FOLLOW-UP Público Deposited
EXPLODING TWENTIES
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 11, March 14, 2004, Article 20
FOLLOW-UP: EXPLODING TWENTIES
Ronald S. Thompson writes: "The USA Today article on
counterfeits and the article on exploding twenties may be
related. If there really is an RFID tracking device in the new
twenties it should make them easier to separate from the
fakes and therefore result in more counterfeits being found.
However, I microwaved one new twenty for 60 seconds
without any burning."OK, so who else tried microwaving some cash after last
week's story? Fess up...Joe Boling writes: "Regarding the web article on RFID tracers
in banknotes, you will note when examining the illustrations with
the article that they did NOT have the new notes - most of the
notes are the 1996-2003 series, with only three or four being
the 2004 series (and one of those did not react). Not wanting to
find a conspirator in every wallet, I propose that it is the metalliccomponents in the ink that are reacting to the microwaves. It
has long been known that US notes include magnetic (or
magnetizable) inks. Based on the pre-1996 $20 I have that
shows starvation of one of the ink fountains, I don't believe the
portrait includes the magnetic ink, but it surely comprises the
most concentrated deposit of black ink on the entire note, and
if there are metallic ingredients in it, the reaction to microwaves
could be predicted to match that experienced by "Dave and
Denise."As for the euro notes, I can't find the E50 note that I have lying
around here someplace, so I can't examine it for an RFID in the
security thread, but I'd rather expect to find that there is a joint
in the thread, or some other feature of its visual and electronic
properties that would react with microwaves, rather than an
RFID device (which I suspect has not been miniaturized to that
level yet - for instance, where is the battery?). "[Actually, I don't believe RFID tags require a power source
of their own - they pick up energy from the radio waves
emitted by the RFID reader. -Editor]- 2004-03-14
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