When a new batch of French notes is to be printed, an equivalent number of the choicely prepared and preserved sheets of paper is handed over to the superintendent of the printing office. This office is among the inner buildings of the Bank of France, and is governed by very rigorous rules in all things. The operatives are all picked men, skillful, active, and silent. The sheets, the ink, and the matrixes of the plates are kept securely under lock and key until actually wanted. The printing is effected by steam-worked presses. The ink is blue, and its composition known only to a few of the authorities. An inspector goes his rounds during the continuance of the operations, watching every press, every workman, every process. A beautiful machine, distinct from the press, is employed to print the variable numbers on the note; fed with sheets of paper, it will number a thousand of them in succession, changing the digits each time, and scarcely requiring to be touched meanwhile; even the removal of one note and the placing of another are effected by automatic agency. At every successive stage the note is examined. So complete is the registration of everything that a record is always at hand of the number of sheets rejected ever since the Bank of France was established, be its defects in the paper, the printing, or the numbering. When the master-printer has delivered up his packets of printed and numbered sheets, each note is stamped with the signature of the Secretary-General and the Comptroller. This completes the _creation_ of notes. The notes so created are kept in a strong box, of which the Secretary-General and the Comptroller have keys, and are retained until the day of _issue_. The chief cashier tells the Governor that he wants a new supply of a particular denomination of notes, the Governor tells the council, the council tell the secretary-general and the comptroller, and these two functionaries open their strong box, and hand over the notes demanded. The notes at this time are not really money; they do not become so until the chief cashier has put his signature to each, and registered its number in a book.