Republic of the Philippines

Province of Cotabato
Municipality of Makilala
MAKILALA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Makilala, Cotabato
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
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QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINATION

Course Number: FORENSIC 4 Instructor: MARY ANN T. NADNADEN, RCRIM
Course Title : QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINATION
Credit Units : 5 Units Email:maryannnadnaden23@gmail.com
Module No :8
Duration : 2 weeks
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I. Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course the students shall be able to:
1. Elucidate the scientific principles of identification and examination of standards and questioned documents
2. Identify and understand the techniques in restoring and deciphering erasures and obliterations in the
handwriting, signature, and other questioned documents.
3. Apply the protocol in the selection and examination of standards and questioned documents.
4. Explain the methods and techniques in identifying handwriting and signatures.
5. Understand the document examination reports and testify forensic findings.

II. References
 Compilation of handouts and pop-sheets, University of Baguio.
 Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2003. 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
 A practical guide to questioned document examination. Antonio B. Rotor.
 Questioned documents. Albert Osborne, 1926. Reprinted, 1996.
 A compendium in criminalistics. Cirilo M. Tradio.
 Revised Penal Code, Book II.

Course content

CHAPTER EIGHT
I. DEFINITION OF TERMS
A. Flexibility of Pen Point - One quality of the nib pen is its pliability. This quality varies which different
pens and can be measured by the amount of pressure necessary to cause a spreading of the nibs or a
given degree of shading.
B. Fountain Pen - A fountain pen is a modern nib which contains a reservoir of ink in a specially
designed chamber. After complete filling the pen is capable of writing a number of pages without
refilling.
C. Ink - is a fluid or viscous marking material used for writing or printing.
D. Pen - A tool for writing or drawing with a colored fluid, such as ink; or a writing instrument used to
apply inks to the paper is a pen. It came from the Latin word "PENNA", meaning feather.
E. Pen Nibs - The two divisions or points which from the writing portion of a pen are its nibs.
F. Quill Pens - It is a hollow, horny part of large feather usually from goose and was used for writing on
parchment. Poland, Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands were the largest producers of quill.
G. Writing Instruments (Writing Implements) - Writing Implements, manual devices used to make
Alphanumeric marks on or in a surface.

II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A. Reed Pens/Swamp Reed
1. It came from especially selected water grasses found in Egypt, Armenia and along the shores of the Persian
Gulf, were prepared by leaving them under dung heaps for several months.

2. It was the first writing tool that had the writing end slightly frayed like a brush. About 2,000 years B.C., this
reed pen was first used in NEAR EAST on papyrus and later on parchment.

B. Quill Pen- Although quill pens can be made from the outer wing feathers of any bird, those of goose,
Swan, crow and (later) turkey, were preferred. The earliest reference (6th century AD) to quill pens
was made by the Spanish Theologian ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, and this tool was the principal writing
implement for nearly 1300 years.

C. Steel Point Pens (Brazen Pens)

1. Although pens of bronze may have been known to Romans, the earliest mention of "BRAZEN PENS" was in 1465. The
16th century Spanish calligrapher Juan De Yciar mentions brass pens for very large writing in his 1548 writing manual,
but the use of metal pens did not become widespread until the early part of the 19th century.
2. The first patented steel pen point was made by the English engineer Bryan Donkin in 1803.
3. The leading 19th century English pen manufacturers were William Joseph Gillot, William
Mitchell, and James Stephen Perry.

D. Fountain Pens
1. In 1884, Lewis Waterman, a New York insurance agent, patented the first practical FOUNTAIN PEN Containing its own
ink reservoir. Waterman invented a mechanism that fed ink to the pen point by capillary action, allowing ink to flow
evenly while writing.
2. By the 1920's, the fountain pen was the chief writing instrument in the west and remained so until the introduction
of the ball point pen after WORLD WAR II.

E. Ball Point Pen

1. John Loud, in 1888, patented the first ball point writing tool. A ball point pen has in its point small rotating metal ball
that continually inks itself as it turns.
2. The ball is set into a tiny socket. In the center of the socket is a hole that feeds ink to the socket
from a long tube (reservoir) inside the pen.
3. As early as the 19th century, attempts had been made to manufacture a pen with a rolling ball tip; but not until 1938
did Hungarian inventor brothers Ladislao josé Biro (Biró Lászió József) an Georg Biro invent a viscous, oil-based ink that
could be used with such a pen. Hence, they are attributed for the invention of the first practical modern ballpoint pen.

4. Early ball point pens did not write well; they tended to skip, and the slow-drying oil-based in smudged easily.
However, the ball-point pen had several advantages over the fountain pen:
1. the ink was waterproof and almost un-erasable;
2. the ball point pen could write on many kinds of surfaces;
3. could be hold in almost any position for writing; and
4. the pressure required to feed the ink was ideal for making carbon copies.
5. Ink formulas were improved for smoother flow and faster drying, and soon the ball-point replace the fountain pen as
the universal writing tool.
F. FIBER TIP PENS -

1. In 1963, fiber tip markers were introduced into the U.S. market and have since challenged the ball point as the
principal writing implement.

