The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 9, March 4, 2007, Article 20

U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT MULLS NANOTECHNOLOGY TO COMBAT COUNTERFEITING

According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal
February 27, "American currency might see radical changes in coming
years, from temperature-sensitive inks to an embedded magnifying
lens to "smart" bills that use nanotechnology.

"With increased availability of high-quality printers and copiers,
the efforts of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and
Printing to combat counterfeiting must become increasingly creative
and technologically savvy, the National Research Council concluded
after a two-year study. The council, a sister institution of the
National Academy of Sciences, did the study for the engraving-and-
printing bureau.

"Scientists and engineers from across the country suggested 16 changes
that could be put into practice in the near term, including altering
the bills' distinctive feel, adding patterns too complex or too small
for modern printers and copiers, and incorporating materials to
create holograms or shifting visual effects.

"One near-term option would embed a Fresnel magnifying lens -- a
distant cousin to those used in Victorian lighthouses -- to a corner
of the bill for spot inspection of minute anticounterfeiting print.
Another recommendation would put heat-sensitive material into bills
causing body warmth to change the note's color."

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Dick Johnson adds: "If you were surprised at my previous article on
microchips buried in coins, you will be amazed when you read what's about to
happen in the future to our currency.

"'Say you snap a dollar bill between your fingers,' says one official about
planned new technology, 'and the edges become rigid. And then you pull on
them and the edges become normal like currency handled every day.'

"The best counterfeit detector, it is projected, will be a pair of scissors.
You will not be able to cut a new bill. If you can cut a suspect bill with
scissors it is fake. All this because of manipulating the molecules inside
the bill itself. Engineers can make currency do amazing things, including
change its shape and texture.

"All this was revealed this week in a report published February 27, 2007.
Robert Schafrik headed a committee that recommended security changes, like
color-shifting ink, a security strip and making the portraits bigger and
off-center that we have already take place in our current paper money. He
has been working on this since 1993.

"Schafrik, who led this year's National Research Council study on currency,
said that counterfeiting is likely to explode if the U.S. doesn't make some
radical changes to our paper bills. Within five to ten years, he says, 'the
software will be so easy to use that anyone will be able to use it, even the
casual counterfeiter.'

"'The future is not going to be in more color, or more finely
printed,images,' says Alan Goldstein, a molecular engineering professor at
Alfred University. 'The future is going to be in the materials from which
the bill, itself, is made.'"

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  Wayne Homren, Editor

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