316 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
316 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
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|-| Information on Counterfeiting |-|
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|-| Written by Michael Skoler Typed by Lone Wolf |-|
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|-| for the Science Supplement for fun while listening to |-|
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|-| of How it Works Encyclopedia Bob Marley and the Wailers |-|
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|-| Edited by Count Lazlo Nibble |-|
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|-| for format, spelling, and |-|
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|-| Countlegger 10 while listening |-|
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|-| to Frankie Goes To Hollywood |-|
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|-| 10/5/86 |-|
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It's 8 pm. A junior executive walks through the offices of a New York
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advertising agency to make sure he's alone and then heads for the new laser
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copier. He's behind on his alimony and mortgage payments. He pulls out his
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wallet, extracts five $20 bills, and carefully places them on the copier's
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glass plate. He puches 10 on the quantity selector, pushes the button for
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Double-sided copying, and starts the machine. When it finishes he gathers up
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his 20's and the copies, and heads home to snip out a near perfect $1,000.
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New Photocopiers Have Amazing Capabilities
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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That prospect haunts Joe Carlon, head of the counterfeit deterrence for the US
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Secret Service <ed. note : US Secret Service is a branch of the Treasury
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Department>. Those who have seen only the slightly fuzzy, off-color
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photocopies made on today's color copiers think he's unduly alarmed. But
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Carlon has seen copies from a new machine, the harbinger of a coming generation
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of copiers that can turn out currency far too close to the original thing.
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It's called the Quick Response Multicolor Printer, or QRMP, and it sits behind
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closed and locked doors at the Pasadena, CA headquarters of Xerox Special
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Information Systems. The US Department of Defense <Yeah for the boys in green>
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paid for its development in high speed mapmaking, and only those wih Top Secret
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<oooohh...> clearance have seen it. The QRMP uses lasers to produce sharp
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images and, it's claimed, can reproduce any color in the spectrum. An internal
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computer ensures that the colors are true. The QRMP in Pasadena is just a
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prototype. But machines like it, made by Xerox and other manufacturers, should
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be in thousands of offices in the next few years <!>.
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Since 1978 the US Treasury department has been nervously eyeing advances in
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photocopying. Its agents have been visiting the big copier manufacturers to
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look at their experimental models, and what they've seen leads to an
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inescapable conclusion: good counterfeits could soon be coming out of these
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highly sophisticated office machines.
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Making Fake Bills Becomes Even Easier
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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It's not just professional counterfeiters who worry the government. It's
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executives with bills to pay, clerks short on cash for a date, secrataries
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complaining about being underpaid. The new copiers could turn counterfeiting
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from an operation requiring skill and planning into a Impulse crime <IE: Gnu
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Warez kid syndrome>. "The ability to stick a bill into a copier and have a
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perfect copy come out creates an almost impossible enforcement enviroment,"
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says Carlon. His agents believe they know of all counterfeits being made, and
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-- up to now -- have intercepted 90 percent of them before they hit the
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streets.
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And copiers are just the beginning. Soon high-technology manufacturers will be
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producing fast color printers and document scanners to go with today's color
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monitors <yeah, Amiga and //gs, all the way> and computer graphics programs.
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With a document scanner that can 'read' a picture and 'draw' a copy into a
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computer memory, a hacker could simply scan a bill and print it out.
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Major Effort to Deter Money-Makers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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But the US Government has been quietly preparing to thwart this presumptive
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breed of counterfeiter. At the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington,
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DC, anti-counterfeiting experts are redesigning all US Currency from the $1
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bill to the $100. On the drawing boards have been watermarks, Security
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Threads, with printing that can't be seen when bills are laid flat, special
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color tints, holograms, and razor ting prisms that create changing color
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patterns. The Treasury Department plans to begin circulating new bills with at
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least some of these features in mid-1987.
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Until now, counterfeiting has been a big business -- for example, in 1984 an
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estimated $88 million in bogus bills was printed in the US -- usually requiring
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careful organization and considerable capital investment: Printing presses,
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special cameras, a distribution network. All that leaves a trail the Secret
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Service can follow. Its hardest cases involve small-time money-makers who only
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print a few bills at a time.
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One celebrated counterfeiter, Emmanuel Ninger, an immigrant Dutch sign painter
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known as Jim the Penman, passed bills for 14 years, from 1882 to 1896, before
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being caught. He created his $50 and $100 notes with pen, ink, and a camel's
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hair brush, and passed about 5 a month in New York City. He probably would
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have gotten away with it if a bartender hadn't noticed the ink on his fingers
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after picking a note up. But lone-wolf counterfeiters like Ninger have been
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the exception.
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How Real and Bogus Money is Made
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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US currency is engraved, like fancy wedding invitations. The process starts
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with dies for various elements in a bill, most of them hand cut by engravers
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decades ago. (A new element, like a Treasurer's, name is freshly engraved.)
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The parts are assembled into a master die of an entire bill, which is used to
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create a master plate of 32 bill engravings. This, in turn, is used to make
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curved nickel plates for the rotary presses.
