The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 11, March 16, 2003, Article 6

B.E.P. ENGRAVERS FEATURED IN ARTICLE

  A February 20th article in The Washington Post featured the
  Bureau of Engraving and Printing's engravers, who have been
  toiling to create the updated designs for U.S. paper money,
  to be revealed later this month.   Information about the
  engravers can be hard to come by - a few have been well-
  known, but most labor in obscurity.

  "Computers still can't match Dixie March's hands.

  As one of only 13 engravers who create the nation's currency
  -- which will soon sport new colors -- March carves thousands
  of teensy dots and lines onto steel plates while peering through
  her 139-year-old brass magnifier and wielding her hand-made
  engraving tools.

  "We're kind of dinosaurs," said March, who works for the
  Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

  "It's a dying craft," March said. "Technology is going to take
  over  . . . . The technology just hasn't gotten there yet."

  March and her three fellow letter engravers, five picture
  engravers and a single sculpture engraver toil away in relative
  obscurity on the top floor of the BEP's vault-like annex at 14th
  and C streets NW. Three letter engravers work at the bureau's
  Fort Worth plant."

  [Numismatic author Gene Hessler was quoted in the article.
   Can you tell he's a musician? -Editor]

  "This is the first time the United States has used color to
  differentiate between denominations, something other countries
  have been doing for decades," said Gene Hessler, author of
  several books on engraving and currency."

  "Today, there are fewer than 100 security engravers worldwide,
  because of the dwindling number of private bank-note firms and
  because governments are replacing much hand engraving with
  technology, engraving expert Hessler said. He predicts that one
  day "there could be a handful of freelance engravers" serving the
  entire world. Many countries already use computer-imaged and
  photo-etched notes."

  "It's like the difference between a synthesizer and a live
  performance by a 100-piece orchestra," he said.

  "It sounds similar, but it's not the same."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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