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Blowing On Money To Tell If It Is Counterfeit
HughPickens.com writes Scientific American reports that simply breathing on money could soon reveal if it's the real deal or counterfeit thanks to a photonic crystal ink developed by Ling Bai and Zhongze Gu and colleagues at Southeast University in Nanjing, China that can produce unique color changing patterns on surfaces with an inkjet printer system which would be extremely hard for fraudsters to reproduce. The ink mimics the way Tmesisternus isabellae – a species of longhorn beetle – reversibly switches its color from gold to red according to the humidity in its environment. The color shift is caused by the adsorption of water vapor in their hardened front wings, which alters the thickness and average refractive index of their multilayered scales. To emulate this, the team made their photonic crystal ink using mesoporous silica nanoparticles, which have a large surface area and strong vapor adsorption capabilities that can be precisely controlled. The complicated and reversible multicolor shifts of mesoporous CPC patterns are favorable for immediate recognition by naked eyes but hard to copy. "We think the ink's multiple security features may be useful for antifraud applications," says Bai, "however we think the technology could be more useful for fabricating multiple functional sensor arrays, which we are now working towards."
Where on earth would anyone get hold of a ink jet printer?
derp
Cool, let's all handle cash that has been breathed upon by anybody with a potentially communicable disease. Screw phone sanitizers, Ark B needs cash sanitizers.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
All the hot air produced by Congress is too close to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to risk the identification of what's actually rolling off the counterfeit, er, fiat, money printing presses.
Can any of these biomimetic technologies be put to a better use: a low power, sunlight readable, full color display system?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Why blow on money when there's already blow on money?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Or you could just use plastic money like we developed here in Australia. Either way.
It's only a matter of time until the counterfeiters catch up. Calling it 'secure' isn't going to make it so.
Counterfeiting is illegal.
Already coming out of China originally? Call me jaded (pun intended) but why use technology from the place that generates the need for said technology.
This isn't so crazy.
I know for a fact that having a hot girl blow on my dice helps me make that eight the hard way.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Fancy breath sensitive ink vs just start making notes out of plastic like everybody else..?
I got a prescription last week, it had a spot on the lower right corner with a red "Rx" logo on it and it said breathe or rub, it fades out the red ink to invisible, then slowly returns as it cools off.
This is not NEW!
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Canada's new polymer bank notes would be pretty hard to counterfeit. And it's based on existing technology, used in many countries (with more soon; England, etc.)
They did it in the lab and published about the method, then how would it be hard to copy?
I have certificates from training courses that have this feature, from years ago. Also, what good is it against counterfeiting if the Chinese can do it?
Certainly people have thought this was a bad idea before a bunch of Slashdotters thought of it immediately. Do people seriously not think? Or do they have things against cash?
God spoke to me
I've experienced supersaturated air in the US Southeast (not enough dust, ... for the moisture to condense).
How is blowing on money going to raise the ambient humidity in a way to which the bills could respond?
The only defense against counterfeiting is to never release the product and keep it hidden. I suspect they're spending huge amounts of money to delay the inevitable.
extremely hard != impossible
Money is chains? I knew that snow tires were a Commie plot!
Just use plastic money like Canada does... Kind of a hell lot harder to reproduce than just printing on paper.
If fiat money is "counterfeit", would FIAT money backed by the promise of A NEW CAR!!!11 * be any better?
* Imitate the voice of The Price Is Right announcer here.
There is a sure way to tell if paper money is counterfeit and it doen't require blowing. Is it fiat printed by a government controlled agency and it has no savings behind it, as in there are no gold reserves that the paper came be used to redeem? It is counterfeit.
Real money is not created by a government but by voluntary market decisions. If a government controls issuing of currency and it removes free market regulations from the process then the government is counterfeiting the money.
You can't handle the truth.
If a crafty person prints $20 bill on the printer, he is a criminal and a counterfeiter.
When central banks create money by simply changing the numbers in the computer, it is called quantitative easy.
Oh, wait. We are being told that cash is getting unpopular, and paying with electronic means is so hot right now.
Or you could just use plastic money
Falco would not approve: "No plastic money anymore, die Banken gegen ihn."
Sure, and this cheap Chinese technology could in no possible way be made available for anyone, for any reason, for a few pennies. Ya, just like my Samsing [sic] tablet is totally 100% different from the real thing.
Gives new meaning to hookers and blow.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
This will inevitably result in more people blowing their hard-earned money...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
So the article is somewhat suggesting we buy our ink from China to print money? The same country that keeps trying (successfully some times) to hack our businesses and government? It isn't like they would print any counterfeit US money themselves, right? I'm guessing they would put lead in it like they do all the toys and other crap we get from them.
Buy American!
...hookers will soon be blowing the cash as well as the customers?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
As with all things, for protection to work it must either:
make alternative means (eg buying the goods or in this case earning the money) the easier option
or
cost more to bypass than you would gain if you bypassed.
I don't see this accomplishing either. It may stop some people but when the payoff is unlimited cash, someone will eventually find a way.
Slashdot has been infected by much too many racist comments
Just because the name being "Ling Bai" or "Bai Ling" doesn't give anyone the moral right to post tasteless racist comment like the one above
Mod parent down, please !
Additionally, 10€ coins are not just brought into circulation. You have to buy them for 15-20€ each. They're official currency with 10€ value.
And I just learned that there are also 100€ coins. They're made of pure gold and were sold for material price (up to 700€) + 50€. Would you spend one for the 100€ face value?
I know currency is supposed to be filthy with germs anyway, but do we really want to stick someone else's halitosis and god-knows what oral- and pulmonary disease germs in our wallets?
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
to see how many different sorts of bacteria and viruses have been coughed all over the notes by disgusting peasants?
The humanity...
The counterfeiting is done by the central banks that print paper money backed by nothing.
Since the currency is just printed out of thin air, it has no real value other than the fact that people just BELIEVE it has value.
Anybody take a hard look at Fiat currency? And if it's called counterFIAT, then wouldn't that make the counterfiat something that is actually backed by something like gold? So the counterfiat would be the only real money.
... when it's 85-degrees (Fahrenheit) and 85% humidity in Charlotte?
How fast can you blow a hundred bucks?
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai