Every loan on bond and mortgage contemplates payment, ultimately, of the amount loaned with interest. The mortgage having been recorded constitutes an encumbrance on the mortgagor's title. When he repays the loan, he should therefore not only have the bond and mortgage surrendered to him, but insist upon the mortgagee delivering a "satisfaction piece." (Appendix form 47.) This is a formal instrument describing the mortgage and stating that it is paid. It must be signed by the mortgagee, who should acknowledge it. It may then be recorded in the public office in which the mortgage was recorded. When this is done the original record of the mortgage is marked cancelled, and no longer appears as an encumbrance on the property. Much trouble may arise from failure to get a satisfaction piece, or, having it, from failure to record it. The mortgage remains of record indefinitely and if the satisfaction be not filed, it may be very difficult years later to prove its payment.

*For example of this form of Mortgage, see Jones-Laughlin Mortgage in Gerstenberg, "Materials of Corporation Finance," p. 189.