America’s national parks have been the subject of the America the Beautiful® Quarters Program since 2010, when the Hot Springs National Park quarter kicked off the series. This month sees the convergence of a president, Theodore Roosevelt, and one of the national monuments with which he is most strongly associated—Mount Rushmore. On October 31, 1941, the […]
Archiving Obsolete Bank Notes in Baltimore
My latest adventure in numismatics landed me in Baltimore, Maryland, week before last to visit the headquarters of Coast to Coast Coins. There I met with Ken Pines, who generously agreed to allow me to come and scan his collection of Maryland obsolete paper money for inclusion in the next Whitman Encyclopedia of Obsolete Paper […]
Bob McCabe’s Book on Counterfeiting To Be Released This Holiday Season
This winter, the long-anticipated story of paper-money counterfeiting by historian Bob McCabe will make its debut. Counterfeiting and Technology: A History of the Long Struggle Between Paper-Money Counterfeiters and Security Printing is an adventurous monument to the history of paper money and, most importantly, to the technology that created it. At the ANA’s World’s Fair […]
Another Threat to the Future of “Paper Money”?
Paper money today is changing—and it’s changing fast. Close to home, recent developments have included the announcement of redesigns for the U.S. Federal Reserve Notes of the $5, $10, and $20 denominations to include women on our money for the first time in more than 100 years. Further abroad, some countries are attempting to do […]
Counterfeiting is Alive and Well
Although the average American may not think about it on a daily basis, it would come as no surprise to most that counterfeiting U.S. currency is an industry that is alive and well today. There is a reason the $10 bill is up for a redesign; it’s a security measure to try and keep ahead of […]
Putting a Face to a Name
There are many faces in numismatics—faces on coins, bills—famous faces that we all recognize or at least find familiar. Many times we can put names with them. George Washington is perhaps the easiest, Abraham Lincoln follows close behind, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson swoop in for their share. They all appear on our daily currency, […]
Boardwalk For $5,000—Cashless: Monopoly Enters a New Era
This week, one of the best-selling board games of all time made headline news when it was announced that a new version of Monopoly will no longer use cash as a part of its play. Following last year’s reports on Sweden’s cash-free direction and the general movement towards digital banking across the board, perhaps it should not be so […]
Bob McCabe Readies New Book on Bank Note Counterfeiting and Technology
Counterfeiting and Technology: A History of the Long Struggle Between Paper-Money Counterfeiters and Security Printing will be published by Whitman in the summer of 2016. Since mid-2015 I have had the pleasure of working on a very special project, and now its release is just around the corner. Counterfeiting and Technology by author Bob McCabe […]
Currency With A Little Holiday Cheer
With Christmas only a few weeks away, retail stores are already filling with red-and-green–themed candies, wrapping paper, ornaments, and special gifts for eager shoppers. Classic songs liked “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Silver Bells” will be piped through Muzak and home radios. My mom will already be tearing up to the song “The Christmas Shoes,” […]
The BEP Reveals New Intaglio Print
In a celebration of democracy, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is releasing a new intaglio print recognizing allegorical female figures. The women featured will be those considered to “represent a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” In light of the $10 bill redesign going on this year, which will […]
