It’s for the purpose of serialization for counterfeit purposes. Also, high end copiers have a device installed called the BDU (Bill Detection Unit) that all scans pass through before being post processed. If the BDU detects a bill being scanned it can error and shut down the whole device until the manufacturer can send someone out to fix it. I used to be one of those people resetting BDUs at schools where a teacher thought it was a good idea to copy images of money for teaching students.
Or their corporate masters! Its not always just the government, you paranoid conspiracy nut! Take your meticulously cited sources and century of baroque acid fueled clandestine horror and go home!
feature originally intended as a deterrent to counterfeiting currency with laser printers.
Honestly, the USA is something special. So they do this, instead of putting modern anticounterfit (like polimer notes with transparencies) measures onto their notes.
Our notes have several anti-counterfeit measures. But it’s pretty easy to print up money that won’t pass scrutiny, but will be spendable at busy nightclubs and such. Well… It used to be easy. Now printer/scanners won’t even work if they detect currency.
It’s obvious, more ink used = more profit. The government get the tracking they want, the printer company is slightly more profitable due to extra ink usage, and the customers got fucked. Win-win!
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For the unaware: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/household-printers-tracking-code/
I do love it when a snopes article is about something being true.
Yeah, usually they’re the no fun police.
Wow, I had no idea. I thought the joke was needing full ink in an unrelated color. I didn’t know about tracking. I’m sadly unsurprised.
It’s for the purpose of serialization for counterfeit purposes. Also, high end copiers have a device installed called the BDU (Bill Detection Unit) that all scans pass through before being post processed. If the BDU detects a bill being scanned it can error and shut down the whole device until the manufacturer can send someone out to fix it. I used to be one of those people resetting BDUs at schools where a teacher thought it was a good idea to copy images of money for teaching students.
That, and tracking down anyone else the government doesn’t like, apparently.
Or their corporate masters! Its not always just the government, you paranoid conspiracy nut! Take your meticulously cited sources and century of baroque acid fueled clandestine horror and go home!
Honestly, the USA is something special. So they do this, instead of putting modern anticounterfit (like polimer notes with transparencies) measures onto their notes.
I think it isnt to stop it, it is to get a conviction.
This is what I mean. It’s bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted. This lists the security features on a $5 note, and here’s for a £5 note.
In addition to not in lieu of. The US works very hard on preventing counterfeiting, including the creation of the Secret Service.
Our notes have several anti-counterfeit measures. But it’s pretty easy to print up money that won’t pass scrutiny, but will be spendable at busy nightclubs and such. Well… It used to be easy. Now printer/scanners won’t even work if they detect currency.
I believe they missed this part of the memo
It’s obvious, more ink used = more profit. The government get the tracking they want, the printer company is slightly more profitable due to extra ink usage, and the customers got fucked. Win-win!