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  • 5/16/2025
The U.S. Treasury and Secret Service have battled to stay a step ahead of professional counterfeiters. But now color copiers and desktop publishing have invited a new class of "casual counterfeiters" to try their hands at making a dishonest buck. The Treasury is fighting back with a major initiative to re-design the U.S. currency—the most radical change in the look of American money in 60 years. NOVA will follow the process of making a better buck—from selecting new portraits through printing and issuing the first bills.

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00:00Tonight on NOVA, they get washed, tossed, chewed, and now copied.
00:08What was once the domain of master craftsmen has become a playground for lawbreakers.
00:14There we go.
00:16That's great.
00:18That's astounding.
00:20But the feds are fighting back.
00:22Can they design a bill that will take the abuse and stop the counterfeiters?
00:27Secrets of Making Money.
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01:27NOVA.
01:40Down the guarded corridors of the U.S. Treasury,
01:44a secret project has been underway to counter a growing threat to the United States economy.
01:51A team of scientists and designers have crafted a new weapon for an age-old struggle.
02:04After five years behind closed doors,
02:07they are ready to reveal their work to the American public.
02:13Now, ladies and gentlemen, indeed the moment we have been waiting for.
02:17Indeed the moment we have been waiting for.
02:21The new currency.
02:26This new $100 bill is the Treasury's best defense in an escalating battle against counterfeiting.
02:33From its oversized portrait to its high-tech ink,
02:37this radically redesigned banknote marks a new era for American money.
02:44The hundred is the first note to be issued.
02:46But over the next few years, all denominations will face a similar overhaul.
02:53These bills must withstand counterfeiting threats unimaginable years ago.
02:58Threats that prompted the Treasury to overcome its long reluctance to tamper with the greenback.
03:06Few national symbols are as recognized worldwide as the U.S. dollar.
03:11At the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
03:13America's banknote designers stood by as other countries pushed forward with new currencies
03:19and the latest counterfeit deterrents.
03:23Other countries have been very innovative in the field of security documents.
03:27Countries such as Australia, which has actually produced a currency on plastic,
03:31incorporating clear windows, which are difficult, obviously, for copiers to copy onto paper.
03:37The Austrians have added Kinegram, which is a feature which changes image.
03:42Mozart looks one way, and as you tilt the note, Mozart looks the other way.
03:48We tend to think of new things,
03:50things that are shiny or things that are added to the note as a security feature.
03:54But everything, everything from the paper, the ink, the printing, the design,
03:59everything is intended to add some level of additional security to the document.
04:05For years, Tom Ferguson and his researchers explored other national currencies,
04:11looking for features that might one day update the greenback.
04:20The U.S. currency has remained almost unaltered for over six decades.
04:25Its elegant but archaic design helped make it the most counterfeited in the world.
04:34With its 19th century look, it has been ill-equipped to fight counterfeiters of the 20th.
04:42The U.S. currency has been extremely vulnerable to counterfeiting for two reasons.
04:46The first is the design was created by a group of scientists
04:52The first is the design was created back in the mid-20s, released in 1929.
04:59It's given people a tremendous opportunity to practice their skills at counterfeiting.
05:05And the second reason is that it's an international currency.
05:08It's valued all over the world.
05:10And the further that you get from the United States,
05:13the less people have an appreciation of what a genuine note looks like.
05:18Over $360 million in counterfeit notes were confiscated in 1995 alone.
05:25Millions, perhaps billions more, went undetected.
05:31Every day in its New York branch, the Federal Reserve, the nation's central bank,
05:36sorts and processes over 12 million used notes.
05:41Machines check the optical and magnetic properties of each bill
05:45so that counterfeits can be detected.
05:54These are the counterfeits found this month in New York City.
06:01Everywhere the problem is growing.
06:04Because over the past decade,
06:07the game of making a dishonest buck has changed.
06:21When New York printer Mike Landris was a young man,
06:24the world of counterfeiting was ruled by skilled craftsmen.
06:28A knowledge of photography and traditional printing techniques was essential.
06:33While a reformed man today, 30 years ago, Landris got caught with green fingers.
06:40In his book, I Made It Myself, he recalls the lure of making easy money.
06:46I was arrested for counterfeiting in 1964.
06:49I happen to be regarded as one of the lucky few in American history
06:53who wasn't sent to jail because of some mitigating circumstances with the Secret Service.
06:59In the over 40 years that I have been a printer,
07:02I have never once met a cameraman in this industry who hasn't at least once
07:07put a Federal Reserve note in the copy board of his camera for the purpose of shooting a negative.
07:12This in itself is a felony,
07:14except that I'm going to blow it up 150% to conform with Federal regulations.
