United States dollar

Criticisms of U.S. banknotes

Despite the relatively late addition of color and other anti-counterfeiting features to U.S. currency, critics hold that it is still a straightforward matter to counterfeit the bills. They point out that the ability to reproduce color images is well within the capabilities of modern color printers, most of which are affordable to many consumers. These critics suggest that the Federal Reserve should incorporate holographic features, as are used in most other major currencies, such as the British Pound, Canadian dollar and Euro banknotes, which are much more difficult and expensive to forge. Another robust technology, developed for the Australian dollar and adopted for the New Zealand dollar, Romanian leu, and a few other currencies, produces polymer banknotes.

Related Topics:
Printers - Holographic - British Pound - Canadian dollar - Euro banknotes - Australian dollar - New Zealand dollar - Romanian leu - Polymer banknotes

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However, U.S. currency may not be as vulnerable as it is said to be. Two of the most critical anti-counterfeiting features of U.S. currency are the paper and the ink. The exact composition of the paper is confidential, as is the formula for the ink. The ink and paper combine to create a distinct texture, particularly as the currency is circulated. These characteristics can be hard to duplicate without the proper equipment and materials. U.S. notes, however, remain less secure than most other notes, and while a bank might be able to detect fine differences in paper and ink technology, counterfeit notes generally receive far less scrutiny at a point of sale.

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Critics also note that U.S. bills are often hard to tell apart: they use very similar designs, are printed in the same colors, and are the same size. Advocates for the blind have argued that they should be printed in increasing sizes according to value and employ braille codes to make the currency more usable by the vision-impaired, since the denominations cannot easily be distinguished from one another nonvisually. Though some vision-impaired or blind individuals say that they have learned to determine the different denominations by feel, many others rely on currency readers; still others have their bills each folded differently to quickly identify the denomination. For the blind, this initially requires the assistance of a mechanical device or a sighted person.

Related Topics:
Braille - Vision-impaired

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By contrast, other major currencies, such as the Euro and British Pound feature notes of differing sizes: the size of the note increases with the denomination and are printed in different colors. This is useful not only for the vision-impaired; They nearly eliminate the risk that, for example, someone might fail to notice a high-value note among low-value ones, a common problem in the United States. Tourists also frequently encounter difficulties with U.S. money, as they are less familiar with the design cues that distinguish the various denominations.

Related Topics:
Euro - British Pound

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Multiple currency sizes were considered for U.S. currency, but makers of vending and change machines successfully argued that implementing such a wide range of sizes would greatly increase the cost and complexity of such machines. Similar arguments were made in Europe prior to the introduction of multiple note sizes, but these arguments were obviously not successful.

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Alongside the contrasting colors and increasing sizes, many other countries' currencies contain tactile features missing from U.S. banknotes to assist the blind. For example, Canadian banknotes have a series of raised dots (though not standard braille) in the upper right corner to indicate denomination.

Related Topics:
Canadian banknotes - Raised dots

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Apart from their value in helping users to tell notes apart, the differing sizes of other currency banknotes are a security feature that eliminates one form of counterfeiting to which U.S. currency is prone: Counterfeiters can simply bleach the ink off a low-denomination note, typically a single dollar, and reprint it as a higher-value note, such as a $100 bill. To counter this, the U.S. government has debated making lower-denomination notes slightly smaller than those of higher denomination. Current proposals suggest making the $1 and $5 bills an inch shorter in length and a half-inch shorter in height; however, having two sizes of banknotes but seven denominations, rather than incrementally increased sizes, would not eliminate the problem of their usability for the blind.

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