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Counterfeiting With High Resolution Inkjets 682

Posted by timothy from the but-that-paper's-expensive dept.
Makarand writes "Thanks to the availability of low cost high quality inkjet printers, crooks are now able to produce currency indistinguishable from the real banknotes, at least under dim lighting conditions like that in a bar or a nightclub. The term "digifeiters" is being coined for counterfeiters that use cheap high-resolution printers to produce fake currency. Unlike costly color xerographic copiers that come inbuilt with features to detect security details on banknotes and stop currency copying, no cheap printers come with such feature. An anti-digifeiting system for cheaper printers may consist of printer driver software capable of recognizing data patterns indicating currencies of several countries." I wonder what GimpPrint would think of being forced to print or not print certain documents based on their contents.
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Counterfeiting With High Resolution Inkjets More

Counterfeiting With High Resolution Inkjets

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  • One of the funniest Beavis and Butthead episodes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 25, 2003 @07:55PM (#6037807)
    Was when they visited the photocopy place and tried to copy dollars, then tried to pay the copy guy with their printed money. Ahh, I miss that show.

    • Even funnier (Score:5, Funny)

      by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:13PM (#6037927)
      "Was when they visited the photocopy place and tried to copy dollars, then tried to pay the copy guy with their printed money. Ahh, I miss that show."They were using a xerox machine inside the 7-11 (or whatever), right in front of the clerk.

      They were xeroxing nickels.

      The spent 25 cents for each xeroxed nickel.

      After they got a bunch, they raggedly tore the extra paper from around their fake paper "nickels" and tried to buy candy from the clerk.

  • Plastic Notes work well (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vk2tds ( 175334 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @07:56PM (#6037810)
    Go for plastic bank notes like australia. They work well... They even have clear patches you can see right through.

    • Re:Plastic Notes work well (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:07PM (#6037892)
      More info and pictures here [rba.gov.au]. Note the clear patches show up as black bits down in the bottom corner.

      • Re:Plastic Notes work well (Score:5, Funny)

        by CuriousGeorge113 ( 47122 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @09:45PM (#6038338) Homepage
        To help assist counterfitters, the Australian Governmebt has equipped this page with pictures of all their currency [rba.gov.au] with a printer friendly version [rba.gov.au]

        Nice to see the government goes that extra step to help out the cheaters and counterfitters.

    • Re:Plastic Notes work well (Score:5, Funny)

      by Pentagram ( 40862 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:31PM (#6038039) Homepage
      You're getting mixed up with credit cards. And stop hole-punching them.

    • Re:Plastic Notes work well (Score:5, Funny)

      by EverDense ( 575518 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @10:00PM (#6038393) Homepage
      The best bit is because Australia produces "polymer notes for Papua New Guinea,
      Indonesia, Kuwait, Western Samoa, Singapore, Brunei, Sri Lanka and Thailand."
      http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/currency. html

      If one of those countries pisses Australia off, they can mass produce the country's
      currency, and drop it from aircraft. Making their economy tank in short order ;-)

      Oh shit, I think I just revealed Australia's plans for World Denomination[tm].

  • Wonka Dollars (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hayzeus ( 596826 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @07:57PM (#6037818) Homepage
    You heard me -- chocolate banknotes, with nougat and sprinkles.

    Try counterfeiting those.

  • They can't duplicate the time-worn faded near-illegibility of real currency. Just be on the lookout for crisp bills.

    • Re:No problem (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Lord_Slepnir ( 585350 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:02PM (#6037857) Journal
      Just be on the lookout for crisp bills.

      Actually, it's a common practice for a counterfreiting operation to 'launder' its money before putting it out into circulation. They will literally put it in a washer / dryer to give it that 'worn down' look and feel.

  • I'm not sure about you... but I'd certainly notice if the texture or "feel" of a dollar was off. Aren't they printed on an almost clothlike paper or something? I notice the difference between that and normal printing paper easily. So where are these people getting that style of paper, and does it change the quaility or ability to print... or are bar tenders and the such just stupid and don't realize?

