Scanner Stopped Scanning Paper Money! Why?

Wiley, there is way much more political opinion (rant) in your post than the scanner issue. Please do not post such, even a tin foil hat won't protect you

And along the line of scanners and their software limitations, the companies have already established that they can use software to prevent refilling of ink cartridges, and that hasn't allowed users to seek redress, just finding other solutions to the situation is the answer.

Jim

 

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Not opinion, fact.

 

"Scanners Live in Vain" -- Cordwainer Smith

I am pursuing this on my own via other channels. I will not be posting publicly here. I will, however, have presentations at upcoming conventions.

In the mean time, consider this: It is not what your scanner will not do, as much as what your printer will do. Did you know that your printer benchmarks all documents with codes similar to the EURion?

Read here:

http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/printers/wp.php
Investigating Machine Identification Code Technology in Color Laser Printers
Note: As of October 13th, 2005, some information in this paper is out of date. Please visit http://eff.org/Privacy/printers for the most up-to-date information on this project.
Help EFF Watch the Watchers. Join EFF today!
Introduction

On Nov. 22, 2004, PC World published an article stating that "several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters." According to the article, the high fidelity of outputs from color machines to their original documents suggests that counterfeiters can potentially succeed in creating high-quality counterfeited currency and government documents using these machines. At the request of the United States Secret Service, manufacturers developed mechanisms that print in an encoded form the serial number and the manufacturer's name as indiscernible markings on color documents. The Secret Service and manufacturers would be able to decode these values from the markings and in the event a color machine was used to print a suspected counterfeited document, these values would be used with customer information to discover the identity of the machine's owner.

http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/printers/index.php
Update, Dec 5, 2005
Updated printer list

Update, Oct 13th, 2005
Learn to decode Xerox DocuColor tracking dots using our guide - or use our decoding program to decode them.
Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer - and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

 

How stupid does the government think that we are? If I was a professional counterfeiter, I would be on top of this technology. I would either hire some clever young fellow to hack the printer software and eliminate the tracking info or I'd buy a printer through a dummy company who then would "sell" the printer on the "second hand market." Another possibility is buying a black market printer without the secret software

 

As much as i can understand the frustration felt by some people looking to use their printers in a legal manner, but cant - i must confess i care little about what secret messages are hidden in my prints lol Like my scanner, i know my printer is used for 100% legit purposes. The difference is that while the printer posts secret messages - but prints, my scanner halts the scans. It would be better if the scanner also imprinted on the image what the printer does. I could even live with that - as long as i could scan

 

Oh dread... I got an automatic HP software update for my printer/scanner/copier today... I went ahead and did the upgrade, but have yet to try scanning any new notes as all my notes are caught up with scanning. I'll let you all know if I encounter any new problems in the future scanning. On the other hand I did also just find a Series 2009 $20 today, darn thing was too circulated to hold onto though but I could try this one I suppose.

I did however just think of something else related to this, how does Heritage and other auction companies scan their modern currency? Do they have custom scan software? old equipment? How will these companies circumvent these issues? I'd be surprized if they are using such sophisticated scan equipment that they didn't have these built in anti-counterfeiting features. Anyone know or have any thoughts on this???

 

Good luck on your scanner Krispy!!

Do Heritage and the like 'scan' or 'photograph'? if they do scan, i would also be interested to know how!!

 

It might well be photography that they are using as opposed to scanning.

 

You know, that's what many people say about the government monitoring phone calls and emails.

 

Series 2009 scan/print tests from HP C4280 All-In-One (printer/scanner/copier)

So I did a scan and print test today since the upgrade I mentioned.

I scanned the two Series 2009 notes below together and opened the file in Photoshop CS3 and proceeded to try some printing options.

I had no problem opening the file in any Adobe product I'm currently running, all CS3: Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign nor through Macs default image viewer, Preview. When opening the scanned jpeg file, I still get the warning dialog box that warns printing is disabled in Adobe applications, but you may view and edit the digital image. Here is the message that pops up when you start to open bank note files:



And the notes scanned today, Series 2009 $1 and $20:




The following print tests were attempted and all failed when encountering the $20:

• Open and Print the jpeg file from FireFox browser window (3.6.12)
Comment: Will print the $1 but not the $20, image stops before the image area of the $20.

• Print from Preview image viewer.
Comment: Will print the $1 but stops about 20% across the face of the $20 during printing. This is true of color or black/white files.

• Print .jpg, .pdf, .indd, .ai, and .eps file types from Photoshop/Acrobat/InDesign/Illustrator.
Comment: Will print the $1 but stops about 20% across the face of the $20 during printing. In InDesign and Illustrator I attempted to place and rasterize/embed the image, but it still fails to print. The same failure to print occurs if an InDesign or Illustrator image is saved as Post Script file and attempted to print from another application.


In the Printer dialog box, the following message appears as an Error when the image stops printing:

"Error: reading pixels failed (-9707)"




So I would be able to print Series 2009 notes but not the larger denominations with the security features detected by output devices.

One last test, I tried to print the entire web page from my Photobucket album directly, allowing all the background and ads in the side columns to print, but the same thing occurs, the $1 prints but not the $20. It just goes blank when the printer detects the note.

I hope this helps illustrate some aspects of what's rejected in output. Thankfully, I don't really need to print out my notes, and can continue to scan notes, saving images to share online and keep records of what I have in my collection.

 

what make and model is your printer?? this cannon is as frustrating as my last epson!

 

HP C4280 (got it in 2008, they are out of production now)

 

ouch! too bad! My new $300 canon doesnt do a very good job at pretty much anything. the user interface is sub-par, the LED lighting is horrible for coins, the Speed is ok - possibly the best thing about it. It scans at up to 1200 DPI, but apears to automaticaly re-scale the zoom to fit the monitor. At 1200 DPi, a coin should be several MB's, not under 500 kbs.

Im still playing with it, but 100% dis-satisifed with not only not being able to scan notes, but also its functionaility

 

krispy, thanks for your hard work. I appreciate your attention to detail.

 

I will have an article in the MSNS Mich-Matist magazine for Winter 2011. After it appears in print, I will place it on the MSNS Website in the Articles Archive.

Basically, so far, I am in contact with a lawyer from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and with a local Ann Arbor computer security group. However, I wil not begin an active project until I have all my ducks in a row.

 

I've had no luck with the other scanners. Either they didn't accept the note or the scanners were so old that I couldn't get them to work with my computer.

 

Okay, this is interesting.....

Today, for fun, I tried scanning one of the notes that wouldn't scan and to my surprise I was able to scan the obverse! But, only once. when I tried it a second time, the scanner would stop partway and wouldn't allow the note to be scanned. I made a photocopy with no problem and then tried scanning the photocopy and no go. It wouldn't do it.

Below is the scan of the note:



I then took a pic of the reverse of the note and had no problem using Gimp to load it:

 

Gimp doesn't have the CDS code built into it.