Preventing Counterfeit Money
Do you even know how to determine whether or not currency is counterfeit? According to the Federal Reserve, "Because US currency is universally accepted and trusted, it is widely counterfeited." Many people have attempted to copy the patterns of US currency in an effort to create their own counterfeit money. Therefore, everyone should have a basic knowledge of the safety features of money in order to protect yourself from getting counterfeit bills and risk losing any money. Recently, new safety features have been created to make counterfeiting more difficult. In 1996, the US decided to begin issuing new Federal Reserve Notes starting with the $100 bill and has since issued new Federal Reserve Notes for lower denominations at the rate of one denomination per year. I will concentrate on the safety features of the new $100 bills since these are the bills that were reissued first. The new $100 bills have many safety features both new and old designed to prevent counterfeiting. The old safety features include the paper and ink that is used in printing the currency. These features remain the same because changing them would not enhance security. First of all, money is printed on a cotton and linen rag paper that contains many tiny red
The third new safety feature is the use of color shift ink. This color shift ink causes the bill to change colors when it is viewed from different angles. For example, the number 100 on the bottom right hand corner appears green when viewed straight on, but it appears black when viewed at an angle. Next, the new $100 bills contain safety features that were used previously but have now been modified or slightly changed. First, an additional letter has been added to the serial numbers that appear in the upper left and lower right corners of the $100 bill. The new serial numbers contain a combination of eleven numbers and letters. No two Federal Reserve Notes of the same denomination have the same serial number. This is an important factor in the detection of counterfeit notes. Counterfeiters tend to create large amounts of a particular denomination with the same serial number. The third modified safety feature designed to prevent counterfeiting is the use of microprinted words in new places on the new $100 bills. Microprinted words are very small, and they appear smeared when copied. First, the word "USA 100" is printed many times in the number 100 in the lower left hand corner of the bill. Second, the words "United States of America" are also printed in very small print on Benjamin Franklin's cloak. These words are so small that it is necessary to use a magnifying glass to view them cle
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Approximate Word count = 945
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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