Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="gatzdon, post: 304997, member: 8247"]It's not the ink, it's the paper that the pen is designed to detect.  More specifically, the pen is designed to react with starch in the paper to turn black.  Hence a note printed on commercially available paper would produce a black mark when in contact with the pen.  As US currency is a mixture of cotton/linen and contains absolutely no starch, the pen just fades away (and in many cases the ink will eventually disappear). Now, a common technique for counterfeiters is to take low denomination notes (us or foreign), bleach them, then print the counterfeit notes.  As the paper contains no starch and is of the correct composition, it will note only fool the pen, but even fool the casual person feeling the note.  In these cases, it's the other security features that give the note away such as a missing security thread or magnetic ink. In most cases, any counterfeit note that is detectable by the pen would not look right anyway to 95% of the population. Now another consideration with the pen is if the note went through the washingmachine, it will usually turn black under the pen due to the starches it picked up in the washingmachine. Currently, the best method for detecting counterfeits is with a UV light.  A 365NM UV Pen Light can be purchased for as little as $60 and can be used to check for the color of the security thread.  Furthermore, US currency does not glow under a UV light whereas most commercial papers would.  I have always considered buying a bunch of these pens and going around to restaurants trying to sell them for $100 after giving a demonstration.  I would even throw in free "Know Your Money" posters from the BEP.[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches