Raising the Stakes

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The conflict between bank-note companies and the purveyors of various types of fraudulent substitutes was neverending and always escalating in the pre-Civil War era. For every security measure implemented by bank-note companies, criminals responded with a fake alternative, some of which were effective and others not so much.

Raised Notes

This article will focus on an intriguing area—raised notes. As the name implies, a raised note is a genuine low-denomination note issued by a reputable bank that was physically changed so that it appeared to be a larger denomination. This was done by either removing and replacing, or covering up, all references to the lower denomination. The new, higher denomination information was either printed after the old information had been removed or pasted on using pieces cut from worthless notes. 

The host note chosen for this subterfuge was usually a $1, $2, $3, or perhaps a $5. The fraudulent denominations attempted were usually $5s, $10s, and occasionally $20s. Raised notes are typically much rarer than counterfeit or spurious notes, which could be produced faster and in larger quantities using printing plates. By contrast, each raised note was individually handcrafted and took longer to produce. In addition, the person raising the note had an investment to recover because of the face value of the host note being modified.

Before & After: Someone raised an original $1 note (top) to a $5 by changing the counters in the upper corners and adding a tablet with FIVE DOLLARS under the bank title. Note that the large red-orange ONE protector was not changed, leading to the note’s easy detection. 
(Photos: Wendell Wolka)

Entry-Level Fraud

So why would someone take the time to raise notes instead of producing counterfeits or mass-produced spurious notes? There are several reasons:

•    Plates, printing skills, engraving skills, paper, and ink all cost money, and fraudsters did not have the money to afford these resources or the time to acquire these skills.  
•    Starting out with genuine notes meant that the signatures, bank title, and most engraved features were already done. The only things that needed to be changed were any references to the denomination.
•    The required skills were quite rudimentary. Basically, a raised note could be produced once erasing with chemicals or abrasion, cutting, and pasting skills were mastered. Raised notes represented an entry-level opportunity for practitioners who did not have more advanced skills and/or the money to pay for someone to provide specialized services like engraving and printing. 
•    Raised notes were well suited to “one-man shops” that were more difficult for authorities to discover than multi-person counterfeiting rings.  
•    Because raised notes were produced in small quantities, law enforcement did not waste their time trying to hunt down perpetrators. Banks often wrote off such notes as a cost of doing business.

Optimal Conditions

Next there was the issue of how to pass a raised note. Typically, the note would not be put to work in the town where the targeted bank was located. Most local money handlers knew what each denomination looked like. Instead, the note was introduced in another locale where the bank was familiar but the exact appearance of each denomination was not well known. As with all fraudulent notes, the person tasked with passing the raised note looked for the optimal conditions to minimize the risk of being detected. Passing the note in dimly lit stores or during busy times were favored, and inexperienced or infrequent money handlers were also desirable targets.

Common Defenses

Bank-note companies employed several tactics to thwart would-be criminals. Some of their common defenses included making the following design changes:

•    The number of design elements were modified so they were equal to the denomination. One of the most popular designs for obsolete notes is the “Cherubs [technically putti] and Silver Dollars” series (Figure 1), on which the cherubs and silver dollars equal the denomination; the $1 note has one cherub with one silver dollar, the $3 note has three cherubs with three silver dollars, and so forth. If someone tried to raise a $1 to a $5, the number of cherubs and silver dollars would be wrong. Other design elements used the same approach, such as changing the number of people in a vignette, the number of medallion counters (Figure 2), or other elements.

Cyrus Durand’s system included elaborately engraved panels that were equal to the denomination (top).  The number of medallion counters was equal to the denomination on The Waverly Bank $5 (bottom).
(Photos: Wendell Wolka)

•    Cyrus Durand developed a patented system of keying numbers of elaborately engraved panels so that the number of panels was equal to the denomination (Figure 3). The panels were then stacked together to equal the denomination. This widespread approach was not quite as subtle as other methods.
•    Only a small number of banks issued notes with “Lyman’s Protection,” a simple but effective design. This approach split notes into different proportions using a vertical frame, with the right-hand portion becoming larger as the denomination increased from $1 to $5 (Figure 4). The proportions for each denomination are listed in the enlarged area of the $2.

•    Perhaps the simplest form of protection was the addition of the denomination in either words (Figure 5) or numerals (Figure 6), usually in very large characters printed in bright colors like red or blue. This was a popular feature that also offered some protection against photographic copies, since early photography could not reproduce colors. If large enough, these protectors could usually not be ignored and had to be removed by those attempting to raise notes. If very large, it was very difficult to hide the fact that the protector had been removed unless a false protector of similar size and layout was added. This added more complexity and cost to the note raiser’s job, and such notes were therefore not chosen for use very often.

With the advent of more timely information and standardized designs on federal currency, raised notes became less common or even nonexistent by the end of the state banking era in 1865. Nonetheless, raised notes is an interesting numismatic and historic area to study and enjoy.

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A version of this article appears in the June 2026 issue of The Numismatist (money.org)