2. The first practical fiber tip pen was invented by YUKIO HORIE of Japan in 1962. It was ideal suited to the strokes of
Japanese writing, which is traditionally done with a pointed ink brush.

3. Unlike its predecessors, the fiber tip pen uses dye as a writing fluid. As a result, the fiber tip pen can produce a wide
range of colors unavailable in ball point and fountain pen inks.

G. Felt-tip markers are made of dense natural or artificial fibers impregnated with a dye. These markers can be cut to a
variety of shapes and sizes, some up to an inch in width.

III. COMPOSITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF INKS

A. Indian Inks - The oldest form of Indian ink consisted of a suspension of carbon black (soot o lampblack) in water to
which glue or a vegetable gum was added. Inks of these compositions are still on the market mostly in the shape of
sticks or cakes. In modern carbon ink, the glue or gum is replaced by a solution of shellac in borax or ammonia. These
inks are not affected by oxidants. It is practically impossible to remove the last traces of the carbon from the paper
without causing damage to it.

B. Log wood Inks - These inks which were used extensively about a century ago, have now because obsolete and are no
longer manufactured. They were made from an aqueous extract of logwood chips and potassium chromate. These inks
will be found only on old.

C. Iron Gallotanate Inks - This ink has been used as writing for over a thousand years. Formerly it was made of a
fermented infusion of gall nuts to which iron salts were added. The ink was composer of suspension of the black, almost
insoluble ferric tannate.

D. Fountain Pen Inks - These inks are regarded as special fountain pen inks, and consisting of ordinary iron galotannate
inks with a lower iron content in most cases but with a higher dyestuff content than normal inks. This type of ink is
placed on the market under the name of "blue-black permanent". The iron content range from.

E. Dyestuff Inks - These inks are composed of aqueous solutions of synthetic dyestuffs, to which a preservative and a flux
are added. The writing qualities of the ink are improved by addition of substances such as glycerol, glucose or dextrin.
The dark blue and black inks are often composed of
four or more dyes because no black dyestuff of sufficient tinctorial capacity is known.
F. Water Resistant Writing and Drawing Inks - These inks are special group of dyestuff inks. They consist of a pigment
paste and a solution of shellac made soluble in water by means of borax, liquid ammonia or ammonium bicarbonate.
Sometimes the pigment suspension is combined with acid or basic dyestuff.
G. Alkaline Writing Inks- These are quick drying inks which possess a ph of from 9 to about 11. They
penetrate quickly through the size of the paper allowing the ink to penetrate quickly into the paper. The dyestuff in
these inks consists of acid dyes, sometimes combined with phthalo cyanide dyes. These inks are not much in demand
because they are rather expensive and because the material of many fountain pens is affected by them.
H. Ballpoint Pen Inks - The ballpoint pens did not appear on the European market before 1945. The development of the
present pen was accomplished during World War II because the Army and the Air
Force needed a writing instrument which would not leak at high altitude and which supplied quick drying water-resistant
writing.
I. Stamp Pad Inks - They are made with the acid of substances such as glycerol, glycol, acetin or benzyl alcohol and
water. Airline dyes are added as coloring matter. For quick drying stamp pad inks, more volatile organic solvents are
used as acetone, ethanol, etc. As a vehicle, dextrine, gum arabic, or tannin is sometimes added. Through the addition of
tannin, the stamp impression becomes water resistant after drying.
J. Hectograph Inks - These inks very much resemble stamp pad inks and are exclusively made with
basic dyes. To the dyestuff solution several other substances are added such as glycerol, acetic acid and acetone.

K. Typewriter Ribbon Inks - These inks are usually composed of a blend of aniline dyes, carbon black and oil such as
olein or castor oil. The two-tone ribbons however contain no dyes, but pigments suspended in oil base. This is necessary
because aniline dyes tend to bleed and would cause the sharp division between the differently colored halves of the
ribbon to merge.

L. Printing Inks - Printing inks often consist of a mixture of colored pigments, carbon black and a "base" which may
consist of oil, resins, synthetic resins or a mixture of these. It is possible to remove printing ink from a document by
scrubbing the document with an aqueous solution of a suitable detergent. The rubbing and breaking up of the surface of
the ink and the detergent facilitates the suspension and eventual removal of the carbon and other ingredients by the
water.

M. Canceling Inks - These inks often contain carbon and this fact should be burned in mind when it is required to
decipher faint cancellation marks on a postage stamp and wrappers. Carbon is opaque to infra-red sensitive plate and be
relied upon to improve the legibility of any marking affected by a carbon containing canceling ink. Erasure of canceling
ink on valuable stamps is usually affected by attack on the medium which bind the carbon to the surface of the stamp
and it is to be regretted that many canceling inks are manufactured with media which offer resistance to attack so that
the resistant carbon can simply be swabbed off. This can be usually be detected by infra-red photography which will
reveal the traces of carbon, which almost invariably remain on the stamp.

N. Skrip Ink - These are manufactured by W.A. Chaffer Pen Company since 1955. The inks contain a substance which is
colorless in visible light and has a strong affinity for the fibers of the paper, and yet is not bleached by hypochlorite ink
eradicators or washed out by soaking on water. Thus if a writing with "Skrip" is obliterated with ink eradicator, the
original will produce a characteristic fluorescence and can be deciphered by reviewing under filtered ultra-violet.