    • Re:Where can you get that type of paper? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Oliver Wendell Jones ( 158103 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:01PM (#6037850)
      Other recent articles about counterfeiting have mentioned a proprietary chemical mixture that removes a vast majority of the ink from printed currency, yet leaves the security strip, watermark and colored fibres intact. Bills treated in this manner will fool those colored markers that most places uses for confirmation. You get a stack of $5s, 'bleach' them and reprint them as $10s and you've doubled your money, print them as $20s and you're up to 4x, print them as $100s and you're at 20x. If you take bills as part of your job, double check that the watermark image is the same as the face printed on the bill, and that the value in the security strip matches as well.

      • Re:Where can you get that type of paper? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by GC ( 19160 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:06PM (#6037888)
        which is why, here in the UK, we make higher denomination notes larger in size than those of a lesser denomination... I guess they didn't think of that in the USA.

        Apparently 90% of US currency is outside of the US at any given time.
    • I notice the difference between that and normal printing paper easily. So where are these people getting that style of paper, and does it change the quaility or ability to print... or are bar tenders and the such just stupid and don't realize?


      Not after you set the bills down on a bar that's wet due to drink spillage, etc. The other thing is that bartending is VERY fast paced, it would be easy to not notice.

    • You can't get that type of paper (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's sold only to the US Treasury.

      And from the Treasury: Currency FAQ [ustreas.gov]

      The paper that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) uses to produce our currency is "distinctive." A paper manufacturer produces it according to BEP specifications. It is composed of 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen. The paper also contains red and blue fibers of various lengths that are evenly distributed throughout the paper.

      From PBS: Anatomy of a Bill: The Currency Paper [pbs.org].

      Currency paper has a unique feel and is extr

    • Re:Where can you get that type of paper? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Marillion ( 33728 ) <ericbardes@NOsPaM.gmail.com> on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:16PM (#6037943)
      The process is called "leaching."

      The idea is to use a lower value note, say a one, then bleach the old ink off of it. Use your handy-dandy inkjet to print a twenty note on the paper that used to be a one. The one is well suited to false promotion because it doesn't have a florescent nylon strip that a bartender could positively verify the paper isn't a twenty.

      Since all US notes are the same size, feel the same, and mostly look the same it's easy to fake. I know the French franc, prior to the Euro, used different sized paper for different values.

      As a side note, if you've never seen the movie The Grifters [imdb.com] there's a scene where John Cusack flashes a twenty at a bartender, asks for a beer, then pulls a slight-of-hand leaving a ten on the counter expecting the bartender to remember the twenty and give change as such.

      I know folks in the US complain about the Monopoly-esque look of other currency, but it's a hell-of-a-lot tougher to copy, easier for the blind to judge denomination from size, and easier for visitors to manager. Put a dime in front of a visitor and ask him the worth of it. He can't. Nowhere does it say "ten cents" or "10 cents." It just say "One Dime."

      Sorry for ranting.

      • Put a dime in front of a visitor and ask him the worth of it. He can't. Nowhere does it say "ten cents" or "10 cents." It just say "One Dime."

        It's also the smallest coin. Worked wonders with my little sister when I was a kid. I'd trade her my larger nickels for her small little dimes. Worked wonders!

        • "Worked wonders with my little sister when I was a kid. I'd trade her my larger nickels for her small little dimes."

          • My sister and I used to trade our silver dollars. I'd trade her my older ones for her newer ones 'cause the newer ones had eagles on them and was into animals. What a stupid kid I was.

  • Surprised it's profitable (Score:5, Funny)

    by aonifer ( 64619 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @07:59PM (#6037830)
    I'm surprised they can turn a profit, what with having to spend $80 to replace jammed ink cartridges every three minutes.

  • The big thing about currency isn't the image so much as the ink and the feel of the cloth. That's not paper, it's linen, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a supply of convincing stock. The ink, while less of a factor, still contributes to the gestalt of cash - it affects the smell, and doesn't wash off when exposed to moisture.

