In the Palazzo Ducale in Venice last weekend, Meredith and I saw an exhibit entitled Il Vero e il Falso (Real and Fake) about counterfeit banknotes and coins throughout the centuries in Italy. It was remarkable how similar some of the fake money was to the real thing – I definitely would not be able to spot counterfeit bills from real ones. While the older counterfeits were noticeably different with crooked printings, slightly different colors and less detail, the 21st century fakes were nearly perfect matches to the real euro.
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| Real Currency |
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| Fake Currency |
Counterfeiting
began with the first productions of currency. Initially it consisted of mixing
pure metals (gold and silver) with cheaper metals and of “clipping,” or shaving
metal off the edges of coins to create counterfeits with. With the introduction
of paper money, counterfeiting expanded and began to be included as acts of war
with enemy nations printing counterfeits to cause inflation. To combat
counterfeiting, stringent punishments existed, including the death penalty, in
both the United States and England because the crime was seen as being a threat
to national security.
As
counterfeiters have become more skilled at their trade, the need for more
advanced detection and production techniques has risen. A recent study
conducted in China found that the use of solvent-free gold nanoparticle
assisted laser ionization imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) was a non/minimally
destructive technique. It involves first spraying a layer of gold nanoparticles
on currency or documents, which does not disrupt the spatial distribution of
inks, dyes and markings on the paper. Then the gold is ionized by nitrogen
laser irradiation and the ions are desorbed from the paper and detected
conveying information about the molecular images on the note along with the
order of inks present on the paper. This allows, for example, the detection of
adulterated checks while preserving the original sample for further
investigation.
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| Demonstration of the non/minimal destruction caused by gold nanoparticle assisted IMS |
But
with only about 1 fake note out of every 10,000 banknotes in the United States,
according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the likelihood that we’ve
used counterfeit money is slim. In addition, the average loss due to accepting
counterfeit bills is 20 cents per person in the States. Check fraud accumulates
more losses with an estimated cost of $1 billion in 2005 compared to the loss
of $56.2 million caused by fake currency.
Sources:
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