Photoshop CS Adds Banknote Image Detection, Blocking? 1059
Phosphor writes "A visitor to the Adobe Photoshop-for-Windows Forum (registration required to post, can log in as guest) has described a curious 'feature' with Photoshop 8 (also known as 'CS'). Seems this latest version of Adobe's flagship product has the built-in ability to detect that an image is of American currency. Something has been built into Photoshop's core coding that can detect something in images of currency and will prevent the user from opening the file. Apparently it will also do this with Euro notes; info on other currency is pending." According to other online reports, the latest version of Paint Shop Pro has similar restrictions, also known about since late last year.
What's next? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What's next? (Score:5, Funny)
On the other hand, Fark might improve!
Re:What's next? (Score:4, Insightful)
EXCELLENT!
Getting laid off? Shut down all the copiers in the office with that $20 bill in your pocket.
Have a lifelong dream of a Kinkos DoS attack? Good news!
Re:What's next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's next? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you can detect faces in images by computing a database of eigenfaces, and computing an image's representation as a vector in the resulting so-called "face space", then I see no reason one cannot do this with eigendollars as well.
Mechanik
How it works (Score:5, Interesting)
---
Markus G. Kuhn - 03:45am Jan 8, 2004 Pacific(#106 of 110)
How it works:
For those of you curious about how this algorithm detects a banknote, here is a slide of a short talk that I gave to our local research group soon after I discovered the "EURion Constellation" two years ago while experimenting with a new Xerox color photocopier and a 10 euro note:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf [cam.ac.uk]
The algorithm looks in the blue channel of a color image for little circles and most likely examines the distance distribution encountered. I have discovered a small constellation of just five circles (a bit like Orion with the belt starts merged) that will be rejected by a Xerox color photocopier installed next door from here as a banknote. Black on white circles do not work.
These little yellow, green or orange 1 mm large circles have been on European banknotes for many years. I found them on German marks, British pounds and the euro notes. In the US, they showed up only very recently on the new 20$ bill. On some notes like the euro, the circles are blatantly obvious, whereas on others the artists carefully integrated them into their design. On the 20 pound note, they appear as "notes" in an unlikely short music score, in the old German 50 mark note, they are neatly embedded into the background pattern, and in the new 20 dollar bill, they are used as the 0 of all the yellow 20 number printed across the note. The constellation are probably detected by the fact that the squares of the distances of the circles are integer multiples of the smallest one.
I have later been told that this scheme was invented by Omron and that the circle patter also encodes the issuing bank.
Re:What's next? (Score:4, Interesting)
Somehow I can't help but think this is a government mandated "feature" spurred by the 9/11 Bush bills I've seen posted around towns.
Money-making application! (Score:5, Funny)
What if a porn actor/actress were to get a tattoo that contained the currency watermark -- that little 5 dot pattern? Hmm.. that would be dumb.
No... here's something dumb/ingenious: I've heard that some places are passing laws that require digital cameras to make a loud noise when taking a picture. This is in order to discourage sneaky perverts from taking a picture of you and then going home and jerking off to it, I guess. What about that guy at the bottom of the escalator, talking on his cellphone? Is he actually taking upskirt photos and then putting them on his website? People are apparently concerned about this enough that they are pressuring governments to do something about it, hence the "cameras must make a noise" legislation.
But someone might be peeking up your skirt with a "legacy camera" that doesn't make noise, and you would never know.
What is a modest girl to do? Wear currency watermark panties! Delightful little panties, covered with the five-dot "constellation" pattern. It seems only proper. Why, the only girls who don't wear our brand of panties, must be naughty exhibitionist immoral girls.
Do you want your daughter to wear plain white panties? I don't think so. Fortunately, I'm here to help you.
I'll make millions.
Just as Photoshop has this capability (Score:5, Funny)
I do this not for any personal gain, but only as a public service.
What a Shame (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What a Shame (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What a Shame (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What a Shame (Score:4, Funny)
Which ones? (Score:5, Interesting)
That'll stop those counterfeiters... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That'll stop those counterfeiters... (Score:4, Interesting)
What does that mean in a digital-image context, in which image sizes are determined by resolution, anyway? How many pixels are there across a US dollar?
This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:5, Insightful)
When I wanted to copy currency was when I was contructing a three dollar bill, and I was going to use other currency as a template.
