The "Science" of Money

Jieung Im
EAP 050
10/01/08

The “Science” of Money

People work for this, pray to get this, sometimes fight because of this. Can you guess what it is? It is money. In modern society, people cannot live a normal life without money. Even with the invention of the credit card, people want to get more. Although people like money, they may not know about how it is made.

Most people think bank notes are made of paper, but generally they are not. In the Republic of Korea, cotton is used to make currency. That is because cotton is an efficient material which is not easily torn. Clothes and money are similar in this aspect. Money made of cotton is darker than normal paper. In some other countries, they make money out of particular combination of plastic, called polymer. It is twice as expensive and four times as durable as cotton. Also, it can be made transparent on a small portion of the bill, which means that money made of polymer prevents counterfeiting. The biggest demerit is that ink can be erased at high temperatures. Nowadays, money made of polymer has an upward trend in many countries.

Each country applies optional techniques to avoid counterfeiting according to the manufacturing cost, the amount of current money, and technical expertise. Korea is number three in scientific techniques of making currency. There are 21 techniques to make bills, but only 10 techniques are opened to the public. One of the popular ones is the watermark; it is that particular picture appearing when light shines through it. Its fundamental principle is a difference of thickness. Another technique is the hologram, which has different figures according to one’s view, preventing color reproductions. Although these techniques are expensive, many countries have introduced them to prevent counterfeiting.

When note-issuing banks make money, people think about which color is suitable. There are some specific qualifications in common use. For example, most color printers do not print yellowish green but yellow. Also, red gets faint and blue becomes dark using a color printer, so if people use yellowish green to issue money, counterfeiters cannot forge it. In other words, it is easy to prevent counterfeiting by not using particular techniques. That is why yellowish green is the major color in the won and U.S. dollars. The last step in making money is which ink people use. Ink used to make money emits an ultraviolet light. Therefore, it is useful to distinguish whether it is counterfeit or not. The most powerful ink is OVI ink, which changes color depending on one’s viewpoint.

People use paper money several times in a day. Currency hides secrets of scientific techniques, and it prevents people from counterfeiting. It is difficult to detect the forged notes with the naked eye. Using specific techniques, forged notes can be seen with ease. After these techniques are known , people can feel all the more keenly the science of money.