    • It doesn't matter. The $50 and $100 bills are the same size and material as a $1 bill. Bleach a $1 bill until you have nothing left visible but the raw material, then print a $50 or $100 over it.

      Bingo - instant profit.
      • Good luck, I can't count how many times my wallet has gone through the wash without fading at all, true it's only 5% chlorine bleach or so but still. And the magnetic black in probably wouldn't come off without totally destroying the bill. If it were that easy then a lot fewer counterfeiters would get caught.

        • Re:But in the US... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by TMLink ( 177732 )
          From the a report about the new $20 bill [cnn.com]:

          Dennis Forgue, a rare currency dealer and anti-counterfeiting expert, said in an earlier interview with CNN/Money that many international counterfeiters bleach the surface of small American bills and digitally print the face of a larger bill over them, even though the watermark and security strip remain the same.

          "Unless there's some sort of penetrating ink, the new bills won't fix that problem," he said.

  • Something to consider (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:01PM (#6037846) Homepage Journal
    One of the 'anticounterfeiting' features placed in color copiers that was only acknowledged recently was a code unique to the copier that was added to each copy in such a way that it didn't noticably affect the print quality but would allow copies to be traced back to their point of origin.

    I mention this because this could be the next step for inkjets (if it hasn't been done already!) with all the privacy concerns that entails.


    • What good would this be?

      Buy the printer with cash. Or a stolen credit card. After printing off a huge load, dump the printer.

    • That may already be happening (Score:5, Interesting)

      by phr2 ( 545169 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:14PM (#6037931)
      There were some rumors a while back that HP printer drivers inserted the printer serial number or some other identifier (like a Windows GUID) into color prints in a way that could be read back later by scanning with the right software, but wasn't visible just from looking at the print. Experiments and queries to HP were inconclusive. It doesn't seem to affect black and white printers.

      Sort of related: HP now offers invisible ink for inkjet printers [guntherintl.com] viewable only under UV or IR light, intended to print stuff like tracking barcode on financial documents without customers noticing them (so shred all your junk mail, not just stuff with visible account numbers, since you don't know what might be printed invisibly on it). Maybe that's another way they can surreptitiously tag the output of color printers. Your printer specs say the inkjet print head has 48 dots? Have you ever actually counted them? Maybe they'll add an unannounced 49th dot that squirts invisible ink on the paper, and a tiny amount of invisible ink in a secret chamber of every cartridge. Yeah! That's the real reason the govt wants to extend the DMCA ban third-party inkjet refills, so they can keep tracing printer output back to its source! Tinfoil hat time... :)

      • Steganography (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Jetson ( 176002 )
        There were some rumors a while back that HP printer drivers inserted the printer serial number or some other identifier (like a Windows GUID) into color prints in a way that could be read back later by scanning with the right software, but wasn't visible just from looking at the print.

        You can do that sort of thing yourself, too. The simplest form of steganography [reference.com] is to diddle the LSB of one of the colours. Since the human eye doesn't focus well in the blue wavelengths, you would filter the host image to

    • Re:Something to consider (Score:4, Informative)

      by Jade E. 2 ( 313290 ) <[slashdot] [at] [perlstorm.net]> on Monday May 26, 2003 @03:43AM (#6039460) Homepage
      only acknowledged recently

      My first real job in 95 was at a Kwik Kopy. From about 6 months after I started, we (well, a couple of us) were aware that the color copier tagged it's serial number on every copy it made.

      When I first discovered it I was working with the head typesetter. We couldn't figure out what this strange very light interference pattern on every printout from the color copier (which had it's own RIP) was. It was the same regardless of whether we were printing or copying, and regardless of the content, and it was an identical pattern on every sheet. That particular copier (as far as we could tell) didn't have any moving parts that synced with the page ends well enough for it to be a physical problem. And if we put the machine into black and white mode it went away.