07:21For years, the key to making a bogus buck was to make it easy money.
07:26For years, the key to making a bogus buck was a good negative.
07:33And you watch that beautiful, fine line, elegant engraving coming up at you gradually
07:39with this red safe light around.
07:41Your heart starts to beat.
07:43And it's a weird thing because you're surreptitious,
07:47you've entered some kind of criminal adventure
07:51that doesn't even seem like a crime.
07:53And as he becomes clearer and clearer and elegantly defined,
07:58that is almost analogous to reaching orgasm.
08:09But a single negative isn't enough.
08:11The bill has two colors, green and black,
08:15and a separate negative is needed for each.
08:19The green treasury seal somehow must be removed
08:23from the word 50 printed in black below it.
08:26For obvious reasons, the tricks of this technique cannot be divulged.
08:31If I had realized, of course, at the time,
08:34what it can do to your life,
08:36I never would have attempted it.
08:38And my advice to anybody who keeps thinking about that,
08:43just don't go beyond shooting the negative.
08:45And when you get through shooting the negative,
08:47put it in a tray of Clorox and watch it all bleach out
08:50and wind up with a clear piece of film,
08:52and you'll wind up with a clear mind.
09:00Today, counterfeiters don't need to shoot a negative.
09:04This is a high-definition laser scanner.
09:08It can replace the work of photography in making printing plates.
09:16After the fine-line details of the bill have been converted into electronic data,
09:22the touch-up work for the counterfeit begins.
09:28Okay, Mike, let's see what we've got here.
09:35Well, let's focus in and blow up the section where the treasury seal prints the word 50.
09:42There we go.
09:44Once again, they home in on the treasury seal.
09:47For the computer, it's an easy target.
09:50There we go.
09:51Ah, that's great.
09:54That's astounding.
09:55It took me more than a week to fool around with manual masking and blowing up and reducing.
10:03There we go.
10:08After a good copy of a bill is obtained by photography or laser scanner,
10:13the next step is to make a plate for printing.
10:18Add carefully selected ink, some fine-quality paper, and the counterfeits are ready to roll.
10:25This is an offset printing press, responsible for 90% of all counterfeits.
10:39Sometimes high technology is used to make things go faster,
10:43but the skills of a printer like Mike Landris are still needed to produce the notes.
10:49Well, as far as all the new robotics and laser scanners
10:52and everything that we're experiencing in the last 15 years,
10:56I don't think that'll have little or no effect on a traditional printer.
11:01That's basically the same method, and the temptation is the same.
11:06All it does is save a little bit of time.
11:10But the other technology that's out there, these color photocopiers,
11:15I think it just widens the potential.
11:18It makes the potential much larger.
11:20It seems so easy to do.
11:24But everybody must realize it's the same felony.
11:28Stick your Federal Reserve note into one of those photocopiers for the purpose of reproducing it.
11:34It's still a major crime.
11:41New technologies have created a new breed of criminal, so-called casual counterfeiters.
11:48If it's a little bit yellow, so we just knock down the yellow,
11:51it would also knock down a little bit of the green.
11:53Well, this is the first copy that came off, so that's why it's not an exact match.
11:58And printing on both sides?
12:01It's not recommended, but it's possible.
12:03The company doesn't recommend doing it, so we don't.
12:06But it has been done. I've seen it.
12:11The traditional counterfeiter had to go buy fairly large, sophisticated equipment and materials.
12:17Those are things that are easy for law enforcement people to monitor and to control.
12:21The concern of the future would be the modern reprographic equipment,
12:26copiers, scanners, computer printers, that would be available in the office place and even the home.
12:34The concern of five people each making 10,000 notes
12:39is much different than 10,000 people each making five notes.
12:44Casual counterfeiting is growing.
12:47If unchecked, it could reach $2 billion a year by the year 2000.
12:55Evidence of this new style of counterfeiting has accumulated in the archives of the Secret Service.
13:01Their files contain over 20,000 varieties of notes.
13:07Some more convincing than others.
13:10I would say that the majority of the counterfeits that are contained in our specimen vault
13:15are obvious counterfeits.
13:17Now granted, I am a counterfeit specialist, so I examine counterfeit currency
13:21and I look at currency on a daily basis.
13:24But there are thousands and thousands of examples.
13:27This would be an obvious counterfeit.
13:29It is a $5 banknote that was produced on a black and white copier machine.
13:35And the treasury seal has been filled in with green ink.
13:40This is a terrible reproduction.
13:43And it was passed on to the public.
13:50Color copies are much better than black and white.
13:54But they are still no match for the genuine.
13:58Color copier notes look different from a genuine for a number of reasons.
