Chapter 2

FORGERY BY TRACING

Forgeries Perpetrated by the Aid of Tracing a Common and Dangerous Method--Using Transparent Tracing Paper--How the Movements are Directed--Formal, Broken and Nervous Lines--Retouched Lines and Shades--Tracing Usually Presents a Close Resemblance to the Genuine--Traced Forgeries Not Exact Duplicates of Their Originals--The Danger of an Exact Duplication--Forgers Usually Unable to Exactly Reproduce Tracing--Using Pencil or Carbon-Guided Lines--Retouching Revealed under the Microscope--Tracing with Pen and Ink Over a Transparency--Making a Practice and Study of Signatures--Forgeries and Tracings Made by Skillful Imitators Most Difficult of Detection--Free-Hand Forgery and Tracing--A Few Important Matters to Observe in Detecting Forgery by Tracing--Photographs a Great Aid in Detecting Tracing--How to Compare Imitated and Traced Writing--Furrows Traced by Pen Nibs--Tracing Made by an Untrained Hand--Tracing with Pen and Ink Over a Transparency--Internal Evidence of Forgery by Tracing--Forgeries Made by Skillful Imitators--How to Determine Evidences of Forgery by Tracing--Remains of Tracings--Examining Paper in Transmitted Light--Freely Written Tracings--A Dangerous Method of Forgery