months from date of receipt. Consular officers should likewise carefully preserve them, together with the cards or statements to which they are attached. They are not open to inspection by any person not connected with the consular or customs service of the United States, except for the purpose of ascertaining or establishing market value or price, in which case the name of the shipper shall not be made known.

685. Sample cards.-Samples should be accompanied by a certified statement or sample card, which should, when practicable, be attached to the sample to which the statement refers. For sample card generally used, see Form No. 147. A special form (No. 148) is given for woolen fabrics.

686. Consular corrections. If, on examination, any of the values stated in the invoice are found to be incorrect, or to be less than the true market value of the merchandise, the consul shall require the correct values to be given by the person producing the invoice, or he shall state the true value, as he conceives it to be, on a red-colored sheet to be attached to the first page of the invoice and designated as the "Page of Consular Corrections." (Form No. 115.) These blank pages will be issued in book form, serially numbered, and provided with perforated stubs, on which suitable memoranda of corrections made shall be noted by the consul. Even when the price of merchandise purchased for export is correctly stated, the consul shall note on the invoice any difference between the price paid and the actual market value.

687. Explanation of corrections.-The consul should in general explain and justify his corrections noted on the invoice in a letter to the collector of customs at the port of entry, which letter may be either attached to the collector's copy of the invoice or sent separately.-S. 12283. The appraisers are required to inform the consul as to what return of value has been made on any invoice upon which the consul has noted an opinion as to the value of the merchandise, and the consul is to be

directly notified in all cases where invoice values are advanced on appraisement.-S. 16867.

688. Certification of invoices. When the invoice has been found to be correct or has been duly corrected by means of the consul's notations, the consul shall indorse on each of the triplicate or quadruplicate invoices a certificate (Form No. 140), under his hand and seal (stamp signatures are not sufficient, S. 7045), to the effect that the invoice was produced to him, the date of such production, name of person producing it, the port in the United States at which it shall be entered, the declared intention to make entry of the merchandise, and also that he is satisfied the statements made in the invoice are true.-R. S., sec. 1715, 2855.

689. Numbering and indorsement.-Invoices must be consécutively numbered in the order in which they are certified. A new series of numbers must be begun each calendar year. Each copy of the invoice must be carefully folded in two folds, placing the number, port, and date on the outside. The amount of the invoice, its serial number, the name of the consulate, and the amount of the fee received for the certification should be stamped or written near the bottom of the first page at the left-hand corner of the invoice, and also upon the certificate. The copy filed in the consulate must show, also, the name of the owner or shipper and the name of the vessel. Every blank space in the forms should be filled with proper wording or by a dash with the pen to show that it has not been overlooked.

690. Invoices fraudulently undervalued not to be certified.—Certification may be refused when the merchandise specified in the invoice appears to have been, or the consular officer has reason to believe that it has been, undervalued with fraudulent intent; but where the consul and the shipper honestly differ as to the true valuation, each should state his estimate of the value, and leave the determination of the true value

to the appraising officers at the port of entry.-R. S., sec. 1715; S. 11954, 15265, 15801. The consular officer is authorized to refuse to certify an invoice only when the evidence of fraudulent intent appears to him conclusive, as when the shipper refuses to comply with the requirements prescribed in these Regulations. Whenever the consular officer is in doubt as to the good faith of the shipper, he may certify the invoice, taking the precaution to make adequate memoranda on the sheet provided for consular corrections and notations.-S. 15801.

691. Certification after shipment. In exceptional cases where the production of the invoice at or before the shipment of the merchandise is shown to have been impracticable, an invoice produced after shipment may be certified upon satisfactory evidence that it is true and correct. In such case the reasons for production and certification after shipment should be indorsed on the invoice. Greater leniency in enforcing this requirement is permissible in the shipment of perishable merchandise requiring quick handling than in other cases. the other hand, the consul may refuse to certify the invoice before the merchandise has been actually shipped, in cases where the good faith of the shipper appears to him to be doubtful.-S. 15604.

On

Replace invoices.-After an invoice has been certified and the merchandise shipped the consul should, as a general rule, decline to certify a substitute or "replace" invoice advancing the values, or otherwise materially changing the original statement. Invoices may sometimes, through inadvertence or ignorance of the law, be prepared so faultily as to justify correction in a substituted invoice; but such substitutions have been so frequently made to evade the penalty of an attempted undervaluation that they will be permitted only when the clearest evidence is produced of the unavoidable nature of the errors alleged to have occurred in the original invoice, and when it is positively shown that no premeditated

evasion of the revenue laws has been involved in the proceeding.-S. 17295.

692. Currency certificates. The price of merchandise obtained by purchase must be stated in the currency actually paid therefor; and when the currency paid for purchased merchandise is depreciated, a currency certificate (Form No. 144) must be attached to the invoice showing the percentage of depreciation as compared with the corresponding standard coin currency and the value in such standard coin currency of the total amount of the depreciated currency paid for mer-. chandise included in the invoice.-R. S., sec. 2903; S. 14287, 17252. This certificate should show, not the value of the depreciated currency in money of account of the United States, but its value in terms of the standard coin currency in comparison with which the currency used in the purchase is depreciated.-S. 11314, 12399, 14107, 17170.

In the assessment of duty the currency of the invoice is reduced to the money of account of the United States upon the basis of the values of foreign coins at the date of shipment, as proclaimed by the Secretary of the Treasury for the 1st day of January, April, July, and October of each year.— Tariff of 1894, sec. 25; S. 16921. The date of shipment is determined for this purpose by the date of the bill of lading, if there is one; otherwise, by the consular certificate to the invoice.-S. 14910. In the absence of a currency certificate no allowance will be made for depreciated currency.-S. 15435.

A consular currency certificate is not required when the invoice is stated in coin not included in the Secretary of the Treasury's quarterly statement of values. The customs officers at the port of entry will in such cases ascertain from the most available sources the value of the coin in the money of the United States.-S. 2909. For statistical purposes currency certificates are required for all invoices of merchandise

purchased and paid for in depreciated currency, without regard to the dutiable or nondutiable character of the merchandise.-S. 14287.

693. Disposition of invoices.-The consular officer is required to designate by stamp or otherwise the original, duplicate, triplicate, and (when there is one) quadruplicate of each invoice. The original must be filed for preservation in the consular office, the duplicate delivered to the person producing the invoice, or, upon his request, to the agents of the vessel in which the merchandise is to be exported to the United States, and the triplicate sent promptly, by the master of the vessel conveying the merchandise, or by mail, and without the intervention of any party in interest, to the collector of customs of the port at which the merchandise is to be finally entered.-S. 15936. When the merchandise is to be entered under the immediate-transportation act (paragraph 662), the quadruplicate copy of the invoice required by that act must be delivered, with the duplicate, to the person producing the invoice.

The triplicate or collector's copy of the invoice should always be transmitted, carefully addressed, in the most direct and speedy manner possible, so that it will reach the customhouse before the entry of the merchandise. It is never to be sent through the office of the consul-general.

All the triplicate invoices to be forwarded to the same collector by the same mail or vessel should be placed in an envelope, with a letter in Form No. 142, carefully addressed to the collector and stamped with the name of the consulate and the date. The blank for the number of invoice must be filled in writing. A small silk cord or narrow ribbon must then be passed through the envelope, near the end and sides, and under the consular seal, with which the envelope must be carefully sealed. The postage must be prepaid. When the