14:03They generally give somewhat of a shinier appearance.
14:06And because genuine currency is not white paper,
14:09the copier machine fills in the non-image area with toner,
14:14which gives the counterfeit note overall a somewhat yellow or dingy appearance.
14:18In addition, the entire image is just not nearly as clear.
14:22It's a lot muddier than you would see on a genuine banknote.
14:29The telltale sign of virtually all counterfeits,
14:32whether color copied or offset printed,
14:35is their flat look and feel.
14:40The raised ink quality of genuine currency
14:43is the result of a special printing process called intaglio.
14:49It begins with fine line engravings carved in soft steel.
14:56From the hand-cut engravings,
14:58final printing plates are made for mass production on enormous intaglio presses.
15:05Ink will fill the grooves of the engravings,
15:09and under 20 tons of pressure will be forced out onto the surface of the paper.
15:18The resulting banknote has the raised ink feel and three-dimensional look
15:23that is the hallmark of the genuine article.
15:28World Bank
15:34While other countries radically revamped their money to make it more secure,
15:38the U.S. continued to rely primarily on old-world engravings.
15:45Despite clear signs of its age,
15:47the Treasury felt no need to overhaul the Green Bank.
15:52But in the early 1990s, the government sprang into action.
15:58Was it new technology or something far more threatening that prompted the change?
16:03I think the real concern by the Treasury Department
16:06is in the professional counterfeiter, not the casual counterfeiter.
16:10The casual counterfeiter obviously bothers them
16:13because somebody can take a note, put it on a photocopy machine,
16:19go down to a subway station or a money change machine
16:22and be able to get some sort of currency.
16:25But they're dealing with a $10 or a $5 or maybe a $20 bill.
16:31But the real significant counterfeiting are the $100 bills
16:34which are circulating all over the world.
16:39Nearly two-thirds of U.S. cash is overseas.
16:44So counterfeiting is a worldwide problem.
16:49Where demand for dollars is strong, such as in Russia,
16:52there has been a surge in high-quality counterfeiting.
16:56In 1993 alone, the amount confiscated abroad grew 300%.
17:03The most popular target of international counterfeiters is the $100 bill.
17:09These counterfeit hundreds support arms purchases,
17:12the drug trade and terrorist activity.
17:16There are even suggestions that counterfeiting is being used
17:19as a calculated attack on the nation.
17:23A Republican Congressional Task Force issued strong charges
17:26with this 1992 report, warning,
17:30Evidence has recently come to light that the governments of Iran and Syria
17:35are actively engaged in economic warfare against the United States
17:39through the production and dissemination of high-quality counterfeit dollar bills.
17:47The report describes a conspiracy arising from the ruins of the war
17:51between Iran and Iraq.
17:53Short of hard currency,
17:55the Iranian government allegedly launched counterfeiting operations
17:59to help the country rebuild.
18:02The Iranian government dismisses these charges.
18:05But there are counterfeits of such high quality found in the Middle East.
18:09They're called supernotes.
18:12They have the raised ink feel of bills printed on intaglio presses,
18:17equipment generally owned by governments.
18:2090% of the presses that are used to print security paper
18:23come from one company,
18:25De la Ruggiore in Switzerland.
18:27And Iran has these presses.
18:29They obtained them in the 1970s,
18:32as many other countries throughout the world.
18:35Anybody that has this equipment has the same equipment the United States has.
18:39It's not unthinkable that another country has these presses
18:42and is capable of using them if they want to subvert the U.S. economy.
18:46Whether that's Iran or some other Middle Eastern country, I don't know.
18:50But the possibility exists.
18:54The Secret Service has confiscated nearly $10 million
18:57of the notes circulating in the Middle East.
19:00But the source of the super bill remains elusive.
19:04Without definitive proof,
19:06the Secret Service will neither confirm nor refute the allegations of state support.
19:12There is a number of high quality counterfeits that circulate around the world.
19:18There are high quality notes that do come out of the Middle East.
19:24There are high quality notes that come out of Columbia, South America,
19:28also out of Canada.
19:31I have no knowledge of any state sponsorship
19:35of any of these particular operations.
19:39Tales of the super note and other counterfeiting threats
19:42led members of Congress to call for a currency redesign.
19:46Treasury decided to act.
19:49But the reasons are debatable.
19:52I think Treasury, in coming out with this redesign of currency,
19:56is responding to a significant threat.
20:00And whether that threat originates in the Middle East or the Far East,
20:05I can't say for certain.
20:07But the money that they're spending upon the change
20:11has to be in proportion to the risk involved.
20:16The new currency is a response to growing technology.
20:21It is not a response to a specific crisis.
20:24There is no crisis.
