US Dollars..

US dollars..

US dollars.

Shaposhnikov Yu.I.

Source:

US dollars are the currency of the United States of America and are non-convertible US treasury notes. The first US bank notes (UNITED STATES NOTE) were issued during the Civil War (1861-1865) to finance military expenses. They received their slang names «greens», «bucks» and «greenbacks» because their reverse side is green. Before that, paper money was in circulation, which were state banknotes (STATE BANK NOTES), which were issued by private banks under an agreement with the state governments. At the same time, a large number of different types of banknotes were in circulation, descriptions of which were given in specialized weekly publications. In 1913, the US Congress passed a law that created the Federal Reserve System. According to this law, money in the country is printed not by the state, but by an association of private banks. Beginning in 1914, the Federal Reserve Banks began issuing Federal Reserve Notes. The design project for the 1-dollar bill of 1928 was created by Russian emigrant Sergei Makronovsky, who also proposed a gallery of presidents on dollar bills and a triangle with an all-seeing eye — in Masonic terminology, a symbol of world order and the unity of all money.

Currently in circulation are banknotes issued no earlier than 1928 in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 100,000 dollars. Banknotes in denominations of 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 100,000 dollars are prohibited from being exported from the United States under the country's currency legislation. Each banknote is 0.0043 inches (0.1075 mm) thick, and a stack one inch (25 mm) high contains 233 banknotes. The dimensions of banknotes issued into circulation between 1928 and 1990 are 156 x 66 mm, since 1990 — 156 x 66 mm. 157×67 mm. Minor variations in the size of individual banknotes (up to 2 mm) cannot be considered a sign of counterfeiting.

US dollars are made from wood-free paper, consisting of 75% cotton and 25% linen. A small amount of red and blue silk fibers are randomly embedded in the paper. The paper is pale yellow and elastic to the touch. The paper and fibers do not luminesce under filtered UV rays.

The paper is manufactured under strict government supervision. In order to protect the special paper, the United States Congress has passed a special law which, among other things, makes it illegal: «… the possession or possession of such paper, adapted for the manufacture of such bonds or other securities, except by authority of the Secretary of the Treasury or other appropriate officer of the United States Government, shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding 15 years, or by both». The leading supplier of the paper for a number of years has been the firm of «Crane & Company» of Dalton, Massachusetts.

All ink used in the production of banknotes is manufactured by the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This ink is specially designed for printing money, and its composition is kept secret. The black ink used to print the front of the note, with the exception of the Federal Reserve Seal and the bank's numeric and letter codes, is magnetic. The entire back of the note is made with non-magnetic ink. The distribution of magnetic ink on $100 bills is shown in Appendix 6. There is a common belief that if the ink on a bill rubs off, it is counterfeit. This is a misconception — if you rub a genuine dollar bill against paper, a trace of ink will remain on it.

All the main images of the front and back sides are obtained by deep metallographic printing (printing is carried out using metal engraved forms). The resulting images are distinguished by the presence of a glossy shine, high intensity of coloring of strokes, clarity of lines in patterns, and a strongly expressed relief of strokes (the paint layer protrudes above the surface of the paper).

On the front side of the banknotes, in the center in an oval frame, there is a portrait of one of the statesmen, with the surname below it. Each denomination has its own portrait. The portraits on the banknotes are made using the engraving technique and reproduced by deep metallographic printing. The background inside the frame is filled with intersecting vertical and horizontal lines, forming a fine checkered structure. The halftones in the portrait are conveyed by changing the width and depth of the engraving lines.

On the left side of the front side of the banknote is the seal of the Federal Central Bank with the name and letter code in the center. Banknotes issued from 1928 to 1934 have a smooth outer edge, from 1950 inclusive — serrated. At the bottom of the seal imprint is the name of the city and state in which the bank that issued the banknote is located. In the center of the seal imprint is a letter conventionally assigned to the bank (the bank's control letter). The serial number must begin with the same letter. In the four corners of the image, limited by the frame, are printed numbers indicating the serial number of the letter in the Latin alphabet (check digit). In total, there are 12 banks in the USA that have the right to issue banknotes into circulation. The corresponding control letters (letters) and numbers are given in the table:

In the upper right and lower left corners of the front side of the banknote, numbers are located symmetrically. The serial number must begin with the same letter that is in the center of the Federal Reserve Bank seal. Then follows an eight-digit number. The number ends with a letter or an asterisk (the so-called star bill). A star bill is issued to replace a rejected one (damaged during production). Each issued 100,000,000 bill is also marked with an asterisk. The letters and numbers are located strictly on the same line, the distances between the numbers are the same. The size of all the signs of the number is the same. The same signs in the numbers have the same outline.

