I extracted a security thread from a $5 bill and learned a couple things. #1. It seems the thread is more secure on the face of the bill than the back. (at least on this one.) #2. There is a small US flag with the number 5 where the stars would be.
I have a friend who is a Massachusetts State Trooper.... He has security threads from when they were first implemented to present day. That would be a cool collection as well. They use it for training purposes! RickieB
Ironically, that would be a very cheap collection to put together, aside from the potential difficulty in recirculating larger bills missing the thread (although at the bank, the bill counters verify the magnetic ink and ignore the security thread/color shifting ink).
I DVR'd the show that one guy was telling us to watch on National Geographic about the making of currency. It said the banks periodically send large bundles of circulated bills back to the federal reserve banks to be inspected. It showed these machines that were scanning 40 bills a second, looking for damage, grafiti, counterfeits, etc... They sort them automatically. The counterfeits are separated for analasys. The damaged bills get sent down a chute to be shreded. They said they shred around $2 billion a day. I would imagine these machines would probably catch the bills without the security tape and shred them? Not sure though.
They are made out of plastic or polymer, so they are stronger than paper but will still break/stretch. There was alot of paper still stuch on one side, so I got it wet and rubbed and the paper came right off.
Every curency collector should have one I bought many bank notes about ten or so years ago but never really cared about them much. Always love coins a lot more, one day I desided hey I should look at these under the black light to see every countries safety marks. I have to tell you , it was like viewing my bank note collection all over again. Some of the notes have full fledged masterpieces that you can only see with the black light.
...and credit cards and drivers licenses - I agree. I was fascinated when I looked at notes under UV light. I bought a portable UV light that runs off of a few AA batteries for about $5. It is a very good toy - Uh, I mean investment.
