From warlord at MIT.EDU  Fri Jul 30 13:24:06 1993
From: warlord at MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 93 13:24:06 PDT
Subject: Tracing Cash
In-Reply-To: <9307301948.AA00433@srlr14.sr.hp.com>
Message-ID: <9307302021.AA02027@toxicwaste.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>


> The few $50 and $100 bills I've looked at over the past year or so
> have had a light colored vertical stripe on them that was slightly raised
> above the surface of the paper and had *small* numbers on it.  
> 
> Seems like it was designed to make counterfeiting harder and money
> easier to trace.

20 dollar bills have them, too.  Actually, all they say on them is "US
20 dollars", or something similar on the 50 and 100's.  They are to
prevent counterfeiting because you can just hold a bill up to the
light and see this bar on it.  It does not have any serial information
on it, so I doubt that it eases the tracing of money.

-derek