20:25The American currency system is extremely sound.
20:28There is very, very little counterfeiting actually in circulation.
20:32This is to get ahead of the curve and to stay ahead of the curve.
20:38Whether staying ahead of the curve or playing catch-up,
20:42the Treasury has a massive job ahead.
20:47The initial rollout calls for $50 billion in new $100 bills.
20:54They have started where the counterfeiting problem is most pressing.
20:58But every denomination, from the hundred on down,
21:02will be redesigned and issued in the next few years.
21:06These notes must thwart all types of counterfeiting.
21:10They must be difficult for color copiers to reproduce
21:14and stymie even the most sophisticated intaglio printing operations.
21:20To make a new $100 bill,
21:23Treasury had to reconsider each element of the old note.
21:27They explored over 120 different security features,
21:32from barcodes to invisible inks to holograms.
21:36But of these starting contenders, most would not make the cut.
21:41The key to security would be a balance of high technology
21:45and old world craftsmanship.
21:48No single feature is available that will make a perfect document,
21:52a feature that is so good that adding that one feature to the existing design
21:57or even to a new design will make the document counterfeit-proof.
22:01What we've attempted to do is to layer a design,
22:04adding lots and lots of features, several features anyway,
22:08at different layers that will provide the general public
22:11with easy means of authentication
22:13while making it more and more difficult to counterfeit.
22:17In the world of moneymaking,
22:19even a paper mill is a fortress guarding national secrets.
22:26Crane & Company has made special paper for U.S. currency since 1879
22:31and has never before allowed cameras to document this process.
22:47Their paper is unlike any other in the world.
22:54And for the new currency,
22:56Crane redesigned it to be even more secure against counterfeiting.
23:01In redesigning the paper,
23:03there was one property that we were told could not change,
23:07and that is the feel and the stiffness and the texture
23:12that the public has become accustomed to.
23:15That stiffness, the crackle,
23:17is fundamental in detecting counterfeits in circulation.
23:21It is recognized by more bank tellers,
23:23by more merchants at the point of sale
23:26than any other property of the paper.
23:34The feel of banknote paper springs from a special blend of raw materials.
23:40Unlike most paper made from wood,
23:42banknotes come from the same materials that make cloth soft and strong,
23:48cotton and linen.
23:52Denim scraps from Levi Strauss and other jeans makers
23:56will contribute to this all-American product.
24:00But the primary constituent is raw cotton.
24:04Here, 6,000 pounds are loaded into an enormous boiler.
24:09The boiler pressure-cooks the raw cotton for two hours in a caustic bath.
24:19The cooked cotton is then cleaned, bleached, and further refined.
24:32The cotton and linen fibers must be broken down
24:35The cotton and linen fibers must be broken down in a precise way
24:39to ensure the strength and feel of the final paper.
24:44In this wet state, security features can be incorporated into the paper itself.
24:51The greenish-off-white tint of the pulp is carefully adjusted.
25:00Tiny red and blue fibers are added.
25:04A safeguard of U.S. currency for more than a century.
25:08The Secret Service has observed that few counterfeiters effectively recreate this feature.
25:15Here we have samples of counterfeit,
25:18where the red and blue security fibers have not been simulated.
25:22So there are no red and blue fibers in the paper.
25:26So to look at these and have the note completely void of any red and blue security fibers
25:32would tell me, or should tell anybody immediately,
25:35that you have a counterfeit note in front of you.
25:39But another security device had to be embedded in the paper
25:43to defeat a more sophisticated type of counterfeit,
25:46called a raised note.
25:50The samples that we have here are two samples of counterfeit U.S. dollars,
25:56where the paper is actually genuine U.S. currency.
26:01This was accomplished by taking a $1 banknote,
26:04removing the ink, and then putting it through a printing press
26:09and printing a $100 denomination on here.
26:12So the result is that you have a counterfeit $100 banknote
26:17on bleach-genuine U.S. currency paper.
26:20And since most cash handlers detect counterfeit by the feel,
26:24this gives the counterfeiter a very significant advantage for passing his product.
26:32To prevent the raising of notes,
26:34Treasury needed a way to mark the paper of each denomination as unique.
26:41Crane & Company had the answer.
26:44An update of an old idea.
26:48Security threads.
26:51The idea of putting security threads in banknote paper is a very old idea.
26:56This paper here is from our archives,
26:59which depicts multiple, in this case, cotton threads,
27:04three joined together very closely here,
27:07running across the paper sample,
27:09and these other samples with single threads.
27:13In this banknote from the late 1800s,
27:16the threads are rather more difficult to see.
27:19There are two security threads running the length of the note.
