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My Friends Wonder When They Learn about the Existence of Such an Ancient Profession
Application of laser microperforation makes counterfeiting rubles unprofitable business
The date when the redesigned $ 50 dollar notes will be issued has been announced.
The new bills will be issued on September 28th.
The new notes will change from copper to green when they are tilted.
We"d like to remind you that the new color of money appeared in October 2003 with the peach colour featured on the $ 20 notes.
Thomas Hipschen, U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing Engraver, who took an active part in redesign of the bills answered the Watermark questions on the eve of the official launch of the $50.
— How many people are involved in engraving the printing plates for the new currency designs? Do the same people engrave all the denominations ($20, $50 and $100-dollar notes), or do they specialize in one denomination?
— The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) has a total of 12 portrait and letter engravers. The plates that actually print the money are multiple reproductions of a single engraved master die, and each master die is usually assembled from a number of different original engravings. The work of as many as five or six different engravers may appear on each master die.
Each note has two different engraved original master dies, one for each side. Engravers in the BEP are divided by specialty. Some only engrave the pictorial aspects; some specialize in letter and script work, while others do sculptural work. The same people work on elements for both sides of all of the denominations.
Also, an engraving is forever. Once a new original engraving is made, it can be used over and over again, or altered for re-use. The Bureau of Engraving has a stock of almost all of the engravings made over the past 150 years still available for use, and many new designs are created using these existing engravings as elements. Thus an engraver"s work may appear on new products long after he/she is gone.
— How are the printing plates for U.S. currency currently made — completely by hand or with the help of machines? Has the technique of engraving a printing plate changed over time?
— Techniques for creating original master dies for banknotes have changed a great deal during my tenure, and continue to do so rapidly. Everything used to be engraved in steel by hand, with additions added directly by hand operated and mechanical devices, like pantographs and lathes and lever presses. Now, we employ a combination of methods, both old and new, and are experimenting with a number of different technologies.
— What is the procedure for engraving a printing plate? What materials and tools are used to make a printing plate?
— The first step in making a banknote is to create and refine the individual features comprising the design, usually but not always as separate pieces. Currently, the portrait on the obverse of the note and the central vignette on the reverse are still always engraved by hand, or transferred into the note from an original engraving. The original engravings were always cut and assembled into steel in the past, but now we also work in copper to facilitate etching processes. Other elements are either scanned from original engravings or created with computer design systems, and then digitally assembled and chemically etched into the copper master dies. Then an engraver will carefully touch— up the assembled die with hand tools to finish it. A combination of plastic molding and electroplating processes can be employed to copy and enhance existing engravings, while also creating the large multiple image printing plates.
— What kind of quality control is there?
— Creating a new a banknote is subject to minute inspection at every level of production. Each engraver is highly trained and responsible for his/her own portion of any project. Test prints are made often as the engraving progresses, and a technical staff oversees the development of each project.
— Are the printing plates for the new currency designs more complex or simpler than the ones for the older-design notes?
— The engravings for the new currency designs have lost a great deal of the artistic complexity exhibited in the older notes. The absence of ornamentation is quite apparent, but was necessitated in order to free up space for the colored additions printed by lithography. On the other hand, the addition of the colored backgrounds and color-shifting inks has imposed new technical requirements for registration tolerances, depths of lines for optimum printability, and the like. The focus of the work has become less artistic and more technical over time. Engraving the larger portraits is more demanding.
— What is the most difficult part of the job?
— My task as an engraver is to create a technically sophisticated, artistically pleasing printing matrix of such complexity that it cannot be counterfeited. At the same time, I must insure that it can be faithfully reproduced in multiples to create the actual printing plates that we put on the presses. Furthermore, I must insure that billions of banknotes can be uniformly printed from it. These concepts seem quite opposed to each other, but are both essential parts of the job.
— How long does it take to make one denomination?
— In a bureaucracy as large as ours, it can take many months or even years just to get a design for a banknote approved! Each engraving of a large portrait for the face of a note or vignette of a building for the back of a note takes anywhere from 300 to 500 hours. Creating a complete original master engraving for both sides of the banknote may only take six months, but many more months are spent on such things as printing trials, testing of individual security features and machine handling characteristics and crumple tests (wear and tear simulations). We"ve been averaging about a year and a half of production time for each denomination.
— U.S. notes are not modified frequently. What does an engraver do in the periods between modifications?
— I have engraved by hand the pictorial aspects of over 130 postage and revenue stamps. In the past, my work has appeared on military payment certificates, food coupons, gas rationing coupons, ID Badges, Visas, treasury bonds, many souvenir cards, presidential documents, and even White House stationery. I have engraved portraits of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush, as well as many other government officials.
We create many engravings for testing materials and procedures to keep abreast of new technologies in the industry. I have been sent to security printing facilities in Europe, Scandinavia, and Australia to study and evaluate new tools, materials and production procedures. For the past couple of years I have been investigating digital engraving alternatives for possible future applications. I"m actually kept pretty busy in between currency modifications.
