hundred dollars," is a worthless precaution. In the above example it
is so, for the reason that raised as it is the amount still is within
the limit. Had the check been drawn in the same style for "six"
dollars, it would have been more easily and profitably raised to
"sixty." In the same general manner a slovenly "two" may be raised to
"twenty," "three" may be "thirty," "five" is made "fifty," "seven"
becomes "seventy," "eight" becomes "eighty," and "nine" is transformed
into "ninety"--all without erasures and without leaving telltale marks
upon a chemical paper.

In this way the average check which is made payable "to bearer" may be
a potential menace in a slow course through a dozen hands. While a
bank may require the holder of a "bearer" check to indorse his name
upon the back, that indorsement means nothing to him. The check is
payable to the bearer and the teller must pay it if it appears all
right and he is certain of the signature at the bottom.

For the average man who may write his checks at a desk, and who may be
willing to observe some system in the writing, perhaps the safest and
cheapest protection for his paper is to repeat in red-ink figures the
amount for which the check is drawn, placing those figures on the
signature line at the bottom in such a manner that the black-ink
signature will be woven through the red-ink group. Virtually there is
no way of getting around this form of duplicated amount. The red
figures show plainly through the signature and cannot be changed
without affecting the form and character of the signature itself. To
affect a signature in this way is to call attention to the fraud
instantly. A man may make a shaky mismove of the pen somewhere in the
body of the check, and if it is not too prominent a teller may take a
chance and pass it; but he will shy at a signature which isn't what it