$20 and Big Secrets!

[furtech]

In a previous discussion about strategies to foil counterfeiters and pirating (like the idiotic CAPs system), foofers mentioned the tiny yellow 20's on $20 bills. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to paper money! Besides the water marks and magnetic strips and red and blue felt threads in the actual paper, the Treasury Dept. uses a number of micro-print strategies and has done so nearly as long as paper money has existed.

I actually think the microprinting on paper bills is kind of neat. The yellow numbers are nothing compared to the stuff on the older bills: on the 1995 series $20, the outer ring around Jackson's head is actually microprinting that says "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in itty-bitty type (when counterfeiters and copiers didn't have the resolution to duplicate this. The number of hidden messages in US paper money is awsome...there are whole books written about it.





There are people who are fanatic about studying printed money. Some of the "secrets" can be found in a very cool series of books called Big Secrets, by William Poundstone. This book was fascinating to me: "secret recipies" like Colonel Sanders 11 different herbs and spices (salt, pepper, msg); mysterious repeating morse letters on ham frequencies; how to cheat on Rorschach inkblot tests, etc. Great bathroom reading!

Comments

[sk-1.livejournal.com]

There was an article in Rolling Stone magazine recently about a guy who managed to crack the "codes" of the new $100 and run off a few million in bills before being turned in by one of his distributors. The article detailed exactly what he did, how he did it, and how much research and trial and error he had to put into it. Amazing stuff.

[lacy.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how they get something so tiny on the originals they print from.. Stuff like that never ceases to amaze me.