      It took several weeks of me badgering the service guy, and 3 service calls for 'Image Quality', before he finally admitted what it was.

      We weren't really surprised, the copier had other more noticeable anti-counterfitting measures as well. While we never had a problems with copying, occasionally if you printed a file from the network with a complex enough swirled pattern on it (which one of our typesetters was unfortunately fond of), any green on the page would get shifted towards blue. We solved the problem by firing the typesetter. (For unrelated reasons, of course.)

      The smaller black and white self-serve copiers also apparently had currency detectors (of an informational, not active type), which we found out about when one of the machines had a service call for a broken belt and the tech qustioned us because he said the currency detection register had been set. Since none of us had seen anybody trying to copy money, and it was a black and white machine, he said it was likely a mistake and he didn't even have to report it, but asked us to keep an eye out.

  • Currencies that have hologram components to them. They're [the holograms] are incredibly difficult to counterfeit(you won't be manufacturing a good facsimile on your home printer), plus they look really cool. On that note, Singapore easily has the coolest [getforme.com] banknotes that I have ever seen.

  • There are other issues (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thinmac ( 98095 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:04PM (#6037868) Homepage
    At least with U.S. currency, there are more issues than just he appearence of the bill. A big one, for example, is the material. If you printed out a set of nice new bills on standard copier paper, nobody would believe for a second that it was a real bill, low lights or no. There have been counterfiters who have bleached out low value bills, such as ones, and printed higher values onto them, like twenties, but I'm not sure how well your average inkjet printer would feed the cottony paper used for bills.

    I'm no currency expert, but I would imagine there are a lot of issues like this that aren't effected by the gross appearence of the bill for both U.S. and other bills.

  • $200 George W Bush Bill (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:04PM (#6037869)
    Last year, someone went into a convenience store in rural Michigan, and bought a candy bar. They paid for it with a $200 bill with George W Bush's face on it. The clerk gave the customer about $199.30 in change without a problem.

    I think it was the manager who first raised the question about the validity of this bill later.

    • Correction on the story (Score:5, Informative)

      by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:16PM (#6037942)
      From Anna's News Clippings [asdf.org]

      "A woman was charged $2.12 at a Diary Queen drive-through in Danville, Kentucky, and she was given $197.88 in change for her $200 bill. In case a clerk might not know that a $200 bill isn't legal tender, this taped-together bill was clearly marked as a 'moral reserve note' and featured George W. Bush's portrait. The White House picture on the bill's back has yard signs reading 'We like broccoli'and 'Rooms not for rent'. Police were notified as to the woman's presence shortly after she left. They do not consider the bill to be a counterfeit one."

      • ...at a Diary Queen drive-through...

        Is there really that much of a market for those who need to buy a diary without getting out of the car?

  • All in One stop crime (Score:2, Informative)

    by Whigh ( 663324 )
    Of course, with printer manufacturers producing beauties like this [hp.com], it's no wonder people can get away with things like this.

  • Is this the incentive for the US to change it's currency? Most countries change their notes eventually anyway, so maybe America should consider doing it sooner rather than later.

    The UK has that fancy bit of shiny foil woven into the paper that is easy to spot, and Australia uses polymer notes with transparent windows in them (these last longer than paper too). There are lots of alternatives available that a simple printer could not copy.

    OTOH, as Bruce Schneier pointed out in Secrets and Lies, sometimes t

  • I don't think so ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:08PM (#6037895)
    "An anti-digifeiting system for cheaper printers may consist of printer driver software capable of recognizing data patterns indicating currencies of several countries." I wonder what GimpPrint would think of being forced to print or not print certain documents based on their contents.

    I don't think it'd make any difference for printing software. The only software that would be likely to sport anti-counterfeiting is the firmware in the printer itself.

    Anyhow, good luck to make a piece of software that detects fake banknotes, and even if it did detect fake dollars with 100% accuracy (fat chance), I'll just print fake Irakian dinars and off I'll be to the currency exchange counter. No wait ...

