Counterfeiting in the Digital Age

The Telegraph has an interesting article on how the technological advancements in printer technology and price have enabled counterfeiting to be conducted for such a low cost.

Fierce competition in the inkjet market has made digital colour printers so cheap and the print quality so high that a £100 printer can produce fake banknotes that are easily mistaken for genuine currency in dim light, it says.

This is a problem that will only get worse as the technology improves, the prices drop, and more people come into the know. As has already begun, materials besides ink and paper will be needed in currency. In addition, we may see the need to add currency verifiers to cash registers in order to verify whether currency is valid or not.

Of course, given most people's experience with trying to get a bill to be accepted in a Coke machine or change machine, we may just use plastic more. This would require a substantial change in the cost for processing sub-$1 and sub-$5 payments to make it worthwhile for the merchants. Perhaps, the government will issue its own plastic cash cards in place of / addition to paper currency [as opposed to a credit card].