U.S. Tests New Ways to Trip Up Counterfeiters

To crack down on counterfeiters who passed $7 million in phony money last year, the government will spend $4 million to develop a hologram-type device that may be implanted in bills to catch thieves.

If the device proves effective and is adopted, it will be the first time since 1929 that U.S. currency has been altered. At that time, the size of the notes were dramatically reduced.

Xerox Corp.’s special information systems division in Pasadena was recently awarded the 15-month Treasury Department contract to develop advanced holographic imaging techniques, Xerox spokesman Bruce Munch said.

The hologram distorts images depending on the angle it is viewed from. When the holographic image being developed is held and rotated over a piece of currency, a symbol or emblem permanently embedded in it would change the shape and color, Munch said.

Robert Leuver, director of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said counterfeiting has steadily increased over the last three decades.

$7 Million Last Year

In the early 1960s, only a few thousand dollars of counterfeit money was put into circulation. Last year, more than $7 million in counterfeit bills changed hands, Leuver said.

“Counterfeiting has become so sophisticated,” Munch said, “that if you don’t take steps now to stop it, everybody and their brother may be making money.”

Munch said Xerox is only developing a prototype of the hologram device and will work with United States Banknote Corp. in New York on the project.