  • I like the nice veiled suggestions put forth to slashdot geeks from time to time. I suppose I can buy that color laser printer now, it'll cover its price in no time.

    Banknotes should include security features that cannot easily be copied. In short, they should build notes that would cost more than its value in fabrication, should it be made fake. There are see-through sections, tiny cutouts, plastic parts, different materials, thickness, ink and smell that should really differentiate bills even in low-lig

  • Make really fine banknotes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:12PM (#6037924)
    print it on glossy photo paper, not on cheapo recycled office paper.

  • New American currency, this year. (Score:5, Informative)

    by blanks ( 108019 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:21PM (#6037969) Homepage Journal
    To slow down counterfeit bills (about 1 in every 10,000 bills is a counterfeit). The US treasury will be releasing new bills this year. And every 7 years.

    Having caught people using counterfeit bills from working in nightclubs and restaurants, it is starting to become a problem.

    Here is a link:
    new $20 dollar bills. [cnn.com]

  • UV light is the bane of home printers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AsmordeanX ( 615669 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:21PM (#6037972)
    My store went from no counterfeits to getting 4 fake $20 in as many weeks. Then I got a UV lamp that beeps if something reacts too much under the light. It can be defeated, but that requires more effort than clicking print and lining up both sides of the page.

    Since we started using that, we have stopped almost $150 in counterfeits. Not bad for a $40 lamp. In the two years that it has been in place, the bank has not found anymore counterfeits in our deposits.

    One would think that a nice dim area where these bills are easier to pass, that a UV lamp would be even more useful since you could see things like the UV emblem that is on canadian money or the red fibers.

  • Try it with New Zealand money (Score:3, Funny)

    by nzyank ( 623627 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:28PM (#6038021)
    NZ bills have see-through embossed plastic windows and last time I checked my Lexmark I didn't see a cartridge that would replace paper with clear embossed plastic. Maybe the US should just make the face bigger. Yeah...that should do it.

  • Well, thats less of a problem with secure bills... (Score:5, Informative)

    by WegianWarrior ( 649800 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:33PM (#6038048) Journal

    ..like, for instance, Norwegian ones (see http://www.norgesbank.no/english/notes_and_coins/n otes.html for more on those) which has real securitymeasures like holograms and 'mother of pearl'-effect on it. Good luck trying to copy or scan that, 'cuz it plain can't be done without very, very specialised equipment. In fact, a while back I wrote up a short piece on Norwgian money for one of my american friends who were comming over to visit, and since he wondered how they have apperantly managed to scan it at http://www.norgesbank.no/english/notes_and_coins/c ounterfeit200kr.html , I gave them a call and asked - and was told that that picture was made out of a "number of scans at various angles blended together". For some reason they didn't want to give me any more details on how to achive that efect...

    Sorry for not giving proper links, but I seem to have misplaced my little 'cheat-note' on how to write that bit of code...

  • Small time counterfiting profitable? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zakezuke ( 229119 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:48PM (#6038106)
    I think a wide spread issue of this ability to reproduce bills would be a problem if they were good enough to fool change machines.

    I know the local gas station accepts bills in their outdoor machines, let alone do it your self carwashes that provide coins for change to use in the machines, though some are switching to tokens rather then quarters. I've never tried something I knew was counterfit, but i'd imagine that, given that these vending machines use scanners to identify a bill, i'd think they'd be easier to fool.

    Further more, small time counterfitting is less likely to raise an eyebrow. A $20, $50, $100 will be looked at most carefuly... where a $5, or a $10 isn't going to be considered as much of a threat.

    While I wouldn't want to buy, let's say a car, with quarters, they are indeed legal tender, and no human is going to argue about a quarter being counterfit, and quarters don't have any serial numbers to boot.

    This is what i'd be concerned about, a flood of sub $20 counterfit currency.

    • Yes, but something that isn't said is that when things like this happen at carwashes/laundromats, the first place that the police go to look are at the banks. The banks sometimes are the first people to know, and the tellers have a good memory about people coming in and dumping large amounts of change for them to cash over.

