{"id":281,"date":"2008-08-18T11:02:42","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T15:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffclarke.us\/blog\/?p=281"},"modified":"2008-08-18T12:30:22","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T16:30:22","slug":"the-mathematics-of-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarke.us\/blog\/2008\/08\/the-mathematics-of-money\/","title":{"rendered":"The Design of Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aegir Hallmundur from the Ministry of Type<\/a> has a fascinating article on the math that goes into making geometric patterns on currency. The math is definitely way above my head, but it’s interesting to think about the detail that goes into making money look the way it does — including anti-counterfeiting ‘flaws’ that are introduced into the patterns.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>

From the Ministry of Type<\/p><\/div>\n

This got me tinking a little more about all of the techniques that go into making money more difficult to counterfeit — and counterfeiting in general.\u00a0 As color printing has evolved, it’s become harder and harder for the Treasury to make bills with details that could not be replicated when the bills were scanned and printed. To help curtail counterfeiting, I know that the Treasury has worked with printer manufacturers and providers of image editing software<\/a> to make sure their technology doesn’t allow users free reign to make high-quality fake currency.<\/p>\n

You learn all sorts of fun facts when you start digging into this stuff.\u00a0 A friend of the family who works as a consultant to the Treasury Department on anti-counterfeiting once told us just how many points of reference there are in a banknote.\u00a0 I can’t remember precisely how many, but it’s a lot.\u00a0 She also said that nearly all $100 bills in circulation have traces of cocaine on them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fascinating.<\/p>\n

More fun currency morsels:<\/p>\n