Numbering Banknotes in 1908

This photograph tells us so much about monetary technology a century ago. Here we are applying serial numbers to US banknotes after the faces and backs have been printed.

This is being done in the old home of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing that still stands at the corner of 14th Street and Independence Avenue, SW (across from the Washington Monument). The numbered notes would then be sent to the US Treasury Building in sheet form to have the Treasury seal applied. The notes would then be separated into individual units for issuance.

For Women’s History Month, I want to point out the crucial role that women played in the banknote industry. The women certainly outnumber the men in this photo. In the days before automation, women fed or ran almost every machine in a banknote company. They also did all the inspection and counting of sheets and notes.

On the more technical side, the numbering blocks on this hand-fed machine do not look all that different from those on today's machines.

And, here we have sheets of four notes (National Bank Notes in this photo). This means that the notes were wet printed probably on a hand-operated flatbed press run by a printer (always male) and a printer’s assistant (always female). The bed of the press limited the plate size, allowing only four subjects to the plate.

While any press operator will tell you that banknote production is still very much hands-on, I am not sure they would want to be this hands-on (and without air conditioning).