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Got a purple Lincoln in my five
By Anumpama Khan
Wed Mar 26, 2008, 11:05 AM EDT
A couple of days ago I bought some candy from a convenience store and, when the cashier handed me my change, I almost handed it back to her. I thought she had given me Monopoly money when I saw the giant purple five on the back of the bill. Turns out, that's what the redesigned, new-and-improved, sort-of-but-not-really-counterfeit-proof five looks like. Amused and intrigued, I looked into the new design and learned that:
1) The giant, purple five serves two purposes: increased visibility (so you can easily identify the five from other denominations) and security ("microprinted" on one edge of the five are the words "USA FIVE").
2) Microprinting is also used along the borders of the bill and on the top block of the shield next to the portrait. Microprinting is difficult to replicate because the engraved text is so fine.
3) There are two watermarks. One is a row of small fives that runs vertically along the left of the portrait. The other is a more elaborate, larger five to the right of the portrait.
4) A vertical security stripe that reads "USA" and "5" in an alternating pattern runs along the right of the portrait and glows blue under UV light.
5) The oval borders around the main engravings of Lincoln and the Lincoln memorial have been removed.
6) The pattern of repeating, yellow "05"s on the front and back of the bill forms the EURion constellation. The five points of the pattern resemble the Orion constellation. The pattern is found on the money of many countries because photocopiers recognize and refuse to copy papers with the EURion pattern. PC software also recognizes the pattern and refuses to tamper with it. The pattern was first uncovered by German computer scientist Markus Kuhn. Later, the algorithm that models the placement of the points in the constellation was developed. In Germany, the pattern is hidden in the background design of the bills. In England, the constellation was hidden in a string of musical notes on the £20 note. The pattern was first recognized on the 10 Euro bill. Many countries, including Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Egypt, France, India, Mexico, Norway, South Africa and South Korea, use the pattern.
7) Adobe added a "counterfeit deterrence system" to its latest version of Photoshop which aborts any attempt to access currency images and redirects the user to a website about international counterfeiting laws.
Computer geeks and Adobe reps admit that the system is easily duped.
Even simple tricks like opening the image in an older version of Photoshop before importing it to Photoshop CS work against the sophisticated anti-counterfeiting system. Regardless, Adobe argues that the new software was the correct thing to do because it sends the right message about the computer industry's stance on counterfeiting, especially after the US Bureau of Engraving reported that the number of bills reproduced digitally increased from 1% to 40% of the total number of counterfeit bills between 1995 and 2002.
8) The new design is part of a growing effort to save the US dollar from its reputation as the world's most counterfeited money.
9) The Federal Reserve will release 212 million of the new billions within three weeks of its March 13 debut.
10) The Treasury did not intend to remake the five dollar bill until officials realized that the older version's watermark and security thread resembled the hundred dollar bill. Counterfeiters could bleach the numbers off the five dollar bill and print a hundred dollar bill over it so the overall design, including the watermarks and security features, resembled a genuine hundred dollar bill. To make sure this stops, the hundred dollar bill will also be redesigned.
11) The first new bill was used by a Fed official to buy a book of President Lincoln's speeches in a ceremony at Lincoln's summer house in Washington, D.C.
Khan, a National Honor Society member, is a senior at North Attleborough High School. She is a regular Free Press contributor.