27:23These are actual filaments of yarn,
27:26and these threads serve to denominate the banknote
27:29to prevent a low-denomination banknote from being washed clean of its ink
27:34and being raised to a higher value.
27:43Security threads today have numbers on them denoting a bill's value.
27:48The numbers are 42 thousandths of an inch tall.
27:53Cutting this film into individual threads requires immaculate precision,
27:59monitored by cameras and computers.
28:11The text is clearly visible in transmitted light.
28:19But cannot be reproduced by the reflective light of a photocopier.
28:27Threads for the new currency also glow red under UV light.
28:38The security threads will appear in different locations on each denomination,
28:43making raising the notes even more difficult.
28:49The threads are embedded into wet paper pulp
28:52on the giant machine that shapes Crane's paper.
28:56The secret process could not be filmed.
29:01Using furnace-like heat, the machine dries the pulp into finished paper.
29:07The final rolls, 8 feet wide and weighing more than 4 tons,
29:11hold paper strong enough to make money.
29:15Currency is kind of like a pizza.
29:18There's the base crust, which is the paper, and all the toppings.
29:22And they may be printed features, they may be papermaker features,
29:26they may be optically variable devices.
29:29But in any case, all of this pizza is built up on the extremely important crust,
29:35the durable banknote paper.
29:38And without the durability, the circulation lifetime,
29:41the resistance to wear, the pizza would fall apart.
29:49The toppings that are printed on banknote paper
29:52can symbolize a great deal about a country.
30:05When nations undergo political change,
30:08it is often reflected in the images on their currency.
30:17Likewise, maintaining icons on a nation's banknote can signify stability.
30:25In revamping U.S. currency, the question of changing the basic images,
30:30a political can of worms, was never opened.
30:34The task presented was to increase or enhance the security of the note.
30:39That was the sole purpose of the redesign.
30:42There was no interest or intent to aesthetically change the note,
30:47to change the people who were honored, to change the buildings,
30:51or anything else that would just add to the aesthetics of the note
30:55as opposed to security.
30:58But not everyone is so satisfied with the aesthetics of U.S. currency.
31:08Long before Treasury unveiled its new $100 note,
31:12J.S.G. Boggs was offering his own variations.
31:28A darling of the art world, Boggs has drawn the wrath of the Secret Service.
31:34Because America's premier money artist not only makes his own cash,
31:38he also spends it.
31:40I made these, uh, girls.
31:42Oh, they're really great.
31:44I made them for you.
31:46Oh, thank you.
31:48You're welcome.
31:50Because America's premier money artist not only makes his own cash,
31:54he also spends it.
31:56I made these, uh, girls.
31:58Oh, they're really great.
32:00Well, I'm glad you think so, because I'd like to pay for the CDs.
32:04Okay.
32:05With one of these bills.
32:07But that's not going to work.
32:08Why not?
32:09Because this isn't legal tender.
32:11It's not real money.
32:13Well, actually, you're right. It's not real money.
32:15What it is is it's art that depicts money.
32:18What differentiates money from art?
32:21Well, money is art.
32:24I mean, there are other kinds of art.
32:26But money is art.
32:27It's pictures in pigment on paper.
32:30It's portraiture.
32:31It's landscape.
32:32It's abstract geometric.
32:34And it is the ultimate abstract art.
32:37It's a symbol for something else.
32:40Boggs never sells bills directly.
32:47He only parts with them through transactions.
32:50They have paid for hotel stays, plots of land,
32:54even the motorcycle Boggs rides.
32:57Collectors will offer many times the face value
33:05to purchase a bill that Boggs has made.
33:08But they won't have the opportunity to display a bill
33:11unless someone has accepted it in trade.
33:18As a money connoisseur, Boggs is concerned
33:21that Treasury's redesign of U.S. currency
33:24won't go far enough.
33:28Money is the most public of public arts.
33:31And it has to catch up and reflect our society today
33:38Boggs proposes his own series for American currency.
33:42On his 100, he pays tribute to the leader
33:46of the Underground Railroad.
33:48I've chosen Harriet Tubman because I think she fits
33:52all the criteria for who we should have on our money.
33:55She was a great American hero who risked her life
33:59for right in the face of all adversity.
34:02That's everything that we worship as Americans.
34:07How much change for their money do Americans want?
34:11Hi.
34:12Through his transactions, Boggs conducts random surveys.
34:17Who do you think should be on our money?
34:20I mean, I'd like to see a woman's face on money.
34:24Not everyone would.
34:26I guess ideally I'd like to see someone that is
34:29well respected by the United States as a whole.
34:33Is it possible to come up with a face like that?
34:37Why not make a composite sketch of what an American looks like?