One legit application I can think of for scanning currency would be for collectors who wish to archive their collection. At one point I had a 1986 Canadian $2.00 bill... near as I can tell they switched to a two and one dollar coin a long time ago. While you might consider this nutty... imagine stamp collectors. Legit enough hobby.
I wanted to show it to someone, who was a canadian, and did a scan, making sure I put on it in bold friendly letters "copy copy copy copy".
That reminds me, I do have some out of print currency I should take the time to scan. Unique images should be saved.
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:5, Insightful)
Security invasion? Privacy invasion? Where? This is not a case of Photoshop sending a report of your attempt to make a copy of currency, it's simply a step that Adobe is taking to try and help be one of the "good guys". I fail to see how you can claim that counterfeit efforts using cheap (comparitively), easily obtainable hardware and software is not a problem...especially when several news items have stated that this *is* in fact a rising problem. Literally less than a week ago I watched a story on the local news about convenience store owners being passed fake 20's that were only spotted when doing the daily books or readying the deposits. In a busy environment, the money duplication doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to pass a quick glance and feel like 1 of the 1000 some odd variations in currency texture from wear and tear (circulation). It clearly is a problem, and even if not epidemic, it is still a real and valid concern.
Yes, you can use GIMP or other programs to avoid this, yes there are far more sophisticated methods to making fake currency. Adobe has decided to take some form of action to do their part to not be a tool used for this.
Invasion of security and privacy? Again...where? Do you understand the meaning of these words?
I respect the decision made by Adobe, and refer to my original point...at this time, being that this only affects trying to copy currency, I see no legitimate complaint or impairment of functionality, or "invasion" of any kind.
Besides, on another level, if Adobe continues directing all of their attention towards preventing currency fraud, it means less effort on troublesome protection efforts that keep me from pirating their software.
oops...did I just type that?
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a tool that doesn't work right and that has arbitrary restrictions built into it that are not disclosed. What's next - looking for a little RIAA watermark in an image and refusing to work on those?
There's a typical argument trotted out of "there's no legitimate reason to do X therefore you shouldn't complain if you are prevented from doing X". Typically it just shows a lack of imagination for the person making the argument. There are many good reasons why I might want to work with an image of currency. My child might be writing a report for school about money. I might like to have pictures of money on my desktop. When my wife gave birth here in Japan we had to pay the hospital bill in cash. I have a picture of hundreds of 10,000 yen bills since I'll probably never have that much in cash in hand again. What's wrong with me taking that picture and using it?
We're starting to see more and more software that won't allow you to do "X" because someone thinks it's naughty. We stand at the beginning of a new age as products become "smarter". The political thinking and attitudes that we develop now about products that are "good guys" preventing us from committing crimes will be with us for some time. Would you like automobiles that do not allow you to speed? How about a hammer that refuses to break windows?
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it does prevent many of them. Since you can't scan the bill, how do you ever get it to the point where you can change it to comply with the law?
Your other point, about not buying the product, is valid. However, if the information is not disclosed to you how can you make an informed decision?
You talk about a "group of people" telling a manufacturer that they cannot produce and sell a particular product. This is called advocacy. How does a manufacturer learn that it's products are not well received if no one is ever supposed to say anything? How will the market ever learn enough to avoid products that do bad things if no one brings the subject up? We have the right to say "this is bunk!" You have the right to ignore it and buy Photoshop if you like.
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:4, Insightful)
Every run-of-the-mill grocery store I've been to recently has checked my 20 or 50 euro bills with a blacklight. The blacklight lamp has been placed so that when the clerk takes your bill he'd have to make an effort not to move it under the light.
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:4, Insightful)
People who handle hundreds or thousands of bills a day are exactly the ones who will instantly notice small variations without even consciously checking. Even if your print looks "good enough", it almost certainly won't *feel* right.
Changing the currency probably only worsens the problem. If people get used to the idea that money changes all the time, they'll be willing to take any random thing you offer them. We've already got three versions of the same denomination in circulation right now; they'd better not change it again for at least a few decades.
Re:This isn't exactly new tech... (Score:5, Informative)
Will localized versions "detect" local currency? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't want to feel left out, what if I wanted to use photoshop to make some fake Canadian money?
