Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

Something for Nothing
Counterfeiting is one of the oldest crimes and has affected most parts of the world at sometime or another. The United States was affected most during the nineteenth century, and to be more specific around the Civil War. In fact, over one third of the United States money was counterfeit during the Civil War. Banks were making their own currencies, and all of them had different designs. This made it very hard to distinguish whether or not the money was counterfeited. By the time the government took action, sixteen hundred banks had been making their own currencies. There were already over seven thousand different kinds of genuine notes, and over four thousand different kinds of counterfeit notes. Because of this, the government put a national currency into effect in 1863. This national currency was still counterfeited too much, so the government was forced to take enforcement measures to stop it. So, the United States Secret Service was made on July 5, 1865, to track down and prosecute the counterfeiters (Brain “Advanced”). Since the secret service was made 142 years ago the country has changed a lot, and with it counterfeiting and the technology behind it has changed. Counterfeiting is a manageable problem now that there is new information about how it is done, and this allows new detection technologies and prevention strategies to be made.
Some of that new information about how it is done is on the newer more high tech scanners and printers. One of the newest kinds of printer is the inkjet printer. This printer sprays tiny droplets of ink onto the paper. This counterfeiting method is the most used, at over forty percent, because it uses the same types of color that is used on real currency. The other most preferred way to make counterfeits is with normal household printers and copiers. These printers and copiers use toner to get the ink onto the paper. There are three kinds of toner: black and white, monochromatic, and full...