Bank notes: extreme doceng

ABSTRACT

Most people handle bank notes every day without giving them a thought, let alone pondering their complexity. Yet every aspect of a bank note is highly engineered to serve its purpose. Every facet of the bank note's existence, from the materials that comprise them to the equipment that produces them, from the machines that handle them to the shredders that destroy them, is carefully considered and designed. Layered on these functional requirements are human factors and the need to verify their authenticity, to be able to distinguish them from any other printed documents that clever would-be, ill-intentioned imitators might produce.

In the context of today's print-on-demand environment and the glitter-and-glow appeal of craft and display products to all segments of society, the requirements for achieving this differentiation from the counterfeiters' best products are increasingly challenging.

This presentation addresses how real bank notes are made, the practical factors that drive their function and form requirements and the interplay of these factors with their security requirements, to inhibit the manufacture of counterfeit bank notes.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.1 Document and Text Editing

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.4 Electronic Publishing

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Security

Keywords:
bank notes, counterfeiting, document engineering "in the large", document security, security documents, security printing, security substrates, variable data printing