Re:Will localized versions "detect" local currency (Score:5, Informative)
Wow! They must be doing these does-this-look-like-money checks on every operation on the image that involves getting image data from outside the application! Crazy.
Re:Will localized versions "detect" local currency (Score:5, Informative)
I had a bit of a play with your jpg (thanks BTW). It seems that its looking for certain features - if you open it in paint and then cut and paste there is a limit on the size of the "chunks" you can paste in. Especially from the face or the shield. However by taking small enough bits (9 or 10) you can cut and paste the whole image in.
inverting and rotating (as far as paints minimal abilites go) have no effect.
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
this has been pulled of with high-quality scanners and printers in the past - just copy the note on fairly thick printer paper, then distress it a bit to give it the texture of a used bill. Hence the reason why this is being built into better scanners and laser printers nowadays. Consumer inkjet printers are also good enough to do this, but don't have the electronics to do any decent detection. This is probably the reason it's being built into Photoshop now.
This is not enough (Score:4, Interesting)
I think the hardware I describe does exist, somewhere... perhaps someone can enlighten us about those.
Oh yeah, I do wonder what might happen if somehow this 'feature' may prevent opening of normal, user files (although unlikely).
Hmm... how about any possible DMCA issues surrounding all this?
GIMP = Counterfeit tool? (Score:5, Funny)
It does nothing about Monopoly money, though. (Score:5, Funny)
pshaw. (Score:5, Funny)
Recipes for counterfeiting (Score:4, Funny)
In other news: counterfeiters worldwide embrasse free software, the Gimp to receive funding from certain american-italian associations
WTF? When was that released? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WTF? When was that released? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, sure... (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of a joke... A counterfeiter accidentally prints up a batch of $18 bills. He figures, what the heck, and heads off into the mountains to find some hillbillies, figuring they don't know anything about money anyway. He runs across a couple of them sitting on a porch, rolls down his window, and shouts, "Any of you got change for an $18 bill?"
One of them shouts back, "Sure do! You want 3 sixes or 6 threes?"
Re:Well, sure... (Score:5, Funny)
One of them shouts back, "Sure do! You want 3 sixes or 6 threes?"
This story is obviously an urban legend : what self-respecting mountain hillbilly would have known 3x6=18?
Interesting news but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Time and time again it is generally not the ink but the paper that most needs duplication when attempting counterfeit. I see this as a silly waste of resources. Generally speaking, if I or just about anyone I know were inclined to do anything with the image of currency, it'd probably be to deface it in some way... or maybe put my face in there... who knows what cheesy thing that has been done a hundred times before.
The point is, even though there's not likely to be a huge public outcry about this, this does offer a pretty interesting blow to free expression. Who influenced the action?
Attention counterfeiters! (Score:5, Funny)
So how will they design new currency? (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope Adobe has a special version for the Treasury Department that doesn't have this restriction!
Re:So how will they design new currency? (Score:4, Funny)
WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
Point is I have seen and still see plenty of ads in wich bank notes are displayed. So how are you now supposed to make that art?
If this is true and I smell april fool then I think this is a sign of insanity. Criminals won't be stopped by this.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Funny)
But the question is "what's the incentive?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless the application developer actualy increases sales of their product through this feature then why bother?
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut (where's my tinfoil hat anyway?), if this is of benefit only to the reserve bank then how was Adobe/Jasc/Xerox/etc convinced to implement this?
The only real problem is PERFORMANCE. (Score:5, Interesting)
Panties-in-a-bunch (Score:5, Funny)
All I can say is my panties are definately in a bunch over this!! I have some pretty ugly relatives. What if Photoshop gives me error messages regarding the following: "Your family is so unattractive that we are redirecting you to the web where you can pick out better-looking people to populate your Adobe Family Photo Album.
It could happen.
Re:Panties-in-a-bunch (Score:4, Interesting)
Activation. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Activation. (Score:5, Interesting)
From Adobe:
What ELSE does PS CS can for? (Score:5, Insightful)
What if you have pictures of chemical elements needed to make biological weapons on your computer? Does PS CS know you're a chemistry student?
Go ahead, make tinfoil hat jokes all you like, but do you know it's only limited to banknotes?