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The presses spread a thick ink onto the plate and then wipe the surface clear,
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leaving the ink only in the engraved grooves. Paper is pressed onto the plate
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with 2,720 kg (6000 lbs) of pressure, forcing it into the grooves. The trapped
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ink sticks to the paper forming a raised ridge. If you scratch a bill, you can
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feel the ridges.
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Most of today's counterfeiters use offset printing -- the system employed to
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publish books. A bill is photographed, one color at a time through tinted
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filters. The image on each negative is burned with a high intensity lamp into
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a light-sensitive printing plate, inked, and transferred to rubber-covered
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rollers that print it on paper -- again, one color at a time. A dollar is
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green and black, and therefore much easier to reproduce than, say, a picture in
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a book or magazine which contains hundreds of hues.
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Yet, of the nearly $7 million of bad money actually passed in 1984, only $1
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million was good enough to fool bank tellers. Offset counterfeits are never
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as sharp as the originals. They also feel wrong. Offset ink soaks into the
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paper, whereas the print on a genuine bill is raised. These flaws quickly
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attract the attention of cashiers and tellers, who are on the lookout for
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phonies. "Tht old saying is true," says Jon Desmond, former manager of
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Research and Development at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, "if the money
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looks bad, it is bad."
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Rise in Impulse Counterfeiting Expected
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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But the new color copiers could make bad money look good. If a copy isn't
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convincing enough, some machines will be able to edit it, redrawing lines,
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adjusting colors, and, as an extra added attraction, changing serial numbers.
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And thousands of people will be able to use the machines.
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According to a goverment funded study done by the Columbus, Ohio, laboratories
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of the Battell Memorial Institute, an independent research organization, as
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many as 2000 offices will have the copiers by 1987, 5000 by 1992 <rest assured,
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with new advances and needed efficiency, there will be more, sooner>. Copier
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manufacturers project even higher sales.
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The Battelle study predicts that one out of five people with access to the new
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machines will make and pass a few bills just to see if it can be done. One out
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of 100 will make at least a dozen bills to pay debts or take revenge on someone
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who has cheated him. One in 5000 might try to join the pros. "The total
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number of counterfeit notes would double from 1982 to 1987," says Joseph
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Sheldrick of Battelle, "and double again between 1987 and 1992".
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Color Copied Down to the Finest Detail
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Unlike the present copier, which uses mechanical means to create a duplicate,
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the new machine is really a computer <think about that for a second>. Its
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laser scanner reads and image and breaks it into tiny elements called pixels.
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The copiers program determines the precise mix of primary colors, contrast, and
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brightness that produces each pixel.
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To print, the copier pulses a laser beam across a light sensitive drum, drawing
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an electrically charged image on it, pixel by pixel. Dry inks called toners --
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red, yellow, blue, and black -- are then dusted over the drum and stick
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wherever there's a charge. A sheet of paper rolls past the drum, picking up
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its pattern of toners. Mixed in the right proportions, the primary colors
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create any tint. To mix the colors and set the picture, the copier melts the
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layers of toner and applies pressure.
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The real advantage, and menace of the new machines is their ability to resolve
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extremely small points of color using their laser scanners and electric coding.
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The copier can even reproduce minute red and blue silk threads embedded in a US
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bill as a counterfeit detterent. And the raised print on copies, created by
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fusing the toner, gives bills the proper feel -- although experts say toner
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feels slippery compared to engraving ink.
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Security Threads Successful to a Point
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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In 1979 Carlon and other Treasury officials went to Xerox, bills in hand, to
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test an early version of the QRMP. "I think it's fair to say that they were
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startled at how good the copier was," says Paul Jacobs, the cheif scientist for
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Xerox Special Information Systems. The visit strengthened Treasury's resolve
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to foil the new copiers and other high-technology counterfeiting with changes
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in the bills.
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Most foreign governments changed their currencies in the 1970's as offset
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printing improved. Intracate designs and more colors exposed the weaknesses of
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offset printing -- its sometimes poor resolution of fine lines and inaccurate
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color reproduction. But the new copiers won't suffer from these deficiencies.
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So US attention turned to another device -- the security thread.
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Security threads -- usually thins stips of plastic, either with printing on
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them or, like recording tape, coated with metal -- are put inside a currency's
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paper as it is made. Mexico adopted this device for bills of large
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denomination. When one of these bills is lying flat, the thread appears as a
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faint grey line. But if it is held up to a light and examined closely, the
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miniscule black printing on the translucent thread can be seen. The print
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carries jumbled variations of BANXICO (for Banco de Mexico), as well as the
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bill's denomination (for example, MIL PESOS).
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Britain has also used hidden threads, but is now putting a metal coated thread
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on the surface of its 20 pound notes so it will shine when a bill is lying
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flat. A copying machine -- even one of the new ones -- would print the silvery
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thread as a dull black.
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Security threads work only if a person looks for them. "But they're just
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interested in the value of the paper, so they look for the one, the five, the
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hundred -- and they're happy," says Desmond. He points out that some
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counterfeiters do quite well by merely 'upgrading' one dollar bills -- pasting
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100's, snipped from genuine $100 bills, over the 1's. Victims accept the money
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without even noticing that George Washington's face, not Ben Franklin's, is on
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the bill.