— How did you become an engraver? (How did you start? How did you get into the production of banknotes?)
— The Bureau of Engraving and Printing began a number of craft training programs in1968, the year that I graduated from High School. At the age of 17, I applied for an engraving position, and was accepted on the basis of a portfolio of drawings and personal interviews with both the BEP management and the Engraver"s Guild of Washington. I began a 7-year formal apprenticeship as a letter and script engraver under Howard Sharpless, then president of the guild, and after one year I switched to a 10-year picture engraving apprenticeship under master engraver Joseph S. Creamer, Jr.
I began by drawing letters and numerals backwards, polishing metal dies, and operating machines to reduce images or rule straight lines and circles. I then moved on to etching and engraving pictures by hand, starting with simple ornaments and gradually working up to images of more complexity. I began engraving postage stamps in 1972. I became a journeyman engraver in 1977, graduating from the training program a little early. In 1978, I was contacted by the Bank of Canada and invited to work with them on a currency re-design program. I engraved a portrait of Sir John A. MacDonald that appeared on the face of a Canadian $10 note, issued in 1989, and the Portrait of Mackenzie King that appears on the face of the $50 note issued in 1988, and still in circulation today. These were the first of my engravings to appear on banknotes.
— Were you involved in the previous note upgrade? The production of any other currency?
— I engraved seven out of the ten portraits and vignettes that appear on the U.S. 1996 Federal Reserve Notes— both the faces and the backs of the $100, $50, and $20 denominations, and the back of the $5 denomination. I modified the same portraits and vignettes for use on the new $20 and $50 notes.
— What do your friends and relatives think about your job?
— Most find it unusual that such an archaic profession still exists in the world today. Some people are impressed. I"ve had people ask for my autograph!
— Do you have any special feelings when you hold notes, in whose production you were directly involved?
— Of course I"m very proud to have what I think of as my artwork in this huge circulation, papering the world for all to see, but when I hold one of my notes in my own hand, I view it with a critical eye. I judge the print quality, how the image is holding up, how the vertical fold that somehow always appears in the middle of the note affects the portrait, and lots of little things like that. I"m always trying to think of ways to make it better next time. I actually get more joy out of seeing someone else employing the images I"ve engraved in some other interesting way, in artworks or advertising or posters, or on products, and I"m amazed at how often I see that.
— Are you subject to any restrictions because of job-related security requirements? Is it difficult for you?
— I guess I"m restricted to working in Washington, D.C., the only place my particular job exists. Other than that I have to follow the regular administrative security protocol such as taking permission to engage in any employment outside of the BEP or to talk to outside groups such as media, a school or stamp club. Overall, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a high security facility and any such environment requires strict security practices.
— There were no drastic changes in the dollar"s appearance. Have you ever wanted to introduce something entirely new? For instance, a banknote featuring the portrait of a different president?
— I would personally like to see people other than presidents or politicians on American currency. America has its share of scientists, Nobel prizewinners, and giants of literature, great musicians and artists. American money is one of the great world currencies, and it would be wonderful if it could reflect our incredibly rich and diverse treasure of people who have made fantastic contributions to the world at large.
— Do you personally like the colorful, redesigned notes? What about your friends?
— I do prefer the new $20 and $50 notes to those in the 1996 series, not just because of the addition of colors. I was never fond of the fat gray ovals hemming in the portraits on those notes. My friends have expressed almost unanimous approval for the new colored money.
— Would you be able to recognize a counterfeit note if you saw one? How?
— I occasionally get to see counterfeit banknotes that are seized by our Secret Service, and they vary greatly in quality. Most of them are easily discerned from real banknotes, just by looking closely.
Authentic U.S. banknotes employ three different methods of printing: engraving, lithography, and letterpress. They have threads with printing, color shifting inks, and watermarks. Only one of these processes, sometimes two, are usually used to produce counterfeits, and often they are simply computer printed or made on an office copier. The portraits lose a great deal of the delicacy, the micro printing is blurry or missing, and the color shifting ink, if it"s there at all, is the wrong color, doesn"t shift, or is simply a shiny spot.
Occasionally, I have been shown a few very good counterfeit notes, but it would be extremely rare for anyone not in a cash handling position to ever get one, and they are usually only identified when they enter the banking systems.
This is why, the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing has undertaken a worldwide public education program aimed at building public awareness and education on the new note designs being issued by the U.S. government. The redesigned notes will be safer, smarter and more secure: safer because they"re harder to fake and easier to check; smarter to stay ahead of tech-savvy counterfeiters; more secure to protect the integrity of U.S. currency.
Because of the critical role that international banks, currency handlers, financial and other institutions play in recognizing counterfeit notes, it is important that they are fully educated and made aware of the new currency and its features.
The editors thank the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the U.S. Department of the Treasury for helping prepare this interview.