Why would counterfeiters edit the image? (Score:4, Insightful)
The only reason I've ever edited images of currency was to produce joke bills with somebody elses face on them, or 1,000,000 notes.
Ran into similar problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ran into similar problem (Score:4, Informative)
MT.
Two obvious projects (Score:5, Interesting)
The second, and far more interesting project is to the reverse engineer the check itself. It would be facinating to see the US government's own algorithm for flagging/detecting US currency. It would then be almost trivial to embed a false "US currency" flag in almost any image. You could post your entire porn collection on the web with an invisible bogus "US currency" watermark
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Secrecy is the point here. (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.treas.gov/usss/money_illustrations.shtm (Score:4, Informative)
Activation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why wouldn't it be possible for Adobe Photoshop CS (or any other commercial, proprietary, non-Open Source) application to just report it automatically, online, via a couple of small UDP/TCP packets to the proper authorities? Not only will they get your machine name, serial number of the software, IP address, provider, etc. but we're all connected anyway, you probably wouldn't even see the packets go across.
Just something to think about.
Forum slashdotted, original post (Score:4, Interesting)
Brian NoSpam - 10:02am Jan 7, 2004 Pacific
We received a TIFF image from a customer, of a $20 bill. The image does
*not* violate any laws regarding reproduction of currency (it's not even
close to actual-size, and it's not a "flat" portrayal - it's wavy, as if
it's fluttering in the wind. Nor is it real-color.
However, Photoshop CS refuses to open the image, and provides an error
message regarding the (il)legality of currency reproduction and an
"information" button that takes you to the web. (Photoshop 7, of course,
has no such qualms).
What the hell is this? In my book this is completely unacceptable -
Photoshop is an image editor, not a censor, government policy enforcer
or anything else.
Adobe, you've got some explaining to do.
Brian
FWIW, one legitimate use (Score:4, Interesting)
But we still have to start from the base root-of-all-evil image. And using portions of the bills means scanning them in at higher resolution as the fragments are used larger than normal. I just tried pasting the image somebody posted into a new copy of Mac version of Photoshop CS (this jpeg has "specimen" written on it twice). PS CS pops up dialog: "This application does not support the unauthorized processing of banknote images."
Can we still copy little fragments? How about taking high-res photos and pasting in? Our department haw always used common sense regarding fair use and never had a problem; we do high-volume output, and don't have time to screw around with this stuff. Thanks for making our life harder, Adobe! You just lost one upgrade sale, because I will make sure we keep a copy of PS 7 specifically to circumvent this hassle.
A market to serve (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A market to serve (Score:4, Funny)
--
Benjamin Coates
back up currency (Score:4, Funny)
Ultimately becomes a pain for the end user (Score:5, Insightful)
Turns out that Illustrator doesn't want people to use unauthorized fonts. So, I copy the latex fonts to distiller directory and try to view the equations -- they are messed up, because latex shifts the fonts a bit (characters in the fonts) to accomodate other viewers, and that shifted font table is inside the eps. So, I get strange characters in the equations *after taking care of putting in the fonts at the right place*.
I believe in this case, the rule was, "thou shall not pirate fonts." Doesn't matter if the fonts are
20 yr old fonts in public domain.
Over simplified rules "thou shall not photocopy money" are similar in spirit to the Talebanesque rules like "thou shall not look at another woman's face". Duh, I may be the only doc around and if the woman has a tumor on her face (or other, more private parts), I should be able to see it to cure it.
S
The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
It continues with pr0n.
But where will it end?
Who has the right to decide what kind of image I view/edit? A law, praps a judge. Certainly not a sw-producer!
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:4, Informative)
Plus the problem seems to only crop up when you go to print, so Photoshop isn't imposing any restrictions greater than the law does. You can still view and edit to your hearts content on the computer.
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
That would be the plan, yes. Or use something free. *cough* GIMP *cough*
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
I use gimp often when I don't want to wait/reboot for photoshop but every single time I do I find myself swearing and cursing at that clueless UI.
It feels as if their primary goal was to spread every bit of useful functionality over at least three different popup-dialogs each of which must be manually found and opened by the luser.
And I don't know of any project that'd be working to improve the situation.
I mean, someone repl^H^H^H^Hadd a GUI to it and it will be SO useful!