34:41Big, jowly, you know, put different ethnic features
34:45and a face protruding through the bill.
34:50And that's your composite sketch.
34:52That's who an American is.
34:54I'm interested in buying this book, which is $24.95,
35:01and take this $100 bill, give me the receipt and the change,
35:06and we will have performed the transaction.
35:12Could be the start of something.
35:14Yeah, something bad.
35:17Or something good.
35:20If accepted, one of these bills could be worth
35:22thousands of dollars to an art collector.
35:27Well, listen, thank you very much.
35:29You're very kind in spending the time,
35:31and that in itself is worth more than money.
35:38While Boggs is the art world's most renowned money man,
35:42he is not the only artist with novel proposals
35:45for a new U.S. currency.
35:50These bills honor as portrait subjects
35:53a range of great Americans,
35:55from Abraham to Martin Luther King.
36:02Some stay with Franklin, heeding tradition,
36:05but with a twist.
36:08Others take a more tongue-in-cheek tack.
36:15But at Treasury, the choice is clear.
36:19Benjamin Franklin will still appear on the new hundred.
36:22It's a different engraving of Benjamin Franklin,
36:24larger, based on a new portrait of Ben,
36:28but still Benjamin Franklin.
36:30People around the world know Ben Franklin's on the hundred,
36:33he still will be on the hundred.
36:36Portraits are not only icons,
36:38they are also important security features.
36:43The designers researched a number of Franklins,
36:46trying to find just the right one.
36:52A portrait on the face of U.S. currency
36:55is probably the best single printed security feature we have.
37:00It is something that people recognize,
37:02people are used to looking at other people's faces,
37:05we do it every day.
37:07The human face provides a wide variety of features,
37:11character, different planes, different levels of tone
37:15that provide an engraver,
37:17in the case of intaglio type printing,
37:19the opportunity to do a lot.
37:22The new portrait of Benjamin Franklin
37:24provided kind of an enigmatic look,
37:28one I think that draws people's attention to the portrait.
37:32The portrait selected is passed on to the master engraver,
37:36who must carve a lifelike image into steel.
37:41The final work took nearly a year to complete.
37:46I actually had a lot of time to work on this particular project,
37:49so over that period of time,
37:51I read three books about Franklin,
37:53I read his own autobiography,
37:55and several things written about him,
37:57and several things that he wrote,
37:58and I think he was a wonderful character,
38:00I mean he was a human being of incredible proportion.
38:04I especially like the idea that he began as a tradesman,
38:08he was a printer,
38:09which is almost the same trade that I'm in.
38:14Tom Hiption is the first artist in over six decades
38:17to put an original portrait on U.S. currency.
38:21He is one of a select group of engravers skilled for the task.
38:27Engravers must adapt to a looking-glass world.
38:32To face right on the final bill,
38:35Franklin must look left on the engraved plate.
38:42The artist must also work his magic within a tiny frame.
38:48I'm restricted to a very specific size,
38:51because it has to fit in with everything else.
38:54I start with a photo reduction of the image
38:56to the exact size that it has to be,
38:58and I make a very precise drawing of that.
39:04I'm absolutely certain about the line patterns I want
39:07and the way I want it to appear
39:09before I actually do any cutting,
39:11because when a line or a dot is cut out of the steel,
39:13you can't put it back.
39:14There's no backing up on it.
39:17Each line and dot carved into the steel
39:20will translate into raised ink on the final note.
39:25Hiption's work will be printed in an edition of billions
39:29and face the reviews of an audience worldwide.
39:33People comment on the smirk.
39:35I didn't really intend to put a smirk on the portrait,
39:38but I did go for a painterly effect,
39:41which I think was the best part of that portrait.
39:45He's a witty guy, and I wanted to have that come across.
39:55Ben Franklin, with his Mona Lisa smile,
39:59wears an additional security feature.
40:02Micro-printed in his lapel is the text
40:06United States of America.
40:10The portrait is put on a background
40:12that also provides security.
40:14The concentric lines of this oval
40:16are designed to create interference
40:18when scanned by a laser.
40:22When photocopied, the oval will be scarred by distortions.
40:28The new portrait is placed slightly off-center.
40:31This will leave clear space on the right side of the bill
40:34for another important new feature.
40:37The watermark.
40:40Watermarks are the most commonly used security feature
40:43in banknotes around the world.
40:46These shadowy images can be seen only when backlit.
40:53While centuries old,
40:54watermarks combat today's counterfeiting technology.
41:00Like the security thread,
41:02the watermark cannot be reproduced
41:05by a scanner or photocopier.
41:08There's a common misconception
41:10that the watermark is something embedded in the paper
41:13after the paper is made.
