FINCERPRINT CHEQUES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3595, 7 August 1912, Page 7

FINCERPRINT CHEQUES.

'THE LATEST AMERICAN INNOVATION.

“Your fingerprint, please,” is the noyel demand now being made by clerks in increasing numbers in New York banks of all ladies and gentlemen desirous of cashing cheques (state the American correspondent of the “Dally Mail”). The customer is given an ink pad and a card. On this he or she is directed to place three fingers and the first joint of each thumb. The clerk compares the impressions with records in the cashier’s office and presents the customer with a little bottle of spirits of turpentine and a piece of cotton wool for the removal of the ink stains. Only after this ordeal has been successfully accomplished may the customer receive cash for his or her cheque. According to the “Evening Post,” the leading financial newspaper in Now Y’ork, the new system of fingerprints is rapidly growing in favor with hankers who have been victimised by swindlers and forgers. The Williamsburg Savings Bank was the first institution to adopt the system. Other banks, finding that it entailed .much delay, appointed a special clerk whose duty it is to persuade ladies to. remove their gloves and to submit to the inky operation.