But no, everybody's too busy adding software alpha blending to kde (hell yea we needed that!) or building yet another browser.
Hm. I wonder how constant flaming affects my karma.
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone really buy photoshop anyway?
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Funny)
And next, the feature we're all waiting for: word processor detecting suspicious language and disabling printing of non-approved words. For good measure it will also insert some doubleplusgood slogans here and there.
You should change the name of your country to "United States of Authoritarianism" and be done with pretense of freedoms. It'll be cheaper theis way.
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
Completely wrong in this software market. If you're a graphic designer, you use Photoshop. If the government chooses to legislate something, there are checks and balances and the ability of the people to fight it. If a company changes a product that you have to use, too fucking bad.
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think GIMP has this kind of limitiation.
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:4, Funny)
Ha, someone must have read your comment and said, "Hey, we need to release a new version for Negatyfus."
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:4, Insightful)
What I was trying to get across is that many things that are possible in OSS can be (and are) used for less than legal purposes. Even though there are legitimate reasons to have that functionality, clueless lawmakers can use this as a wedge to legislate laws that make OSS difficult or impossible.
My point wasn't that The GIMP should add this "feature", but that it is a BAD THING that the commercial applications are, because it makes it look (to many people) like OSS is a 'hacker' tool and not something that "good, law abiding citizens" should be involved with.
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Funny)
"Error: Processing images of the goatse man is illegal under the Large Anal Cavity Act."
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The promlem? Censorship! (Score:4, Funny)
I couldn't find it. I also couldn't find "promlem". Dang defective dictionary....
Re:Uhm.. So? (Score:5, Insightful)
Guess it depends on what you're doing with it. I bet the marketing department of my first real job (a casino) would have problems with it - what else could you show in casino ads? I'd guess that banks, car dealers and especially those check cashing/usury lenders in the hood would like to do the same.
The problems are, the law defines how currency may and may not be reproduced and this goes beyond the law, it's not up to adobe to enforce the law, and since there are plenty of legitimate uses for photoshopping currency it's a crippled version that is apparently not disclosed anywhere external.
Re:Uhm.. So? (Score:5, Informative)
2) If the law says "thou shalt not make a product that can copy money", then Adobe would be exhibiting gross negligence (at the very least) if their product was in fact able to produce lifelike copies of money.
I suspect very, very few people would ever realise that Photoshop was "crippled" in this way.
Re:Uhm.. So? (Score:5, Insightful)
So I whip out my scanner and trusty photo shop, perhaps I can get some nice close-ups of those little protection.
This is rediculous to do. It won't stop the bad guys, they'll just use other software or and older version. However it can be really annoying for a legitimate user. BAAAH
Re:Uhm.. So? (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever try to buy numismatic items online? You really need a pic, both for identification (the note with Timashev's name is worth way more than the one with Shipov's) and for checking quality
Re:Uhm.. So? (Score:4, Funny)
Just imagine how the lives of the rich would be ruined if that were to start happening!
Re:I wonder why they did it. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I wonder why they did it. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's true (Score:5, Interesting)
Copiers have had this feature since 1987 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Copiers have had this feature since 1987 (Score:5, Informative)
The currency detection algorithm will print a black box over anything that it flags, and each time it does, it increments a counter that makes the detection algorithm more sensitive than it was before. Once that counter hits a certain magic number (apparently the actual number is not disclosed to anyone outside the manufacturer), the copier shuts down and a service call is required to re-activate it.
The field tech is is required to ask for a sample of the item that was being copied before entering the reactivation code, and the service provider is then required to file a report with the feds, along with the sample, I'm presuming.
Here's the kicker: very color copier prints a machine-readable watermark on every page it outputs in yellow toner carrying its manufacturer and serial number - you can see it with a loupe if you look hard enough (it looks like a line of morse code).
In our case, the suspect image had no resemblance whatsoever to currency of any form - what set it off was a dark green background color that was used that must have come too close to the green used in US bills. We were able to re-print the job by adjusting the color slightly with no problems once the copier was reset.
Re:Don't copy machine have this feature too? (Score:5, Interesting)
However - even if you managed to somehow work around this, there is still a way (which I will not disclose) to find out on what machine (manufacturer, model, serial number) a color copy was taken. Supposedly another legal requirement.
