THE EURION PROJECT We know that we have problems archiving modern banknotes. The central banks of thirty-one nations in conjunction with the makers of computers, software, and peripheral equipment agreed to a security protocol intended to reduce the threat of counterfeiting. Unfortunately, these barriers also prevent the legitmate work of numismatists, educators, and researchers. The Eurion Project is an effort to help numismatists and other legitimate investigators. The name of the project comes from the "Eurion Constellation" of zeroes found on many modern banknotes. That device itself is neither necessary nor sufficient to prevent our work, but was previously thought to do so. It is still a useful name. And it indicates the benefit of open investigation, research, and reporting, as the original summary by university professor Markus Kuhn was corrected by his colleague Steven J. Murdoch a few years later. I am a numismatist. The American Numismatic Association granted me several literary awards. I serve on the Board of Directors of the Michigan State Numismatic Society. In addtion, I am a degreed criminologist (BS, summa sum laude; 2008; Eastern Michigan University). In 2004, I spoke at the ANA convention in Pittsburgh on the damage done to our hobby by counterfeiting ("Fakes, Frauds, and Phonies: Threat oir Menace?"). I have a contact at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an attorney who is helping me to frame the project within the confines of the law. TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 25 > § 474(b) "... The Secretary shall establish a system (pursuant to section 504) to ensure that the legitimate use of such electronic methods and retention of such reproductions by businesses, hobbyists, press and others shall not be unduly restricted." TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 25 > § 504 Printing and filming of United States and foreign obligations and securities (2) ... The Secretary shall establish a system to ensure that the legitimate use of such electronic methods and retention of such reproductions by businesses, hobbyists, press or others shall not be unduly restricted. The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (CBCDG) - www.rulesforuse.org/ Eurion Constellation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation Dr. Steven J. Murdoch - http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/ Michael E. Marotta - http://www.washtenawjustice.com Watch this Topic Thread for updates, developments, and redirects.
I wish you only the best in this endeavor, and can easily see the potential for success in your qualifications.
Mike, Thanks for creating a thread for this on CT. I'm subscribed and will follow your posts regarding this topic. Regards, Chris.
The CBCDG watermark gives me a harder time than the EURion Constellation - At least you can see the EURion Constellation.
I'm not even aware that EURion has anything to do with scanning or printing banknotes, I thought it was a photocopier thing only, which probably doesn't affect most of us. At least when I was fiddling around on this topic, CDS (CBCDG) was the real bugger. I will look forward to Mike's research! Dave
Dave M: You are right. The EURion Constellation has nothing to do with our problems. It was developed by Omron to thwart large photocopiers. But it is such a cool name, that I use it for this project. One reason is that open discussion among security researchers first identified the rings and then determined that they were not the cause of our scanner and printer malfunctions. I put a summary on my blog (NecessaryFacts.blogspot.com) and I put a detailed account on my website (www.washtenawjustice.com) under Computer Security. Right now, I have a spreadsheet with 50 partial entries, gleaned from this and other boards and provided by Owen Linzmayer and others. Nothing more will be done until I hear back from the US Department of Treasury and the lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I gave a presentation earlier this month, and before I talked, one security researcher asked me, "Why don't you just use cameras?" It was a cogent question.
There's a decent answer to this one. A good camera costs a lot more than a scanner, has issues with lens distortion with horizontal and vertical lines, has to deal with white balance, and takes much more skill to operate well enough to compare to a scanned image. Not only that, it only addresses the actual scanning process. A good photo will still get caught by Photoshop's CDS checker when you open it. Dave Edit: Actually, I can't confirm that. I thought I had taken photos that were not able to import into Photoshop, but I just went out to check and can't find one. Perhaps that was wrong.
I'll play around with the camera today and see what the results are. I've taken photos of the notes that won't scan but they were low quality pics. I'll see what happens when I shoot them properly. (I haven't been able to find a scanner to do my newest notes. I'm sure they're out there. I just haven't come across one yet.)
I was able to scan the obverse of a problem note but only once. The details are here in the last post: http://www.cointalk.com/showthread.php?t=136929&p=1086233#post1086233
Nice, Clay. I did the experiment with a 2006 $50, and could not get the photo to cause trouble in CS2. My photo and scan are good quality, it would be tough to guess visually which is which, but for whatever reason, CS2 rejects the scan but not the photo. But your catch on the photo is quite interesting to know, thanks. Dave
There's a digital watermark issue with some photo editing software. But, if the software doesn't include the module, it shouldn't be a problem. There any open source photo editors that are able to open that image... for example, I use Photo Pos Pro (which isn't a POS, name not withstanding). It had no problem. Obviously, this is not an attempt to counterfeit the currency:
You may have missed the point here. I think folks are well aware that some editing software can catch banknotes and some can't, but the point was that for example Photoshop can catch both a scanned note and a photographed note. It's a step along the way of figuring out where and how the CDS technology is happening. Dave
Thanks! I archived the replies and I will report your results to my ArbSec group next week. Some people get around this with old equipment, just as others report that PS2 will not stop your research. This means being stuck with old technology. And it means that the clock is ticking. Sooner or later, all that 1990s hardware and software will be gone.
No, I get that. I'm pointing out that there is alternative software that isn't affected by the same issue. If there's a need for manipulating images, I'd suggest simply changing the programs used for that limited application.
