Slashdot Mirror

Why would you assume that? Since governments print the money and different governments share techniques on how to make it counterfeit proof, it would just be a trade secret. There's no point in making a patent on it.

Of course there is, just because you are are printing money doesn't mean you don't want to make money. Securency (involved in producing a lot of modern polymer notes) certainly hold patents on techniques they use.

I wonder how many 'incentives' Securency gave out for Canada to adopt it. They seem to be doing that alot lately.

Right. Check out these stats on the number of counterfeits passed in Australia since introduction of the plastic notes.

Australia prints notes for both Singapore and NZ (as well Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nepal, Northern Island, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Singapore, Soloman Islands, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Western Samoa)

Yeb the Oz mint now makes polymer notes for:

Australia
Bangladesh
Brazil
Brunei
China
Indo nesia
Kuwait
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Nepal
Northern Island
Papua New Guinea
Romania
Singapore
Soloman Islands
Sri Lanka
Taiwan
Thailand
Vietnam
Western Samoa

They even took out a partnership with a Belgium company during development & formed a joint venture (Securency)in the hope of gaining the Euro contract , but the national mints didn't want to lose out.

The polymer sheets are made in a huge rould building, like a gas storage tank, about the size of a footy oval, where the plastic's blown into balloons that fill the room & then collapse into sheets. They can be recycled too.

As you can see here the colours are very distinguishable from each other, the clear part on each note is in fact a transparent hologram.

Yeb the Oz mint now makes polymer notes for:

Australia
Bangladesh
Brazil
Brunei
China
Indo nesia
Kuwait
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Nepal
Northern Island
Papua New Guinea
Romania
Singapore
Soloman Islands
Sri Lanka
Taiwan
Thailand
Vietnam
Western Samoa

They even took out a partnership with a Belgium company during development & formed a joint venture (Securency)in the hope of gaining the Euro contract , but the national mints didn't want to lose out.

The polymer sheets are made in a huge rould building, like a gas storage tank, about the size of a footy oval, where the plastic's blown into balloons that fill the room & then collapse into sheets. They can be recycled too.

As you can see here the colours are very distinguishable from each other, the clear part on each note is in fact a transparent hologram.

I think the polymer for these notes was made in Australia. See Note Printing Australia and Securency.