(And yes, I have seen it and does work...)
Re:Don't copy machine have this feature too? (Score:5, Interesting)
WTF are you on? (Score:5, Insightful)
You might be able to pass off a fake US note easily enough in the right conditions (dim lighting in a busy, smokey bar) but you'd have to find a blind barman to be able to pass off your colour laser copies of a Euro note as the real thing: as far as I'm aware, nobody makes a laser printer that lets you emboss silver foil onto (and into) a piece of paper.
You're whole "unique arches to avoid confusion with holiday snaps" argument is ridiculous too. The reason why the Euro notes have images of various styles of European achitecture thoughout the ages on them (Gothic, etc) is because those styles are generic enough to be found across the continent. If you had specific pieces of achitecture on the notes, say a 10 Euro note with the Eiffel Tower on it and a 20 Euro note with the Leaning Tower of Pisa on it, then you'd find countries getting into pissing contests over whose monuments shoud appear on the highest value notes. You'd also run out of note values before you ran out of countries, and thereby alienate any countries that weren't represented.
Won't work in Poland. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Won't work in Poland. (Score:4, Informative)
First of all, the $1 bill hasn't changed for over fifty years (except for some signatures on the bottom of the bill). It is still pretty much identical to even when it was a Silver Certificate (pre WWII currency) although there were several (subtle) changes made when it became a Federal Reserve Note. Several $1 bank notes issued in the 19th Century by the US Treasury could probabally still be used today because of the similarity of the bill design, and it would be identifiable as a $1 bill.
Almost all of the new redesign efforts have been with the $20, $50, and $100 demoninations. Higher denominations do exist for US currency but are restricted from use by ordinary citizens (by IMHO stupid laws but that is another story). So if this was a genuine forgery it was never with a $1 bill.
In addition, you are suggesting that this bank note was passed outside the USA (hence the involvement of the Polish Police and not the US Secret Service) and it was done just after the release of the new currency when anybody is still trying to recognize the new bills. Keep in mind, if it was a forgery of one of the new notes, it would go through a bunch more review and be checked out more, simply because of the novelty of the note. That is not something a forger would really want to have happen.
Also, when you talk about "US Police Experts" you need to describe which of the 10,000 police agencies in the USA they were from? There are seven (yes, 7) local (not a part of the US federal government) police agencies with seperate budgets, different government bodies that they report to, and independent juristiction authorities that govern what happens when I walk out my front door in a small backwater part of the USA. There may even be more, but I don't know the names of all of them. I do know that the Secret Service (yes, the same agency that also acts as presidential body guards) does have personnel based in American Embassies to help assist governments that the USA has diplomatic relations with to examine US currency and to facilitate currency exchange with those countries. (not directly, but to encourage the exchange and otherwise authenticate US currency outside the US territorial boundaries).
That said, I have seen news reports of someone drawing out on paper with just a ball-point pen a copy of US currency. It was even called "art" and has been appraised to be more valuable than the denomination that was reproduced. Is this what you mean by "hand-made"?
Re:Algorithm for spotting UK/EU currency... (Score:5, Informative)
For those of you curious about how this algorithm detects a banknote, here is a slide of a short talk that I gave to our local research group soon after I discovered the "EURion Constellation" two years ago while experimenting with a new Xerox color photocopier and a 10 euro note:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf
The algorithm looks in the blue channel of a color image for little circles and most likely examines the distance distribution encountered. I have discovered a small constellation of just five circles (a bit like Orion with the belt starts merged) that will be rejected by a Xerox color photocopier installed next door from here as a banknote. Black on white circles do not work.
These little yellow, green or orange 1 mm large circles have been on European banknotes for many years. I found them on German marks, British pounds and the euro notes. In the US, they showed up only very recently on the new 20$ bill. On some notes like the euro, the circles are blatantly obvious, whereas on others the artists carefully integrated them into their design. On the 20 pound note, they appear as "notes" in an unlikely short music score, in the old German 50 mark note, they are neatly embedded into the background pattern, and in the new 20 dollar bill, they are used as the 0 of all the yellow 20 number printed across the note. The constellation are probably detected by the fact that the squares of the distances of the circles are integer multiples of the smallest one.
I have later been told that this scheme was invented by Omron and that the circle patter also encodes the issuing bank.