing.
It sometimes occurs that the forger, fearful that his attempt to
imitate another's writing would be too easily detected if made with a
free hand, sketches in pencil the characters he intends to make in ink
on the document, or traces them by means of blackened paper at the
appropriate place. The evidences of this are very likely to appear
when the document is examined in transmitted light.
It is often asserted in trials that tracings of a genuine signature
invariably show hesitation and painting. This is not always the fact.
Tracings proven and subsequently admitted to have been such have shown
an apparent absence of all constraint, and a careful examination of
the result revealed no pause of the pen. But, on the other hand, these
freely written tracings have invariably shown either a deviation from
some habitual practice of the writer, or, if the model was followed
with skill, two or three such tracings, when photographed on a
transparent film and superposed, have shown such exact resemblances as
to proclaim their character at once.
The natural tendency of man is to introduce some elements of symbolism
in what he is attempting to trace and to seek some sort of geometrical
symmetry in what he designs. Wherever he is not restricted by certain
forms which he must introduce, and which may render a balance of parts
about a median line unattainable, he tends to evolve symmetrical
designs, as in the highest and simplest forms of ancient architecture.
When the parts of the design are prescribed, as in the representation
of objects in nature, he soon tires of mere mechanical repetition of
the same things in a given sequence, and strives to convey some
ulterior idea by the manner of joining these parts. This gives life
and language to sculpture and painting, and gives character to
handwriting. Tracing signatures is one of the most common and
dangerous methods of forgery. Some specimens of traced signatures are
illustrated and explained in an Appendix at the end of this book.