41:15Watermarks are actually a part
41:17of the three-dimensional structure of the paper.
41:20They're nothing added to the paper.
41:22They are formed within it.
41:24The fiber is more dense in the opaque, dark areas,
41:28and there's less fiber in the light, more transmissive areas,
41:32and as a result,
41:33you have this astounding range in total gradation
41:37that to the feel, to the hand of the paper,
41:40it's hard to imagine that this is simply a variation
41:44in the thickness and the density of the paper.
41:48The watermark on the new 100
41:49will be the same Franklin image as the printed portrait.
41:55The image is scanned into a computer.
41:58The computer will generate instructions
42:01for an engraving machine that will cut Franklin into wax.
42:07The result is a rough wax template.
42:11The final mold requires a human touch.
42:17Where more wax is scraped away,
42:19more room will be left for paper fiber to build up,
42:23creating darker areas in the Franklin image.
42:29This old world artistry is still critical
42:32for a 21st century banknote.
42:38From the wax template, a hard copper dye is created.
42:44It's used to stamp Franklin's image
42:46into a sheet of wire mesh.
42:52When wet paper pulp is dried on the wire sheets,
42:56Franklin will be indelibly formed.
43:01Human inspection safeguards the high quality of watermarks.
43:10But most inspection of Crane's paper is done by machine.
43:17As the paper is cut,
43:18cameras catch even the slightest defect
43:20in the sheets whizzing by.
43:25Any rejects are automatically cast out.
43:39The final reams are trimmed, taped, stamped, and shipped.
43:51These seals should only be broken
43:53when the paper reaches the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
43:59There the paper will be printed with ink
44:01also formulated to fight counterfeiting.
44:08The green of American greenbacks
44:10does not come from a single pigment.
44:15It's made from a secret mixture of pigments and binding agents.
44:20Dollar green is quite hard to copy.
44:23But wouldn't it be even harder if combined with other colors?
44:28In Holland, bright primary colors
44:30have given banknotes a decidedly modern look.
44:37The celebrated Dutch designer Oxenar paved the way in the 70s.
44:43In the beginning when I started with banknotes,
44:45I saw all these banknotes everywhere in the world.
44:48You see that here too, the French, the Italian, the Chinese.
44:52They were very muddy in color.
44:56And the only banknotes that really inspired me, in fact,
45:00was play money, like the Monopoly money.
45:04And that is what I think is necessary for banknotes too.
45:09I made things that you can easily see what you have in your hands.
45:13You can easily see they're very clear.
45:17They have a clear typography. They have a clear color.
45:20They're also easy and practical to produce.
45:25And they're very well protected.
45:28For us, that would be considered a terrible thing
45:31to have our design compared to Monopoly money or to play money
45:35as it would symbolize to us less value.
45:38But in other countries, that's fine.
45:40That's what they're used to. It's what they expect to see.
45:43In the United States, we expect a very traditional, very classic design.
45:50Admittedly, in the 70s, we looked at color
45:53as potentially having some additional security value.
45:56However, the modern reprographic systems
46:00are so good at reproducing multicolor
46:03that, in fact, the addition of color was found not to be
46:06an enhancement to the security.
46:08And since we only were making changes to the currency
46:11not for aesthetics but to enhance the security,
46:13it was determined that adding color was not something we wanted to do.
46:17Once again respecting tradition,
46:19Treasury officials deemed that the new 100
46:22would remain dollar green and black.
46:26But they were willing to consider something radically new.
46:29Could a hologram work on U.S. currency?
46:35Holograms are three-dimensional images
46:37that safeguard against even sophisticated forgers.
46:42Some countries have put them on their high-value notes.
46:45But holograms are delicate foil structures
46:48that can be easily damaged.
46:55All features for the new currency
46:57have to pass a series of grueling trials
47:00in the Bureau's banknote torture chamber.
47:04Here, a sample hologram must face the dreaded crumpler.
47:16This contraption inflicts more damage
47:19than even the tightest fist.
47:26After just a single crumple,
47:28the hologram shows defeat.
47:34The Treasury posed a challenge
47:36to scientists at Flex Products in California.
47:39Create an image-shifting device, like a hologram,
47:43but one that can survive the crumpler.
47:46In their first attempt,
47:48they deposited the hologram
47:50but one that can survive the crumpler.
47:53In their first attempt,
47:55they deposited thin layers of reflective and clear materials
47:58on plastic strips.
48:00This created a foil that changed color
48:02when struck by light from different angles.
48:06The foil, here stamped out as a treasury seal,
48:09would be hard to counterfeit.
48:12But the delicate foil would be crushed by the crumpler.
48:16So the Flex team had to come up with a new idea.
