SECURITY MARBLING ON FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

National Numismatic Collection NNC 1979.1263.01594

The twenty-dollar bills authorized by the Continental Congress and dated May 10, 1775, feature a hand-marbled margin applied as a polychrome security device. The association of Benjamin Franklin with these notes has led scholars to attribute the concept of security marbling to his genius. This article shows that security marbling was first adopted by the Bank of England in 1695. It is further argued that both fractional reserve banking and the issuance of paper currency were intimately intertwined with the advent of paper marbling in England during the mid-seventeenth century. Evidence is presented to show that a Persian artist and émigré to India, Muhammad Tahir, was the true innovator behind the combed and chevron marbled patterns that were later applied to financial instruments.

Introduction and Background
Many numismatic historians and collectors are familiar with an emission of 10,800 twenty-dollar bills that the Continental Congress authorized on July 22–23, 1775, then issued with the back-date of May 10, when the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. They were printed on sheets bearing a curious, hand-marbled polychrome margin along the left side of the obverse as a security device. The marbled papers are thought to have been procured by Benjamin Franklin, who also designed the emblem on the obverse depicting the wind blowing over waves surmounted by a Latin motto VI CONCITATÆ (driven by force; Pl. 37, 1). Avid interest among numismatic collectors in this specific emission has resulted in five-figure sales at auction in recent years, a considerable sum for historical paper currency. Prior writers have attributed the concept of security marbling to Franklin’s genius; however, it will be shown that this practice was already well-established in London prior to, during, and well after the periods that he resided there.

Significant evidence proves that the formative years of fractional reserve banking and issuance of paper currency were intimately intertwined with the advent of paper marbling in England. Together with new research on the origins and evolution of marbling in the Islamic world, and its subsequent spread to Europe, this essay provides an overview of security marbling throughout the "long eighteenth century" (ca. 1695–1815), until it was ultimately superseded by mechanized security printing.

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