The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 14, April 3, 2005, Article 10

SECURITY THREAD THEORY RESURFACES

On the Internet, some rumors never die, they just recirculate
again and again. The web site Snopes, devoted to debunking
Internet hoaxes and false rumors, updated its page devoted to
the security thread on U.S. paper money on March 29, 2005.

"According to scuttlebutt, the purpose of the thread isn't really
to make it more difficult for the ill-intentioned to introduce
Hidden money worthless currency into circulation by fooling
its recipients into thinking it genuine, but instead to allow the
government to know exactly how much money anyone is
carrying at any particular moment. With the use of special
scanners, or possibly a beam from a distant satellite, the Feds
can quickly count the value of all bank notes being carried on
or about one's person and thus track how much money is
entering or leaving the country, and with whom. This
knowledge, says the behind-the-hand whisperings, is used to
finger drug dealers and smugglers.

The rumor is bunk. The strip's sole purpose is the foiling of
counterfeiters. It, along with a number of other security
features worked into the nation's bank notes, make it far
harder on the criminal element to produce phony bills that
will be mistaken for the real thing."

Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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