IV. THE EXAMINATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF INK

A. In most cases the inks to be examined are not available in liquid form. One kind of examination centers on the
question as to whether the ink of some writings or of alterations in a police blotter is identical with the ink found in the
possession off the suspect.
B. For this reason, the examination of questioned documents is restricted to a comparative examination of certain
properties of these inks. However the examination carries with it certain difficulties as the quantity of material available
for examination is small and the examination can be done only one.
C. It is necessary then that before a chemical examination is attempted, which results in a partial destruction of writing,
an exhaustive examination by non-destructive methods be carried out.
D. These non-destruction methods include visual examination with the aid of a binocular microscope as
well as photographic examination. They should be used first before any chemical examination is
resorted to.
E. It is necessary therefore to be acquainted with the composition and developmental history, method of manufacture
of the types of ink most commonly used. Sometimes, antedating can only be proven by identifying a component of the
ink, which was not yet included in inks at the alleged date of the document.

V. THE CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF INK

A. THE CHROMATOGRAPHIC EXAMINATION (THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHIC)
1. This is restricted to a comparison of the dyestuffs in the ink but sometimes it is also possible to identify one or more of
the components of the dyes.
2. Regarded as the principal method of ink examination.
3. To identify a dyestuff, it is necessary to possess a collection as complete as possible of the various dyes used in the
manufacture of inks.
4. The chromatographic separation of the dyes maybe carried out by paper chromatography.

B. DETERMINATION OF THE AGE OF THE INK

1. Determine the age of writing or the difference in the ages of different writings, the document examiner makes use of
a property of the ink writing which changes in the course of time. This selection of properties will be determined by the
composition of ink and the circumstances under which the writing ages.

2. Procedure:

a. Ball Point Pen Inks

(1) If a document has been written with a ballpoint pen, the writing in question is bound to date in all probability from a
point of time later than 1945.

(2) The analysis of ballpoint inks may yield an important cue to the age of the ink.

(3) The first ballpoint inks were practically without exception based on oleic acid. These inks will flow Out when a drop of
benzene or petroleum ether is applied to them.

(4) Not until 1950 were these inks made on a basic of polyethylene glycols, which are resistant to treatment with
benzene or petroleum ether.

(5) However, the presence of oleic acid iS not yet proof that the writing in question s old for oleic acid is sometimes also
used in modem ballpoint inks.

(6) In the later case however, the ink will as a rule not flow out with the petroleum ether because these inks, no water
soluble coloring matter is worked out. Instead pigments and dyestuffs are used that will not dissolve in petroleum ether.

(7) The presence of phthalocyanine dyestuff is an indication of an ink produced later than 1954-

(8) Thus it is not possible to determine the absolute age of ballpoint inks. Neither it is possible to determine the relative
ages of two ballpoint ink writings, not even if they are of the same kind. The ink dries rather quickly because the base is
absorbed by the paper.

(9) Recent ballpoint writing can be offset and efforts have been made to use the copying power for age determination.
b. Dyestuff Inks

(1) The dyestuff inks lack properties that would permit age determination but the presence of
an obsolete or modern dyestuff may indicate age of writing.
(2) If a phthalocyanine dye is found in the ink, it would be improbable for the document to be dated prior to
1953.

C. Iron Gallotannate Inks - These inks show a remarkable change of color in maturing. This based on the chemical
change of ferrous to ferric in the course of time. The following are the methods used to show the gradual change of inks:
(1) Method based on the change of the Color of the Ink - This method is useful in those cases where the ink writing
received for examination is too recent that the process of maturing can be observed visually. The kind of ink must be
known and one or more writings of known age must be available for comparison.
(2) Methods based on the Solubility of the Ink - The solubility of iron gallotannate ink decreases considerably as the ink
matures. As with the color change, it can only be applied successfully to a very recent writing. This method can establish
a difference in the age of writings on one and the same document. The solubility is determined by a visual estimate of
the quantity of ink which can be withdrawn with a drop of water from a stroke. It is necessary however that the drop of
water be applied to ink stroke of the same intensity.
(3) Method based on the amount of ferrous iron in the ink - In iron gallotannate ink, the iron is mainly present in the
complex bound ferrous form. As the manufacturing process goes on, the ric gallotannate is formed. A drop of reagent is
applied to the ink stroke. The reagent is left in contact with the ink for 1 minute and then recovered with a piece of filter
paper. If ferrous iron is still present in the ink, the paper will show a red zone of ferrous aa1-dipyridyl around the stain of
blue dyestuff. By repeating this test daily, it is possible to check the decrease in the ferrous iron in the ink by the changes
in the coloration of this red zone.
(4) Estimation of age based on the detection of the dyes - Iron gallotannate inks contain an organic dye, (soluble blue)
which is oxidized or at least becomes insoluble complete or partially as the ink ages. It is claimed that the organic dye
becomes completely insoluble in four to five years. However, the application of this method appears to yield results in
practice.