Counterfeiting

The reality of a counterfeit implies there is a genuine article.  This is certainly true for notes used as legal tender, or dollar bills (or Euros, Yuan, Pounds, etc.).   Anti-counterfeiting measures are taken by minting agencies but this does not impede the desire for counterfeiters be in tandem technologically, or a step ahead, of the counter measures.  Changing the ellipses of the oval around the portrait of figures on the bill, transparent, ultraviolet sensitive strips within the bills, paper that’s sensitive to certain types of ink, and even the EURion constellation, a series of five yellow circles that computers recognize and refuse to copy, are all ways that counterfeiting has been combated.  As currency becomes more and more electronic-based, counter measures to counterfeiting are becoming more sophisticated, primarily because counterfeiting measures are becoming more sophisticated.  Serial numbers alone should be sufficient to eliminate counterfeiting, but when physical bills can be kept and stored ‘under the radar’ for decades - like many Amish families who store trunk-loads of bills in their homes, or Dominican money launderers who store warehouses of bills in their…well, warehouses - their serial numbers subsequently vanish from circulation tracking (this is why ransom seekers often request non-sequential serial numbers on their bills…harder to track large movements of money this way).  Counterfeiting is more common than one thinks because crime is more common than one thinks.  Crime is more common than one thinks because evil is more common than one thinks.  Sherlock Holmes was noted for saying “Crime is common; logic is rare.”  What he meant, or should have said rather, was “Crime is common; integrity is rare.”  We tend to think that’s the wrong way round, but it’s the right way up.  The way federal bureau agents recognize counterfeit bills is by studying the genuine article for hours and hours, memorizing every single detail down to the microscopic level.  Any deviation from the authentic piece will immediately stand out.  We may be deceived by more than just bills if we are not careful, but studying the original, genuine article will be quite revealing of perturbations of any significance.