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27 Central Banks Push Anti-Counterfeit Software
securitas writes "GlobeTechnology reports that the 27-member Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group is behind the anti-counterfeit software in Adobe Photoshop CS, Ulead PhotoImpact, Jasc Paint Shop Pro and others. Consortium members of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group include the USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia and many more. Law enforcement agencies and banknote-issuing authorities say that it is a response to the rapid growth of digital counterfeiting. The software is distributed free of charge to hardware and software manufacturers and is voluntary to use. But the European Union is drafting legislation to force manufacturers to include anti-counterfeit measures in all systems, scanners or printers sold in Europe. Counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting with Adobe Photoshop and other products like inkjet printers have been the subject of recent discussion on Slashdot."
This is why the US treasury has announced that they will start redesigning bills every few years. Having the largest amount of currency and fickle customers, they like to take things more slowly. http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/main.cfm/medi a/releases09092003
The answer to this question was here on slashdot.
The software looks at 5 dots appearing (multiple times) on every money used in the EU.
There was even a link to a pdf file.
Benjamin Franklin was a remarkable man, and a remarkable inventor, but paper money was not among his inventions. He would have been familiar with it since childhood. By the time of his birth it was more common than hard cash.
Indeed, the main anger at the Stamp Act in the American colonies was because it required payment in hard coinage, and most people didn't have hard currency, not so much as a penny.
A brief history of paper money
KFG
You're right. It's called the Eurion Constellation.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
- The watermark - the faint image similar to the large portrait, which is part of the paper itself and is visible from both sides when held up to the light.
- The security thread - also visible from both sides when held up to the light, this vertical strip of plastic is embedded in the paper. "USA TWENTY" and a small flag are visible along the thread.
- The color-shifting ink - the numeral "20" in the lower-right corner on the face of the note changes from copper to green when the note is tilted. The color shift is more dramatic and easier to see on the new-design notes.
All three are useful anti-counterfeiting measures; there's no disputing that. However, if you look at Australia's techniques, there are two levels of protection: the blatently obvious, and the more subtle.What do I mean by that? Well, the clear window is "blatently obvious". You see it, and it's immediately obvious that it's meant to be there; it's part of the design of the note. As you encounter more notes, you come to realise that it's seamless; it "feels" no different to the rest of the note. So when Joe Blow comes up to you and offers you a note with a window that doesn't quite fit, you quickly realise that it can't be a real note -- it has to be a fake. Anybody -- from any country -- should be able to pick up on that without too much trouble.
The more subtle things are things like the tiny writing (saying, for example, "FIFTY DOLLARS"); the seven point star that reveals itself only when you hold the note up to the light; that sort of thing. The seven point star actually is somewhere between "ultra subtle" and "obvious" -- looking at the note, it can be noticed without too much difficulty if you're observant.
I guess I'm saying that, to me at least, the new US $20 note doesn't follow what appears to be world's best practice, whilst the Australian note does. It's an improvement, yes, but it doesn't go as far as it could, and arguably, should. The more a currency is liable to be forged, the less value it will have in the long run, as nobody can trust the notes.
Just some random thoughts, is all.
The other thing is: to the best of my knowledge, Australia has had only two note designs in the period of decimal currency. The switch to plastic notes was well publicised, and started with the high value (and hence more often forged) notes, progressively replacing every note down to the five dollar (our two and one dollar denominations are coins these days, not notes). As xixax implies, redesigning your notes on a regular basis is not the best way to keep your currency safe from counterfeiting; in that sense, you are better off doing a major, major, MAJOR upgrade every, say, fifty years or so, rather than a string of minor upgrades every five or ten years. This sort of change to the US currency seems to me to be a minor revision, not a major overhaul...
Paper money was invented by the Chinese, well before Benjamin Franklin, or even the US, existed.
Is only one of the reasons Australian Currency was switched to Polymer (ie Plastic) rather than Paper.
These plastic notes are physically colored and include clear sections, as opposed to being blank paper with colors printed on them.
One of the other reasons was the durability of the notes.
Oddly enough, when they first came out many people tried to IRON them to remove the wrinkles (they take hard creases very easily) - evey seen a shrinky-dink after it's been baked?
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
These are central banks. Not the sort that deals with mutual funds - the sort that issue banknotes.
Pretend that something especially witty is here. Thanks.
this brings up a very good point, though: the only true way to prevent counterfeiting is to have the legitimate currency producer have exclusive and restricted access to the materials required to mint money, those being:
- paper
- ink
if the paper and ink are noticably unique to money and access to those materials is restricted to the minter, counterfeiters are out of luck - no mater what software they have.i should note that in canada the new $100 bill really stresses unique inks as an anti-counterfeit measure - there's translucent printing, a holographic stripe and some funky watermarks. read up on it here.
even my city's municipal currency (a local "barter" currency) uses this crazy plasticized paper that is custom designed for printing money and is only sold to legit minters.
so, go ahead and get that old version of photoshop and yr swank inkjet... it won't do you any good if you want to make canadian $100's or calgary $1's!
2 1337 4 u!