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The Almighty Buck Science Technology

Blowing On Money To Tell If It Is Counterfeit 114

Posted by samzenpus from the huff-and-puff dept.
HughPickens.com writes Scientific American reports that simply breathing on money could soon reveal if it's the real deal or counterfeit thanks to a photonic crystal ink developed by Ling Bai and Zhongze Gu and colleagues at Southeast University in Nanjing, China that can produce unique color changing patterns on surfaces with an inkjet printer system which would be extremely hard for fraudsters to reproduce. The ink mimics the way Tmesisternus isabellae – a species of longhorn beetle – reversibly switches its color from gold to red according to the humidity in its environment. The color shift is caused by the adsorption of water vapor in their hardened front wings, which alters the thickness and average refractive index of their multilayered scales. To emulate this, the team made their photonic crystal ink using mesoporous silica nanoparticles, which have a large surface area and strong vapor adsorption capabilities that can be precisely controlled. The complicated and reversible multicolor shifts of mesoporous CPC patterns are favorable for immediate recognition by naked eyes but hard to copy. "We think the ink's multiple security features may be useful for antifraud applications," says Bai, "however we think the technology could be more useful for fabricating multiple functional sensor arrays, which we are now working towards."
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Blowing On Money To Tell If It Is Counterfeit More

Blowing On Money To Tell If It Is Counterfeit

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  • High security (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @09:08PM (#48422661)

    Where on earth would anyone get hold of a ink jet printer?

    • I don't know, everyone is ripping them apart for parts to make a 3D printer!

    • Where on earth would anyone get hold of a ink jet printer?

      It's funny, but it's even funnier because there's a ring of truth to it.

      Anything that's cheap enough to mass-produce in or on dollar bills, is also cheap enough for some person or group that is highly motivated to counterfeit.

      That's the way stuff works, folks.

      I mean heck... look at the holograms on Micro SDs. They were put there to foil counterfeiting... now they're being counterfeited.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zaatxe ( 939368 )
      Counterfeiting money in an ink jet printer wouldn't pay, the bills would end up costing more to make than their face value. Have you checked the price of printer ink lately?
  • Cool, let's all handle cash that has been breathed upon by anybody with a potentially communicable disease. Screw phone sanitizers, Ark B needs cash sanitizers.
    • Certainly people have thought this was a bad idea before a bunch of Slashdotters thought of it immediately. Do people seriously not think? Or do they have things against cash?
    • It doesn't change anything. Money is already the dirtiest thing on Earth. You never know, unless it is a brand new banknote, where the one you are handling has been before being in your hands.
  • Can any of these biomimetic technologies be put to a better use: a low power, sunlight readable, full color display system?

  • Why blow on money when there's already blow on money [snopes.com]?

  • Or you could just use plastic money like we developed here in Australia. Either way.

    • Or you could just use plastic money

      Falco would not approve [metrolyrics.com]: "No plastic money anymore, die Banken gegen ihn."

    • Or you could just use plastic money like we developed here in Australia. Either way.

      ... and Canada ...

      As long as you use paper instead of polymer, anyone with a printer will try to make fakes. Plus the plastic bills last longer, saving money in the long run.

      Of course, we replaced the $1 and $2 bills with coins ages ago, and will probably replace the $5 bill as well at some point ...

      • that's one thing i'll never understand about those crazy europeans - high value coins. i mean, they have 10 euro coins! that's like 15 dollars!!! and these are in high use. in US the most valuable coin in mainstream use is a quarter. isnt that weird???

        • that's one thing i'll never understand about those crazy europeans - high value coins. i mean, they have 10 euro coins! that's like 15 dollars!!! and these are in high use. in US the most valuable coin in mainstream use is a quarter. isnt that weird???

          Yeah, that's weird.

          They should do things like we do here in the US. Our high-value currency is imprinted on paper, making it easy to carry around large amounts of it so it's convenient to spend more.

        • No, what's weird is that you're still using pennies [youtube.com].

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by hvdh ( 1447205 )

          Not true. 10 Euro "commemorative coins" exist, but they are rare and typically go straight from the mint to collectors. I've never seen one in regular use. The highest value coin actually used is 2 Euros.
          Likewise, before the Euro, Germany had 10 DM coins (worth ~5 Euros). In 15 years, i've seen a single one in regular use, where a cashier thought it was a 5 DM coin and gave it to me as change.

          • Additionally, 10€ coins are not just brought into circulation. You have to buy them for 15-20€ each. They're official currency with 10€ value.
            And I just learned that there are also 100€ coins. They're made of pure gold and were sold for material price (up to 700€) + 50€. Would you spend one for the 100€ face value?

  • Why worry? (Score:3)

    by Patent Lover ( 779809 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @09:27PM (#48422779)
    Counterfeiting is illegal.

    • "Security by Law" only gets you so far. In order to punish a criminal, you have to detect something wrong first. This story is about a new way to tell "That was wrong!" if it's used.

      • Re: Why worry? (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        And luckily, counterfeiters cant just keep reproducing the old easier-to-counterfeit bills, because we all know those old bills arent accepted anywhere

        • A troll, but I'll bite. (I'm fairly sure you cannot post something that stupid without trying). What is it with ACs? Anyway: old money is gradually phased out. This is the reason one doesn't see ancient coins in circulation. Are you able to wrap your head around that, or should I try again?

