Core77

U.S. Government's Never-Ending Quest to Design the Most Difficult-to-Manufacture Object

By Rain Noe - April 25, 2013

in Object Culture

How can you ensure your product design never gets knocked off? By manufacturing it with proprietary production methods and materials no one else has access to. That's always been the government approach to making currency, which is arguably the number one thing you don't want people knocking off. But as manufacturing techiques trickle down, and now that digital imaging has become child's play, the design of physical currency has to continually evolve. That creates a situation essentially the opposite of what industrial design is: Currency makers have to design something that's as complicated as possible to manufacture.

This week the Federal Reserve announced that a new, redesigned $100 bill is coming out, and as you'd expect, the thing is a cornucopia of proprietary manufacturing techniques. It's got embedded thread imprinted with "USA" and "100," and when you hit it with a UV light the thread glows pink; it's got the X-ray thing where a blank space on the bill reveals a hidden face (Benny Franklin) when it's backlit; the copper-colored "100" turns green when you tilt the bill.

It's also got a "3D Security Ribbon" (that blue stripe you see) containing images of a funky bell that visually transforms into a "100." So where's the 3D part? The bell/100 appear to move and shift in a 3D, holographic way while you wave the money around, as we in the Core77 offices do during our weekly dice games in the hallway with the building superintendent and the FedEx guy.Then there's the texture. Ben Franklin's shoulder has been made to feel rough to the touch, like he's wearing a Carhartt jacket, through an intaglio printing process. ("Intaglio" is basically the printmaker's version of embossing.)

Additionally, the graphics have been changed--now the image on the back is of the rear of Independence Hall, as God knows we're all sick of seeing the front--and new symbols have been added, like the quill pen used to sign the Declaration of Independence.

The new C-note is scheduled to "launch" on October 8th. I'm not quite sure how they disseminate the new bills; I believe they dump them over the third-floor railings of crowded shopping malls. What I do know is that I'll have a better chance to observe the bill's design details in short order, as October 8th is a Tuesday, and our dice games are on Wednesday. After I win a bunch of these from my fellow degenerate staffers I'll report back.

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George W. Bush

11 years ago

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How about we acknowledge that the Cold War is over and finally remove "In God We Trust" from our money. About time we started respecting the First Amendment.
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Nikola R Tesla

11 years ago

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The Federal Reserve is NOT even Federal, & it Prints money that should be done by the US Gov, & not a Private Corpration, it is not what you see. :)
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Skip

11 years ago

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What if we just used currency that was worth as much as was printed on it like gold, copper, nickel, platinum, or zinc....... We did it a once upon-a-time in a land far far away.......
While there are great consequences by tying one's currency to available materials in the physical world, it may be worth it. How does it compare to the cosequences that we have seen by having bank notes?
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Justin May

11 years ago

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Why doesn't the USA adopt polymer printed money like Australia has been producing for numerous other countries for twenty years.

The notes are durable and (so far) have not been successfully forged.
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MS

11 years ago

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This should also be called "US Government's Quest to Design World's Ugliest Currency"
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Lew

11 years ago

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I wonder if I'll be able to use this to buy four houses and a hotel on Boardwalk???
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