ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Counterfeit Currency, Technology and the ManufactureSEE ALSOComputer Software SecurityCounterfeit Currency,Technology andthe ManufactureIn the past, counterfeiters produced false banknotes withprinting presses, and some of the more skillful counterfeiterswent to great lengths to imitate the original. Today,sophisticated computer printers and copiers enable evenunskilled would-be counterfeiters to produce notes thatbear at least a superficial resemblance to real ones. However,the federal government continually works to stay astep or more ahead of counterfeiters, updating currencyand making it ever more difficult to duplicate.Two Waves of CounterfeitingFor virtually as long as there has been regular currency,there has also been false currency, which has provided ahighly lucrative illegal trade to those who can successfullypass off false banknotes as the genuine article. The periodsince the middle of the twentieth century has seen twosignificant waves of counterfeiting. First, there was asurge in the illegal production of banknotes during the1960s, when advances in printing and graphic arts technologyenabled counterfeiters with the right equipmentand skills to produce highly accurate copies of federalcurrency. By the 1990s, however, counterfeiting by meansof the printing press had diminished in significance comparedto a new variety of counterfeit currency manufacture,this one using computer printers.The phenomenon of “P-notes,” or “printer notes,”first came to the attention of law enforcement in the early1990s. In1995, authorities made a total of 37 arrests nationwidein connection with the production and distributionof currency produced on ink-jet or laser-jet printers.By 2000, this number had skyrocketed to 4,500 arrests, andofficials estimated that P-notes accounted for as much asforty percent of the currency seized by the United StatesSecret Service (USSS) and other agencies annually.Contrast of practitioners and techniques. The change inchoice of technology also signaled a change in the profileof the average counterfeiter. The old variety of criminaloperating in this field tended to be mature and skilled—aEncyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and SecurityA computer printout of counterfeit $20 bills removed from the home of aMassachusetts teenager by the U. S. Secret Service. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.professional, highly trained practitioner who usually possessed,or at least had access to, printing equipmentwhose operation would require knowledge far beyondthat of a novice.The 1990s variety of counterfeiter, by contrast, fit aquite different profile. Rather than being “professionalcounterfeiters,” they were more likely to be drug dealerswho used their P-notes in connection with other crimes,most notably the purchase of drugs. Typically youthful(many were juveniles), these new counterfeiters lackedskills for counterfeiting. Whereas the old model at leastrequired some degree of human ingenuity, the new typeof counterfeiting was primarily a matter of possessing theright equipment.Equipment loomed large in the old counterfeitingtechnology as well, but practitioners had to know how touse it. Counterfeiters of that era carefully studied currency,and made numerous photographs of it with graphic-artscameras using different filters so as to break downthe various stages of the printing process. Only afterconsiderable trial and error could a workable set of printingplates be produced.In contrast to this painstaking process, the new counterfeitingprocess required only that one use a high-qualityscanner to obtain an image of a bill, then print that bill on aprinter with high resolution. Given the ease of production,counterfeiting again became a growth industry during the273