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Holograms Nearly Impossible to Copy Exactly
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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What the Treasure wants is a "magic element, something that will pop up and
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tell everyone 'I'm genuine,'" says Anthony LaCapria, vice president for
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research of the American Bank Note Company -- "something you don't have to
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examine. You'll know it's genuine just by a quick look." The company prints
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stock, bonds, and more than 70 different currencies. Its magic element is a
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hologram.
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These three-dimensional (3-d) color pictures are easy to spot: they seem
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project out of the paper. By tilting them from side to side you can see both
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the left and right sides of the picured object as if you were walking around
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it. American Bank Note has already put holograms on Mastercard and Visa credit
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cards, military documents, and foreign passports. Now the Treasury has asked
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it to test plastic holograms as thin as gold leaf, hot-pressed onto US
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currency.
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According to LaCapria, the 3-d pattern in the plastic, formed by microscopic
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pits and bumps are virtually impossible to copy exactly, and any attempt to do
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so would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and research. Yet
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because of economics of scale, holograms would cost the goverment only a
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fraction of a cent per bill. And not even the most advanced copiers could
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reproduce the shifting images that they would provide.
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Authenticity Assured with Diffraction Grating
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Jacobs and his team of scientists at Xeros beleive they have an even better
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trademark that the Treasury could build into its bills: a set of parallel
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plastic Ridges called a diffraction grating. The ridges are so tightly packed
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that many thousands are in an inch -- that they look like a smooth surface.
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The distance between two of these approaches the wavelength of visible light,
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which gives diffraction gratings the ability to break white light into its
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spectrum. Held flat the grating may look red, while a slight tilt will turn it
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to a yellow or a green. "When you tilt it," explains Jacobs, "you tilt another
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color into your eye".
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A grating works because light bounces off its jagged peaks and collides with
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other light waves, just as waves hitting a rocky coastline bounce off and
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interfere with incoming waves. These collisions create an interference pattern
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in which some wavelengths, or colors, are amplified and others are canceled
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out.
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To create an image with a diffraction grating, the Xerox team produces
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different interference patterns, varying the spacing between the ridges. It's
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like starting with a painted canvas and erasing portions of it until a pattern
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emerges. Xerox's design contains color stripes with a number showing the
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bill's value in the center. The colors change, some slowly, some more quickly,
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as you tilt the bill. The grating looks like a thin plastic ribbon, and,
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because it's woven into he paper, only small strips of it are visible on the
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surface as it snakes in and out of the bill.
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New Features must Withstand Abuse
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Either gratings or holograms would forestall counterfeiting for many years to
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come, but the Treasury wonders if either could endure the abuse bills
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encounter.
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Dollars go through the washing machine, people go swimming with a couple of
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bucks in their bathing suits, mechanics grab bills with greasy hands, people
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even use them as fine sandpaper," says Robert Charles, senior vice president
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for sales at American Bank Note. "Holograms need to withstand all that. We're
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testing them on machines that fold and twist money. We put bills in ovens,
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wash them hundreds of times, and expose them to everything from chlorine to
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gasoline." Xerox is doing the same with diffraction gratings.
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Currency Changes Meet with Protest
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The Treasury Department was secretive about the plans for the new bills until
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March 1986, when -- following $31 million in research (done in conjunction with
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the Federal Reserve Board) -- officials revealed the first substantial change
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in US paper money since 1929. The bills to be introduced in 1987 will have two
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important features: security threads and the addition of tiny letters around
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the portraits. The letters will be too small to be copied by the machines but
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will be readable by someone using a 7x magnifying glass. (Among the techniques
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still under consideration for the future are holograms.)
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Even before the March announcement, some people were protesting any change. The
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House committee on Consumer Affairs and Coinage, which oversees the currency,
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has been swamped with angry letters. Some correspondents fear the new bills
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will be the first step toward tighter goverment control of currency. According
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to a subcommittee staff member, "The paranoids of the world are afraid that a
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metallic security thread in bills would allow authorities to drive down the
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street with detectors and locate people who have large sums of cash stashed
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away."
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Former Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, a member of the subcommittee
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until 1984, warns that the government might use the currency change to devalue
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the dollar, and raises even darker specters: runaway inflation, international
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dollar panic, and Gestapo-like Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents watching
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as people trade in old money for new.
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In fact, Treasury officials insist, the new bills will move into circulation
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gradually as old bills are withdrawn. And in any case, all former US currency
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is still legal tender.
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The Alternative to changing the currency, say defenders of the move, is itself
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frightening. Without a redesign of the dollar, the new color copiers could
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make counterfeiting a national pastime. "When we went off the gold standard
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and money could not be exchanged for gold, the only thing left was confidence,"
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says Jacobs. "When John Q. Citizen isn't sure that everything in his wallet is
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real, the whole sytem is in big trouble."
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Call these...
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Club Zero 213/395-0221 Remote's Hideout 818/999-3680 BWE100 612/544-3980
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FutureScape 213/204-0357 Cap. Connection 916/448-3402
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Rock'n Roll Harbor 305/821-ACDC (2232)
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Terrapin Station 505/865-0883
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