      This actually happened to me once--I went to visit the significant other at work, and brought in my 'tub of change' to cash in. Well, there had been a lot of vandalism at a local car w

  • Try printing a hologram (Score:3, Informative)

    by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <slashdot@keir[ ]ad.org ['ste' in gap]> on Sunday May 25, 2003 @08:53PM (#6038124)
    In Canada we have holograms embedded into all bills 20 dollars and up. While some crooks have indeed gotten away with glueing on fake holograms, anyone with half a clue could tell simply by touch that the bills were fakes. Then again, from my experience people arent checking bills too throughly at busy nightclubs.. I am sure in a single night at the ones around here you could pass at least 1G in fake 20s without a problem at all.

  • the penalties from counterfitting (Score:5, Insightful)

    by luzrek ( 570886 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @09:22PM (#6038241) Journal
    I hate to say it, but only an idiot would counterfit any currency. Wired magazine had an article on this a couple of years ago. The pennalties for counterfitting in the USA is $250,000 AND 25 years in prision per offence. An offence is making, or trying to pass a counterfit note. It is also pretty easy to get caught, since most clerks have pens which can detect fake notes.

    As for the technical aspects. Take a look at the "big head" notes. Their is microprinting on the lower left side of the portrait. This microprinting is so fine, that light reflecting off of them scatters making it impossible to make a clear copy. In addition, there is multi-colored ink on one of the 5/10/20/50/100 numbers in the corners. And there is that pesky watermark. Oh, and ink from inkjets runs like there is no tommorow. A sweatty person couldn't pass those notes.

    All in all, the penalties for counterfitting and the risk of getting caught are too high.

  • hmph (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dh003i ( 203189 ) <dh003i@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Sunday May 25, 2003 @09:47PM (#6038347) Homepage Journal
    Not the printing forged money is ok, but I don't want my printer "deciding" what to and not to print. What's next, printers "deciding" not to print documents they deem as anti-government? Or not printing images they deem as pornography?

  • Never mind, Syria has it cornered (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Markus Registrada ( 642224 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @09:50PM (#6038354)
    It doesn't much matter what you can do with an inkjet printer. You won't get anywhere close to what is being done professionally, in mass production. Syria has been printing an estimated $20 billion/year, year after year, for a decade. How much is that? You can fit $2M in a briefcase. That's 10,000 briefcases full of bundles of cash, each year. They have to launder 30 briefcases full every day.

    The fakes are indistinguishable from the real thing, even by experts. (No surprise, they're made by experts.) Maybe Syria has a harder time, now, disposing of them, with its smuggling routes through Iraq interfered with. (Closed? You must be kidding.) Who knows how much is being printed in Russia? Dollars are very popular there.

    It didn't take long at all to start copying the new bills, which is why the U.S. is going to another design already. You probably have some Syrian bills in your pocket right now. Take a look and see if you can spot them.

    Meanwhile the Treasury is harrassing an artist, J.S.Boggs, for drawing funny money by hand and exchanging it for face value. Your tax "dollars" at work.

  • Better banknotes? (Score:3, Informative)

    by cant_get_a_good_nick ( 172131 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @09:52PM (#6038366)
    Brazil's new 20 Reais note has a plastic insert. Very hard to counterfit. This would defeat the "too dark to see decent though not perfect copies" copies.

    A lot of people don't like it though, feels different, doesn't fold the same.
  • For several months, I worked in a bank cash vault (Fifth Third Bank, Toledo OH USA) and noted some things.

    Firstly, silver coinage is very much out there, even to the point that a handful of silver Kennedy half dollars can be found in a single deposit from a department store (there was even a Franklin half in one batch). Perhaps people just don't notice silver coinage even in high-volume retail ... but then again, in handling coin, I soon learned to listen to the distinctive sound of silver tinging against the cupro-nickel normal coinage in the sealed bags. (There was one false alarm that turned out to be Eisenhower dollars.)

