U.S. Offers $50 Download

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by michael on Friday October 1, 2004 @05:10AM from the don't-copy-that-fifty dept.

chill writes "CNN is reporting that the U.S. Government is offering low-quality images of its new $50 bill for artists, students and others who discover that their computers, scanners or printers won't allow them to view or copy pictures of the new currency, due to mostly-secret anti-counterfeiting measures built-in. This anti-copying technology has been discussed on Slashdot before. Now to go and test my new Epson scanner and printer to see if they're affected!"

14 of 470 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by garcia · 2004-10-01 05:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

Poor Grant, even after death, has become quiet the specimen. Poor guy. Can't we let him RIP?

Although I think it's great that we are creating bills that we believe will curb counterfeiting shouldn't we also be working to make them look good? The new colors and everything are nice but definitely overused. It makes the bills look crowded and tacky. Reminds me of a hairdresser with too much makeup. The little yellow 20s and what appear to be 50s on the back of the new color bills are horrid. I looks like I dropped the bills in honey and couldn't clean it all off.

If I'm gonna pay $50 for a piece of paper it should at least be clean :-)
1. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by RangerRick98 · 2004-10-01 05:18 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Actually, though I do think the bills look a bit odd as they are now, I think it would make more sense to make each denomination a different base color entirely, kinda like monopoly money. Sure, it sounds silly, but I've been in foreign countries where they do exactly that, and let me tell you, it's a lot easier to tell the bills apart at a glance that way.
  
  --
  "You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
2. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by Spoing · 2004-10-01 05:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  "It's simpler than you might think. All compliant notes bear a pattern of five tiny circles. On the Euro, the circles appear in a constellation of stars; on the British £20 note, they're disguised as musical notation. On the new $US20 note, the pattern is hidden in the zeros of a repeated background pattern of the number 20. Imaging software or devices detect the pattern and won't play ball."
  
  If that's the case -- and even if the specific detail of the 5 dots is in error -- I don't see this thwarting counterfitters much. Yes, casual copiers or someone who wants to have a $$$ design for a wallpaper or brochure will be puzzled.
  One idea that comes immediately to mind is to copy overlapping sections of a bill and piece the parts together. This could be found by trial and error, so it's no big deal!
  --
  A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
3. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by arose · 2004-10-01 05:41 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Gold has the same value as money: the one people attach to it.
  
  --
  Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
4. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by andrew_0812 · 2004-10-01 05:54 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I don't see this thwarting counterfitters much. Yes, casual copiers or someone who wants to have a $$$ design for a wallpaper or brochure will be puzzled.
  
  Thats just it. Lately the Government has had more problems with the casual Xerox copyier counterfitters and the HP Scanner/Printer counterfitters than professional ones. They will always have problems with professional counterfitters. But they are few and far between. If anyone that owns a scanner can produce a realistic looking bill, that is a big problem. There are a lot of people out there who will not see the potential ramifications of their actions, and think that it is a fun test. "Can I make somebody take a fake $20?"
  
  These causal counterfitters are the hardest ones to catch. Especially the "smart" ones who only do it once or twice. If you keep it up, you will get caught. The Feds are our protection against professional counterfitters, more than the nature of the bill.
5. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by andrew_0812 · 2004-10-01 06:02 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Too many people have a love for the old "Greenback" to let that happen. Paper money has to be green on back, and darker on front. The public probably would raise a big stink if they tried that. But yes, it would help quite a bit, and make them easier to see when you dropped them at night, as well.
6. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by Profane+MuthaFucka · 2004-10-01 06:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  And, a currency not backed by gold won't be suddenly and disastrously devalued in about 50 years when the first nanobot gold miner starts extracting copious amounts of gold atoms from seawater.
  
  --
  Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
7. Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... by torpor · 2004-10-01 06:17 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  you want indestructible? try aussie currency .. the requirements for aussie $ are much more demanding than for Greenback$ ..
  
  (its got holograms.)
  
  --
  ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Sounds like a Challenge to me by INeededALogin · 2004-10-01 05:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

Precisely how the technology works is a mystery.

The Article really makes me want find a way around this technology. I don't want to produce fake money, but more to the point of computer road-blocks are just not cool.

Some ideas that don't leave me with a less-usable computer:

Why not have a bar-code on every dollar bill that can validate each bill. If a serial comes up in the same place more than once, then it is fake and disabled. This would be a global database, but not unrealistic.

Why not continue the push for less paper money. Paper is nice, but it is expensive due to the short length of usage. Usually, the coined money is easily worth its value so producing a fake penny/quarter is not very worth while.

Stop using money altogether. Credit cards!

It just bothers me that the government is solving problems by disabling technology instead of leveraging it.
1. Re:Sounds like a Challenge to me by hrieke · 2004-10-01 05:31 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Because there are times when I would like to keep my transactions private.
  Cash is anonymous, credit and every other type you've mention are not.
  
  --
  III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIIIV IIVIIIIIIVIII...
Anti-counterfit measures by lsblogs · 2004-10-01 05:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

Sounds like a law that has not been well thought out at all.
There are countless graphics packages out there, that can be used instead of the major players.
There are indefinate supplies of older scanners that are not protected, not to mention digital cameras.
I am pretty sure that the major players who counterfit, will just get cracked versions of software or use alternatives, meaning all this is doing is bloating legitimate users software for no real reason.
The software is provided free, which means it would be relatively easy for a skilled but crooked developer to disable the checks, specially as you would know what you are looking for!
Is it also pushing the price of hardware up, if they have to include extra memory to hold this software, or is it in the scanner software - computer side?
I really dont see this stopping anyone other than a total amatuer from scanning banknotes (and may even cause more problems, as if an amateur cant do a bad copy themselves they may look into more professional means of forging. I would rather they did a bad home copy, tried to use it and got caught - meaning one less idiot on the streets forging money).
Perhaps they would have been better off keeping the whole thing secret, so no one knows about it, and then have the software log all scans of banknotes into a central database, so the police could keep an eye on who is scanning notes. If forgeries appear in the area, they would know who was to blame......
ken
http://www.lsblogs.com/ Submit your blog for free, find blogs and blog resources at ls blogs

--
Free Blog submission, find blogs, tools and more at LS Blogs
So what about the old bills? by ksheff · 2004-10-01 06:00 · Score: 3, Insightful

This isn't going to make that much difference as long as vendors keep accepting the old bills that can be copied. Sure, the banks will be instructed to turn in the old ones to be shredded and replaced with the new ones, so in the long term any old bills may be treated with suspicion, but how long will that take?

--
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Re:They won't copy it b/c it's ugly... (Eurion) by Kenshin · 2004-10-01 06:14 · Score: 3, Insightful

The difference is that the "Eurion" pattern, as it's called, is done TASTEFULLY on other country's notes.

On the US notes it looks like an afterthought, stamped-on in a rush.

--
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
Economics 150... by FooAtWFU · 2004-10-01 07:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

Money is money because people believe it is money.

--
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.