48:20They stripped off the top layer of foil
48:23and ground it into a fine powder.
48:31The powder was used as a pigment in ink
48:34that could be printed on currency.
48:40The ink, printed here as the number 100,
48:43shows a good color shift from black to green.
48:51And, even after multiple crumples,
48:55the color-shifting 100 in the lower right corner endures.
49:00But the crumpler is just the beginning.
49:03We put our notes through a simulation
49:06that greatly abuses that piece of paper.
49:09We soak it in gasoline, we soak it in ethanol.
49:21A test note is subjected to merciless rubbing
49:25and the equivalent of weeks of intense sunlight.
49:31We've run it through washing machines and dryers.
49:34We've put it in cement mixers with dirt and soil and blocks
49:38to try and simulate things that can be done through the currency.
49:42And yet we're sure that the public
49:44is finding more and more ways to abuse this piece of paper,
49:47and we want to make sure that it lasts.
49:52Banknotes must be made to last,
49:55but even when they don't, they are still legal tender.
49:59A dollar is a dollar, no matter what shape it is in.
50:03The government guarantees
50:05that even the most mutilated notes can be redeemed.
50:09We get cases that have been chewed by dogs,
50:13horses, pigs, and termites is the most popular of them.
50:18The claimant did not indicate in their correspondence
50:21that this was eaten by termites,
50:23but because of years of experience
50:25and the characteristics of a general termite case,
50:28we're able to ascertain that this was eaten by termites.
50:32Now, the examiner is actually going to go through
50:36and duplicate each note.
50:38And what I mean by duplication,
50:40she's going to choose one area on this blob of currency here,
50:45and I suppose that what she will actually do
50:48is take the corners, and she will go through
50:51and just paste down each corner.
50:53If she gets five corners duplicated in the same spot,
50:57she will automatically know that she has five $5 bills.
51:06Piecing together the parts of the new currency
51:09may be considerably easier.
51:12Following thorough trials of the individual features,
51:15the Treasury's designers put the puzzle together.
51:20Here, technical and aesthetic concerns are balanced.
51:26The sheer number of new features means
51:29that the decorative scroll work of the old greenback
51:32must be simplified.
51:34In the lower right, the Treasury's durable, high-tech ink
51:37shifts from traditional dollar green to black.
51:43The numeral in the lower left reveals one-hundreds within a hundred,
51:48micro-printing to defy reproduction.
51:53Franklin's watermark is firmly fixed within the paper,
51:59and a security thread guards against the raising of notes.
52:04These new security features also have secret allies,
52:08covert features known only to the Treasury,
52:11Federal Reserve, and Secret Service.
52:15With its mix of overt deterrence and hidden tricks,
52:19has the Treasury created an unforgeable note?
52:24The ultimate goal of a security printer
52:26is to produce the perfect document,
52:28one that we can produce over and over again,
52:31billions of times, and yet no one else can ever produce.
52:35That goal is the ultimate, but impossible.
52:39Nothing that we can produce is perfect to the point
52:42no one else could ever produce it.
52:44What we want to do is to make it so difficult that they won't try,
52:49but we would never claim that this design,
52:52or a design we would expect to do even in the future,
52:55would be perfect.
52:58This new currency will gradually replace all of the old $100 bills,
53:03but there will be no recall of the old notes.
53:07For a while, they will be in circulation together,
53:11and the Secret Service expects to see counterfeits of both designs.
53:17Fighting counterfeiting is just not about having a secure note.
53:21It's also about enforcement efforts of the Secret Service.
53:26Counterfeiting is as old as history itself.
53:30All documents get counterfeited in one fashion or another sooner or later.
53:35I think that the new note is certainly going to help our efforts
53:40in combating counterfeit United States currency,
53:44but it is not going to end it.
53:57NOVA online
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54:17explore the changing face of currency through the ages.
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54:56Who's this?
54:57Irene Hildebrandt.
54:59Who would you like to have on your money?
55:02My family? I don't know, my daughter?
55:04You ask who Irene Hildebrandt is?
55:07Yeah, I'm just kidding.
55:08She was my grandmother.
55:09Your grandmother? That's nice.
55:12Well, is it nice enough to buy some bags?
55:19Sure, I guess.
55:21You're gonna piss.
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55:30call 1-800-831-9000.
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56:01And by Prudential.
56:05Living well isn't about being rich.
56:08It's about freedom and independence
56:11and taking control of your future.
56:14So make a plan.
56:16Be your own rock.
56:19By the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
56:22and viewers like you.
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56:33This is PBS.
56:37Next time on NOVA.
56:39It's hot. It's deadly.
56:41Can we capture its power?
56:43Lightning Strikes on NOVA.