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The Painstaking, Secretive Process of Designing New Money
- bane 10y agoI have a small collection of banknotes, among which include occupation bills from various powers during WW2 and bills just before and after a major switch in governments (before/after Russian Empire/Soviet Union, before and after the Iranian revolution, etc.). One thing that's always been interesting to me with the new bills is how quickly new governments (invaders or usurpers) put in place new, high quality, currency. It's almost like, along with the artillery and occupation force, engravers are the next to be flown in and put to work. > "The issue for us is it needs to be a security document . . . [but] it’s also a cultural document," I find the cultural document the most fascinating thing about collecting money. Governments tend to put on bills the most important propaganda they can think of. Important buildings, people, public works projects, cultural activities and myths. I don't care much about the monetary value of what I collect, but the place in history that money represents. This new currency is definitely going to be cool to add to the collection.
- quesera 10y ago> engravers are the next to be flown in and put to work. To elaborate on your point -- stabilizing the currency is pretty much job #2, and one that is worked on in parallel with job #1, by different groups of people. The bills are often printed back home in the occupying country, and the occupiers often have time to prepare. We see businesses start up, shutdown, or get acquired all the time, the processes are familiar. Countries going through similar cycles are fascinating because we don't really know the playbook. But it exists. :)
- homero 10y agoWhat's the point when you can just counterfeit old ones?
- rtkwe 10y agoIf a large number of new looking older bills start showing up it'll raise a lot of eyebrows so you want to get a better bill out so you can start getting the older easier to counterfeit bills out of circulation before counterfeiters figure out how to make them. It doesn't solve the problem for small transactions in whichever country since you can pass a couple older bills at a time. It does help for large cash transfers to other countries and for USD, Euro, Pound sterling, Yen, Franc, and Yuan because there's foreign reserves to think about. A large amount of US currency is held by foreign governments and banks as a foreign exchange reserve. If it was ever easy to counterfeit the latest bill a lot of the faith these foreign institutions hold in the bills legitimacy would fall apart.
- sjwright 10y agoPut simply, if you want to replace the currency in 2026, start doing it in 2016. The existing notes are already difficult to counterfeit, though it has been achieved on occasion; this is primarily a defensive move by the Australian Reserve Bank to keep the goalposts shifting under the feet of would-be counterfeiters. Banknotes have a limited lifespan, typically between 3 and 10 years depending on the handling characteristics of the denomination. At some point, old designs exit common circulation. At first, retailers will begin treating them with greater suspicion, then eventually stop accepting them even though they technically remain legal tender. Banks will still redeem old Australian banknotes at face value.
- 6nf 10y agoAustralia is pretty good at removing old notes from circulation. After a decade or so it becomes difficult to pass old notes at shops without being scrutinised very closely.
- xioxox 10y agoUnlike in the US, in many countries notes are not valid for all time. After an expiry date they must be exchanged at a bank for a new note.
- Animats 10y agoFew in the US seem to know this, but all ATMs in China have been recording currency serial numbers for several years now. It's an option on US ATMs and currency counting machines.
- 6nf 10y agoMakes sense. These days I just assume everything that can be recorded, is recorded. And kept forever.
- wingerlang 10y agoWhat is the significance of this? Tracking who has what money?
- jacobolus 10y agoPurchases you make with cash you got from an ATM become traceable to your bank account.
- icebraining 10y agoThat only works if every single shop/service tracks the serial numbers, otherwise you have no way of knowing if they were exchanged somewhere in between.
- Tharkun 10y agoIt's a very small graph.
- ChoHag 10y agoYou don't need to step very far from cash in hand before this becomes not just viable but ridiculously easy. Just feed notes individually into your bank-approved combined till/safe/note scanner.
- icebraining 10y ago
- ipsin 10y agoBill designs incorporate a lot of public features in order to help people figure out when bills are legit. I do wonder how many non-visible features they hold back, in order to recognize the case when high-quality fakes have landed. Does this actually happen, though? I mean, are there examples of hidden features on older currency?
- DavidWanjiru 10y agoI can't find the link now, but I remember reading an article stating there are three levels to this thing. One, the obviously visible and known features, such that metallic strip many notes have. Know to both the users and would be counterfeiters. The know but not obviously features, such as micro text or the things that become visible when seen under those purple lights (UV?). Secret features only known to a very small select group of people in the money printing business. These are last resort identifiers of fakes.
- grecy 10y agoAustralia has had polymer banknotes for 25 years now. Canada just went polymer, using the same printing presses as Australia (the first Canadian 20s were actually printed in Australia until Canada could get their own printing presses) As a world traveler, I'm always excited when I see countries that have gone to polymer notes - even poor ones - Guatemala years ago, Guinea now has a polymer note. I'm still utterly shocked the US does not have polymer banknotes. Sometimes I think "because that's the way it's always been done" will be the end of moving forward in the US.
- vlehto 10y agoI'm european and recently got some new dollars because I was flying to Peru and had to spend a night in U.S. I remember laughing out loud to U.S. funny-money. It's texture is closer to toilet paper than what I'd expect from the worlds most worshiped currency.
- jpatokal 10y agoAnd all the bills look identical, have identical colors (although the latest series finally introduced some variation) and are the same size!
- fennecfoxen 10y agoThe "same size" has ADA implications for low-vision persons, so it's possible that'll change some time. It has some advantages, though, for places that handle cash to have it all the same size (cash drawers, wallets, vending machines, etc).
- prawn 10y agoOnce tipped a guy $11 for telling me an interesting story because I mistook the $10 as a second $1. Baffles me that the US hasn't upgraded.
- fennecfoxen 10y ago> I'm still utterly shocked the US does not have polymer banknotes. US banknotes are tougher paper than other non-polymer banknote papers, and their longevity is remarkable. They're tough enough that it's still more economical to print new $1 bills then to switch exclusively to a dollar coin (even assuming everyone used the dollar coin.)
- kang 10y agoA note is clearly a proof-of-work currency concept. As stated, it takes months of work on expensive hardware. Anyone with better/more equipment can beat them but it requires an investment in a field where they have a huge headstart.
- anotheryou 10y agoAnd than they break in low temperatures? (I find only anecdotal evidence, would like to see temperature cycling like sun + clear night in a car).
- alexfisher 10y agoSeems so old fashioned compared to crypto-currency.