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Greenbacks No More
Chacham writes "The Financial Times has an article about the US adding colors to some denominations of US currency. Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.I still haven't gotten used to the larger pictures. And now this? As Kermit the frog sang, It's not easy being green." The Federal Reserve has a press release. At least there's no mention of RFID tags.
The changes are not there to help people differentiate between the different denominations, they're there to make it harder to counterfeit the bills. They've even said that they're keeping the same look and feel, so the changes won't be that dramatic. They're even trying to make them backwards-compatible with vending machines.
Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.I still haven't gotten used to the larger pictures
As one of those "foreigners" who now lives in the US, I've often wondered how blind people operate here? All the bills are the same size. If you can't see what's written on the bill, how do you know if you've just offered a $1 bill or a $100 bill to the checkout clerk? How can you check your change?
Its not just the blind. Imagine being able to put your hand in your pocket and know how much cash you have just by feel. That's cool. No more standing on a dark street corner in the bad part of town counting through notes to know if you have enough for a beer/cab home/meal/whatever.
Virtually every other country has different sizes for notes of different amount. This seems like such an obvious and useful thing, I'm amazed that the US hasn't adopted it? Is this the ultimate Not Invented Here syndrome?
Sailing over the event horizon
Just FYI, up here in Canada they decided to put brail on the money itself. It's pretty neat stuff, shows that they are really thinking.
:)
The money isn't different sizes, but it is different colours and to tell you the truth, it just feels a lot better. Add that to the fact that we have $1 and $2 coins, and we have a new-age money system.
And it just feels cooler
"The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant"...
... except for the watermarks, microprint, iridescent markings, micro engraved printing process, blue and red fibers embedded in the linen paper, and the micro-thin plastic strip embedded in each bill.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
US currency does not use phoenecian numerals. While the place system of our numbering system borrows heavily from the phoenecians, the numerals themselves look quite different. Perhaps you were thinking of arabic numerals?
See Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646 for a visual depiction of what phoenecian numerals look like.
Absolutely. First you'll need the ink that is detectable by UV light, you'll need something that can ultra-finely print for the text that goes around the image (most printers don't have that kind of resolution), then there's the strip through the bill (w/o which the bill is useless - if you want to try, just take it out and take it to a bank), the watermarked image you can see if you hold it up to the light (just like all european currency), then there's something special about the weaving on some portions of the pictures that's apparently very difficult to duplicate, the paper has strands of different materials infused in it (so it doesn't look like homogenous paper), even matching the (one) color of green on the bills is apparently very difficult.
... what did you think, that the worlds most used currency *wouldn't* have some top-of-the-line security protections?
Plenty of security protections there
The United States has *never* made any old money issued illegal tender before. You can absolutly trade an old bill for a new bill at most any bank. Futher more, it is *completely* legal to pay for your bill using a 2 cent (yes, 2 cent) piece that was once the official issue of the United States. Wouldn't be wise since they are rare, and 10 years ago they were worth over $100 a piece, but it is legal. Old money is legal forever. Go USA!
Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
I'm all for new interesting things and change if it will help us. However, I just don't see how coloring the money helps-- as the press release states, it seems that $45 million in counterfeit money entered circulation in 2001. How much did the US companies spend on retrofitting their vending machines? According to this article pointed out by another reader, $350 million! It doesn't seem like a good idea to me...
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Umm, exactly what's difficult about that? Every japanese bill has it's yen value legibly printed in arabic numerals on the upper corners of the bill's face.
Here's photos of the 1000, 5000 and 10,000 yen bills, and here's photos and information about the 2000 yen bill.
or HIBT?
It is very common to find what are known as "raised notes", legitimate bills which have been modified to look like higher-denomination bills. If a clerk, customer or foreign tourist isn't paying attention, they may receive these types of bills. There is
a page on the Secret Service web page about these type of counterfeit bills. Switching to different sized and different color bills would eliminate this type of fraud.
My other first post is car post.
Urban myth.
The Polymer that the notes were printed on was developed by a government body called CSIRO - Commenwealth Science and Information Research Organisation. Interesting story I read in an Australian Coin and Banknote magazine about how they initially tested their plastic (polymer) notes. CSIRO's research facility had a lot of $7 notes printed up for use internally.
Polymer banknotes do wear out eventually, however more commonly they are removed from circulation because the ink rubs off as they bend. I used to work in a supermarket, and collect banknotes, so I kept an eye on them. We would regularlly have $5 notes (our most common note) in circulation for 5 years, and many longer. In my wallet right now I have a 1996 $20, 1998 and 2001 $5 and a 1999 $50.
Banks use a low heat to flatten them out when they get them, since the polymer does hold creases and bends
american currancy counting machines can tell what the note is, and do some counterfeit checking, on the fly. easiest way is the little metal strip (which fluoresces under blacklight) is in a different spot on 100s, 50s, 20s, 10s and 5s. Of course, there are a lot of less easy ways around too, since if that was all that got checked, banks would regularly get 2 inch stacks of $50s that only include $100 of real cash.
The Oz mint makes polymer currency, complete with a hologram encrusted window, for Australia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Kuwait, Western Samoa, New Zealand and Romania.
The polymer sheeting is made from in a huge complex where balloons with about the same volume as a WWII aircraft carrier, or something, are blown out from melted polymer in a huge complex. I read a good article on the process in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend section about a year ago.
Here's some links
Oz Dept of Foriegn Affairs 'n Trade
Note Printing Australia
ABC News (the US ABC that is)
Another ABC page
Oz Reserve Bank currency page
Securency PTY LTD
Currency 'how are they made?' page
RBA Polymer page