In prosecutions for forging or counterfeiting any note, certificate, bill of credit, or security issued on behalf of the United States or of any state, or for uttering, publishing, or tendering in payment as true any such forged or counterfeit note, certificate, bill of credit, or security, or for being possessed thereof with intent to utter and pass the same as true, the certificate, under oath, of the secretary of the Treasury or of the treasurer of the United States, or of the secretary or treasurer of any state in whose behalf such note, certificate, bill of credit, or security purports to have been issued, shall be admitted as evidence for the purpose of proving the same to be forged or counterfeit.