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            A troll, but I'll bite. (I'm fairly sure you cannot post something that stupid without trying). What is it with ACs? Anyway: old money is gradually phased out. This is the reason one doesn't see ancient coins in circulation. Are you able to wrap your head around that, or should I try again?

            No, it actually wasn't a troll at all (there was a lot more trolling/flamebait in your post). My point was exactly what you said...old money is GRADUALLY phased out. 10 years from now and you'll still be seeing the current generation of bills. I've got a couple 2004 $20s in my wallet right now, and I often get $20 bills from the 1990s. Counterfeiters can easily continue printing the current bills for another decade and raise no suspicion about using them. And until then, they'll have plenty of time to figur

    • Oh right, and nobody ever does anything that's illegal so there's no point in taking action against it.

      Also stealing cars is illegal so why bother with keys?

    • That's what makes it profitable.

  • Life lessons from craps (Score:4, Funny)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @09:29PM (#48422789) Journal

    This isn't so crazy.

    I know for a fact that having a hot girl blow on my dice helps me make that eight the hard way.

  • Fancy breath sensitive ink vs just start making notes out of plastic like everybody else..?

    • you do realize that even plastic notes require inks rights? how else do you dye the plastic? It is just infused much earlier in the process. Instead of being done towards the end is it closer to the beginning.

  • I got a prescription last week, it had a spot on the lower right corner with a red "Rx" logo on it and it said breathe or rub, it fades out the red ink to invisible, then slowly returns as it cools off.

    This is not NEW!

    • Umm, as it cools off? This is a humidity sensing ink, not a temperature sensing one.

      Don' t ask me why one is better than the other. But.. definitely not the same thing.

    • This is not NEW!

      Woah, calm down. No-one said "things that change colour" were new.

      • Well, they implied it when they said this new innovation would be useful for stopping counterfeiting.

  • Hard to copy? (Score:3)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @09:52PM (#48422885)
    They did it in the lab and published about the method, then how would it be hard to copy?

    • By adjusting the size and mesoporesâ(TM) proportion of nanoparticles, we can precisely control the original color and vapor-responsive color shift extent of mesoporous CPC. As a consequence, multicolor mesoporous CPCs patterns with complex vapor responsive color shifts or vapor-revealed implicit images are subsequently achieved. The complicated and reversible multicolor shifts of mesoporous CPC patterns are favorable for immediate recognition by naked eyes but hard to copy.

      I assume that if you can't come up with the exact size/proportion of nanoparticles, you won't get the same color shifting effect and your counterfeit will not pass as real.
      It's certainly better than the current security measures which mostly rely on restricting access to the materials and equipment necessary to make fake currency.

  • I've experienced supersaturated air in the US Southeast (not enough dust, ... for the moisture to condense).

    How is blowing on money going to raise the ambient humidity in a way to which the bills could respond?

  • If a crafty person prints $20 bill on the printer, he is a criminal and a counterfeiter.

    When central banks create money by simply changing the numbers in the computer, it is called quantitative easy.

    Oh, wait. We are being told that cash is getting unpopular, and paying with electronic means is so hot right now.

    • Re:Let me get it straight (Score:4, Insightful)

      by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Thursday November 20, 2014 @07:11AM (#48424807) Homepage

      If a crafty person prints $20 bill on the printer, he is a criminal and a counterfeiter.

      When central banks create money by simply changing the numbers in the computer, it is called quantitative easy.

      Yes. That's how money works.

      It's no less weird that we have rules like this than it is to agree that little bits of paper are worth anything at all in the first place.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gnupun ( 752725 )

      When central banks create money by simply changing the numbers in the computer, it is called quantitative easy.

      But is there a basis or limit for increasing the amount of currency in such a manner? If limits don't exist, the govt can simply print as much money it needs to function adequately. So, why does it feel the need to charge sales tax, income tax, property tax etc. when it can print that money instead?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        So, why does it feel the need to charge sales tax, income tax, property tax etc.

        Just so we won't forget whose bitch we are.

  • Gives new meaning to hookers and blow.

  • This will inevitably result in more people blowing their hard-earned money...

  • So the article is somewhat suggesting we buy our ink from China to print money? The same country that keeps trying (successfully some times) to hack our businesses and government? It isn't like they would print any counterfeit US money themselves, right? I'm guessing they would put lead in it like they do all the toys and other crap we get from them.

    Buy American!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by thieh ( 3654731 )
      Not to mention lead paint. What assurance do we have that they are not selling us lead ink?

  • ...hookers will soon be blowing the cash as well as the customers?

  • I know currency is supposed to be filthy with germs anyway, but do we really want to stick someone else's halitosis and god-knows what oral- and pulmonary disease germs in our wallets?

  • to see how many different sorts of bacteria and viruses have been coughed all over the notes by disgusting peasants?

  • The humanity...
  • ... when it's 85-degrees (Fahrenheit) and 85% humidity in Charlotte?

  • How fast can you blow a hundred bucks?

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