[Cryptography] Best internet crypto clock: hmmmmm...

Jerry Leichter leichter at lrw.com
Sat Nov 1 18:44:19 EDT 2014


On Nov 1, 2014, at 5:48 PM, Tom Mitchell <mitch at niftyegg.com> wrote:
> ...It goes without saying that the secret service can use OCR 
> readers in multiple locations and track each and every printed
> bill.   If their audits detect an interesting level I can see the next 
> revision of design getting released into the cycle and aggressive 
> audited shredder action for the previous.
An interesting side note on this:  Historically, when a government changes the form of currencies, it declares a fairly short period during which old bills can be converted to new ones, after which the old one stop being accepted.

The US replaced its $100 bills - which had been fundamentally unchanged from 1957 to a major reworking (in response to counterfeits) - in 1996.  By then, US $100 notes had become the standard holder of value in much of the world, widely used in the black and gray markets of countries whose currency was not seen to be trustworthy.  I remember reading articles about panics among Russia citizens who kept their savings in such bills (illegally) and feared they would be left holding worthless paper.  A panicky conversion to new bills took place on the black market - where old bills were accepted at a substantial discount from their face value.  Reassurance from the US Treasury that the old bills would continue to be accepted didn't help.  (They are accepted to this day, as far as I know.)  Of course, the black market traders - who made a killing by buying old bills at a discount and selling them overseas at face value - were only too happy to help spread the story of the upcoming worthlessness of the old bills.

                                                        -- Jerry

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