Counterfeiting

We all know what dollar bill looks like, but how many of us have really examined one carefully? Trythe following activity to investigate how fake bills, called counterfeit bills, are detected.

Materials

- picture of counterfeit bill
- $1 bill
- pencil
- paper

Procedure

1. There are at least twelve things wrong with the $1 bill on the sample. Examine the picture and see how many errors you can find. Write down your answers.
2. After you have found as many errors as you can, compare the picture to the real $1 bill. Write down any additional errors you notice.
3. Compare your answers with the list on the next page. Did you find the more errors listed?

Explanation

To counterfeit means to make a copy of something with the intent to trick or deceive. It used to be very difficult to counterfeit paper muney. The counterfeiter had to make special plates, or replicas, of each side of the bill being counterfeited. There were many places where mistakes could be made. The wrong hair on the president or an error in the serial number could ruin moth of work.

With the rise of color copiers, however, counterfeiting money is now easier. New high-speed, high-quality laser copiers are a quick and simple way to duplicate money. To combat counterfeiting on this new generation of copiers, the U.S government is now printing money on special paper that can’t be purchased by anyone but the government. Counterfeit money will not only look different, but feel different, too. The Canadian government has begun using a high-tech solution to stop counterfeiting. They’ve started placing holograms on their money, similar to the ones on credit cards.

There are many document besides paper money that can be counterfeited. With the aid of copiers, payroll and other checks are commonly forged. But even nonpare items, such as credit cards, can be copied. As with money, holograms have been added to credit cards to make them harder to forged. And special dyes that can only be seen under ultraviolet light are used to add pictures and words to the front of the credit card.

Slant Analysis

The slant of a signature is another way to compare handwriting. Perform your own slant analysis to master the technique.

Materials

- pen or sharp pencil
- sheet of white paper
- sheet of tracing paper
- ruler

Procedure

1. Write your name two times on the sheet of white paper.
2. Place the tracing paper over your signature.
3. Use the ruler to make a slash through each letter in each signature so that each slash has the same slant as the letter.
4. Compare the two series of slanted lines. Are they similar?

More Fun Stuff to Do

Write your name on another sheet of paper. Have a helper forge your signature below your real signature. Make a slant analysis. How do the two signatures compare? Could this methode of handwriting analysis prove that your helper’s signature was forged?

Explanation

All four methode of handwriting analysis--top-of-letter, bottom-of-letter, spacing, and slant—help forensic scientists examine and compare handwritten documents. Often forensic scientists perform several forms of analysis on the same handwriting to confirm that it is a forgery. These methodes can be done more accurately by using computers. A sample signature can be scanned and placed in the computer’s memory for later comparison.

Detective Science in Action

One of the most famous kidnapping cases in the United States happened in 1932 when the baby son of Colonel and Mrs. Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped. Colonel Lindbergh was the first person to make a solo airplane flight across the Atlantic and was widely considered a hero. The conviction of Bruno Richard Hauptman, arrested for kidnapping the Lindbergh baby, was based in part on the testimony of handwriting experts. They compared the writing on the ransom note with handwriting samples that the police obtained from Hauptman after his arrest.

Spacing Analysis

Experts also compare the spacing between words and letters to analyze and identfying handwriting. Try a spacing analysis to see how this technique is done.

Materials

- pen or sharp pencil
- sheet of white paper
- sheet of tracing paper
- ruler

Procedure

1. Write your name two times on the sheet of white paper.
2. Place the tracing paper over your signature.
3. Make a small mark on the tracing paper at all of the low points of the beginning and ending of each letter in each signature.
4. Use the ruler to join the righmost mark of each letter to the leftmost mark of the next letter for each signature, creating a series of short lines between the letters.
5. Compare the two sets of lines. Are they similar?

More Fun Stuuf to Do

Write your name on another sheet of paper. Have a helper forge your signature below your real signature. Make a spacing analysis. How do the two signatures compare? Could this methode of handwriting analysis prove that your helper’s signature was forged?

Bottom-of-Letter Handwriting Analysis

Another way to analyze handwriting is to analyze the bottom of the letters.

Materials

- pen or sharp pencil
- sheet of white paper
- sheet of tracing paper
- ruler

Procedure

1. Write your name two times on the sheet of white paper.
2. Place the tracing paper over your signature.
3. Make a small mark on the tracing paper at all of the low points of each letter in each signature.
4. Use the ruler to join each mark to the one next to it, creating a zigzag line across the bottom of each signature.
5. Compare the two zigzag lines. Are they similar?

More Fun Stuff to Do

Write your name on another sheet of paper. Have a helper forge your signature below your real signature. Make a bottom-of-letter analysis. How do the two signatures compare? Could this method of handwriting analysis prove that your helper’s signature was forged?