On the right side of all banknotes in circulation is an image of the Great Seal of the Treasury, which is applied by letterpress printing in bright green ink on Federal Reserve notes. The seal design consists of a white shield, in the upper field of which are scales — a symbol of justice, in the lower field is a key — the official symbol of power. The white fields are filled with round dots, and the fields are separated from each other by a curved at an angle ribbon, on which 13 small white stars are applied against a background of horizontal hatching — the number of the first states of the North American union. The text THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 1789 is executed in reverse font along the circumference of the seal. Before the 1966 series, this inscription was executed on banknotes in Latin. The seal is framed by a circle with teeth.

All the above-mentioned details are made by letterpress printing with black ink. When enlarged and in oblique light, the impression of the seal should show the indentation of the paper from the pressure of the printing plate, clear boundaries of the strokes of the signs and the presence of clots of ink on them.

The upper part of the front side of the banknote contains the inscription «THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA», written in a large, contrasting font, the letters are outlined with a thin white line and shaded with horizontal shading. In the wide strokes of the letters, traces of engraving in the form of thin white lines can often be seen, which either intersect, forming a «grid», or are directed parallel to the stroke.

In the upper left corner of the front side there is a letter and a number called the control letter of the print run sheet and the quadrant number. The printing form (in sheet-fed printing technology) contains 32 clichés and is conventionally divided into 4 parts — quadrants, each of which has 8 clichés. These 8 clichés are assigned control letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) — these are the control letters of the print run sheet.

On the front side of each banknote on the right there is a small black font with one letter and numbers, for example «G124». The letter (check letter) can be one of the following series — A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, the number can be any and indicates the number of the cliche on the front side of the banknote. On some banknotes, before the check letter and the cliche number, there are the letters FW, which indicate that this banknote was issued at the Fort Worth, Texas, factory.

It is also worth mentioning the trial batch of one-dollar bills issued in the USA in 1992, printed using the new «roller» technology. They do not have the usual check letters on the front side of the banknote. Paper in rolls is used for printing. The length of the roll is 7-8 thousand meters, the weight of such a roll varies between 431 and 440 kg. The base of the paper roll is the same as for sheet printing. The width of the roll is 64.26 cm. The paper is fed to three printing rollers, on which printing forms engraved on steel are fixed. First, the back side of the banknotes is printed with green ink, after which the ink is dried at 135 °C. After the paper has cooled, the front side is printed with black ink.

At the bottom of the banknote, to the right and left of the portrait, are facsimile signatures of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Treasurer of the United States. These details on all banknotes, except for the 1935, 1950, 1953, 1957, 1963 and 1963A series, are made using the metallographic printing method, have high image definition and relief of colorful strokes, easily determined by touch.

To the left of the Treasurer's signature is an inscription indicating the year the basic design of the note was adopted, not the year it was issued (SERIES . . .). After the numerals indicating the year, there may be one of the letters A, B, C, or D. Up until Series 1969D, the series year changed each time a major change was made to the design of the note. Minor changes, such as a change in the signature of the U.S. Treasurer, were indicated by a change in the letter following the year (e.g., Series 1963, 1963A 1963B, etc.). In 1974, with the appointment of William E. Simon as Secretary of the Treasury and Francine Irving Neff as Treasurer, this practice was changed and the series year was changed to Series 1974. Beginning with this series, each change in the Secretary of the Treasury entails a change in the series year to the corresponding year. The change of treasurer is marked by the addition or change of a letter. The series legends on all banknotes, except for the 1935, 1950, 1953, 1957, 1963 and 1963A series, are made by intaglio printing.

On the back of the note, at the top, are the inscriptions «THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA» and «IN GOD WE TRUST». The latter inscription first appeared on the $1 silver certificate in 1955. It was gradually introduced for banknotes of different denominations and classes, and, starting with the 1963B series, this inscription is printed on all U.S. paper money.

On the back of the ticket, in the right part, there is a digital entry, made in small print, indicating the cliche number of the back side.

