Paper money was developed in China around 960 A.D., but when it was 1,000 years later that money counterfeiting flourished within America. Counterfeiters had become so skilled that when the first federal coins were issued by the U.S. government in the 1780’s, they had the dies cut by an ex-counterfeiter in order to deter the practice. However, during the Civil War counterfeiting flourished once more because the United States government issued paper money for the first time. New Security threats posed by the commercialization of color copying, scanner use, and printing technologies mean that security paper producers have to keep up with the demand to create new paper-based security products. Here’s a list of a few security features to prevent counterfeiting that are manufactured and embedded into the paper before it reaches the printing process:

Ben Franklin depicted in Watermark form

Watermarks: customizable markers which are naked to the visible eye. The papermakers of southern Europe were most likely the first to extensively use watermarks. One way they were used is to differentiate the product of individual master papermakers within each papermill to resolve disputes when one papermaker would accuse another of theft. Watermarks can also be found as part of any high quality stationery. Even Ben Franklin’s stationery had its own personal watermark!

Security Threads: The use of security threads was a logical progression from the use of embedded fiber. The difference between the two is the security thread is placed regularly in each note, as a thin ribbon threaded through the note’s paper. Threads are embedded within the paper fiber and can be completely invisible or have a star burst effect, where the thread appears to weave in and out of the paper when viewed from one side.

Security Fibers: Benjamin Franklin made a historic attempt to embed material into banknote paper when he used crushed pieces of mica to try to produce a specialty paper. While this was a failed endeavor on Franklin’s part, the use of colored and fluorescent fibers has been successful since they were patented by Philadelphia native and first used in American banknotes in 1869.