    Secondly, fake twenty dollar (US$20) bills are being easily passed along in bars ... I can only conclude that this is because that these are generally places where the lighting is more dim, lots of small transactions take place, and frankly, where the environment is busy and loud. Counterfeit 20s (and some 10s) showed time and time again in their deposits. (It was particularly amusing to contact the customer about the debit, since it seems some of them expect the bank to simply replace the bill with a real one.)

    It could also be that the criminal element that does the counterfeiting is native to the bar-going crowd.

    I have inspected these fake 20s in some detail. I noted right off the bat the "obvious" difference: the overall hue of the bill is off just enough to be suspicious. It is a little darker, and either slightly more yellow, brown and even a tiny bit purple. So it is easy for me to believe that these bills can be passed off in a darker environment.

    The texture of the bills was OK, surprisingly. It could be that the paper was run through a washing and/or brushing mechanism to more simulate the cloth-y feel of a real bill. As for the microprinting ... of course, it was a washed out line and that more than anything told me it was counterfeit.

    P.S. A final note about hue ... bills go through a lot, and you can't just go by the hue. I've seen bills that have been dyed ... light green, dark purple, things like that. It happens.

  • Get the money paper from the source (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FearUncertaintyDoubt ( 578295 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @10:43PM (#6038568)
    The paper is manufactured by Crane & Co. [crane.com] of Dalton, Massachusetts (I grew up in the neighboring town of Pittsfield, and it was a source of local pride that the money paper was made in our area). Though it does not appear that you can buy, say, blank sheets of $20 bill paper via their web site. Seems like that would be a moneymaker to me. As long as they got paid in real bills, of course.

    I think that would make a great plot for a caper movie -- pulling off a big heist of real currency paper from Crane & Co.

  • Currency Rarely Checked (Score:5, Insightful)

    by suwain_2 ( 260792 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @10:46PM (#6038577) Journal
    I've recently started working in a restaurant, and as such handle a fair deal of cash. I have to say, I've never bothered to check currency to see if it's real. I know in some department stores it's required for the clerks to use a counterfeit-detecting pen on anything over $20, but this is certainly not the norm.

    The problem is that you can do a fairly lousy job, especially if you're giving me a wad of various bills to pay for your dinner. (ie, if you give me a bunch of $5's and $1's, I'd just throw them all in the register, most likely not even looking at them one-by-one.)

    Machines exist for 'counting' money (at extremely high rates) that automatically check various security features. Suppose cash registers started having an interface to this -- you'd stick the money in, and it would automatically undergo security checks.

    By the way, am I the only one who isn't too convinced that the new bill styles will be effective? The old ones will still be accepted, and if they're easier to forge, why wouldn't I just forge one of those? Frequently changing their design won't really counter counterfeiting (heh, no pun intended there).
    • You hit the nail on the head.
      The U.S. Treasury has never ended the lifespan of any of the bill styles it's printed. If the U.S. Treasury authorized a note's printing, then it is legal tender no matter how old it is or what its denomination.
      If you wanted, you could counterfeit $2 bills. They rarely get back to the banks. people tend to horde them. But they are legal tender even though they where retired from new printing runs years ago.

      Unless and until the Treasury recalls and eliminates all the "old" bill

  • Multi Layered printing? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @11:54PM (#6038802) Homepage Journal
    Just curious if the anti-currency measures could be defeated by printing elements of the currency at different times. Just print a little bit of it, rewind the paper, print a different part of it, etc. Break it up into small enough chunks, and how would the printer know the difference?

  • Scanner Drivers too? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by supz ( 77173 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @05:59AM (#6039697) Homepage
    I remember I once tried to scan in some money (no, not to counterfeit it -- didn't have a magnifying glass, and I wanted to check out the owl on the dollar bill, up close), and some of it came out really "wavey" to describe it best. The blank space that has the pattern printed, looked like a bunch of sin/cos curves next to each other. Is this because of the scanner driver or could it be because of built in counterfeit protection, into the dollar bill?

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