Since 1990, the paper of banknotes in denominations of 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollars has additionally included a plastic thread 1.6 mm wide with microprinting USA TEN, USA TWENTY, USA 50 and USA 100, respectively, corresponding to the denomination of the banknote, as well as microprinting located around the portrait in two arcs and containing the repeating text «THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA».

In 1996, the US Government issued new $100 bills. The 1996 bills had a number of new security features to protect against counterfeiting, and their appearance also changed. The portrait of the president became larger and moved away from the center, which made it possible to place a watermark on the bill that repeated the portrait. The paper of the bill is stitched with a synthetic thread (with the repeating text «USA 100»), which glows pink under UV light in a wave-like pattern. In the lower right corner of the front side of the bill, the denomination of the bill «100» is printed, which appears green when viewed at a straight angle, and black when viewed at an angle. Instead of the Federal Reserve Bank seal, the new bills feature a seal representing the entire Federal Reserve system. An additional letter has been added to the serial number. The letter and number located under the left serial number indicate the Federal Reserve bank that issued the banknote. On the front side of the banknotes is the microtext «USA 100», located inside the number 100 printed on the left and indicating the denomination of the banknote. On Benjamin Franklin's waistcoat is printed the microtext «United States of America».

To summarize the characteristics of the US dollar, we note that the banknotes in circulation before 1990 should be recognized as a currency poorly protected from counterfeiting. Banknotes issued in 1996 are distinguished by a fairly low print quality. Some elements of the images on the banknotes differ significantly. For example, at present, 3 versions of the Federal Reserve seal are known:

• A seal with a smooth, continuous surface;
• A seal covered with a grid pattern in the form of thin white intersecting lines (see Fig. 45.);
• A seal with a grid pattern located only in the area of ​​the dividing dots in the circular inscription «UNITED STATES . FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM .»;

It is also known that there are 6 variants of the watermark on the 100 dollar bill of the 1996 issue, one of them is given in Appendix No. 5. Naturally, such a number of variants makes these security elements difficult to remember and recognize, and therefore difficult to distinguish from skillful counterfeits.

Often there are also production defects — for example, banknotes on which the security strip is located on the right (relative to the portrait), and the watermark is on the left and upside down. It happens that the image of the back of the banknote goes to the front side and vice versa. This happens when poorly dried sheets of money are stored (the so-called «mark», see Fig. 48). Perhaps the scale of production played a role in this — dollars are printed 24 hours a day and 364 days a year, excluding one day — Christmas. Incidentally, we note that the authors have not encountered any production defects at GOZNAK over the past 5 years.

Bills with such defects are considered insolvent, they are bought at a discount by Sberbank and returned to their «historical homeland».

CATEGORIES OF US MONEY TICKETS

Banknotes in general circulation

• United States notes with the inscription «United States Note» in the upper part of the frame on the front side, $2 and $5 bills with a serial number and a Treasury seal in red.
• Federal Reserve notes with the designation «Federal Reserve Note» in the upper part of the frame on the front side, in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100. The Treasury seal and serial number are printed in green.

Paper money in circulation temporarily, until worn out

• Silver Certificates with the designation «Silver Certificate» in the upper part of the frame of the front side, in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 dollars. The Treasury seal and serial number are printed in blue ink.
• Silver Certificates in denominations of $1, $5, and $10 bear a yellow Treasury seal instead of the usual blue on Silver Certificates. The serial number is black. The difference in color between the Treasury seal and the serial number is the only exception; in all other cases, the seal and number are printed in the same color.
• Silver Certificates in denominations of $1 bear the words «Hawaii» overprinted on both the front and back. The serial number and Treasury seal are brown.
• Federal Reserve notes issued by the Bank of San Francisco in denominations of $5, $10, and $20 with the words «Hawaii» overprinted on both front and back. The serial number and the Treasury seal are brown.

Paper money withdrawn from circulation

Gold Certificate notes of all issues with the designation «Gold Certificate» passing through the Treasury seal in bright yellow.

This concludes the study of genuine banknotes. The production of paper money is a complex and very expensive multi-stage technological process. Less than 40 countries can afford to print money, the rest use the services of large commercial firms.

According to the author's plan, after reading this part of the book, the reader should have the idea of ​​the complete futility of the activity that will be discussed further — i.e. counterfeiting paper money. I hope that after reading the remaining part, this idea will take shape finally.