How the U.S. Could Pressure North Korea Tomorrow: Quit the $100 Bill

U.S. negotiators are heading into a second day of what have been dubbed "serious and substantial" talks with North Korean officials. Yet amidst all the discussion of how the U.S. will attempt to work with Kim Jon-un, there has been little (open) speculation as to whether Dear Leader Junior might crank up production of $100 and $50 bills. No, not North Korean 100- or 50-won banknotes, worth about as much as old tissues. I'm talking about fake greenbacks -- or, as the U.S. Secret Service has dubbed them, "superdollars." These ultra-counterfeits are light years beyond the weak facsimiles produced by most forgers, who use desktop printers. As an anti-counterfeiting investigator with Europol once put it: "Superdollars are just U.S. dollars not made by the U.S. government." With few exceptions, only Federal Reserve banks equipped with the fanciest detection gear can identify these fakes. Yet as unpatriotic as this may sound, perhaps America would be better off if Kim Jong-un were to try and enrich himself with D-I-Y Benjamins. Let me explain, by way of a little background about superdollars.(MORE: Can a Second Bailout Save Greece?) The "super" moniker does not stem from any particular talent on the part of the North Koreans. It's a matter of equipment. The regime apparently possesses the same kind of intaglio printing press (or presses) used by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. A leading theory is that in 1989, just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the machines made their way to North Korea from a clandestine facility in East Germany, where they were used to make fake passports and other secret documents. The high-tech paper is just about the same as what's used to make authentic dollars, and the North Koreans buy their ink from the same Swiss firm that supplies the US government with ink for greenbacks.

source news.yahoo.com...

this was news to me i had no idea they were printing us currency let alone the swiss selling them the ink
but it does bring up an interesting point in the time article what if we just stopped using the bills we know they can counterfit and hope that we can keep the new plates we mint or what not secure from falling into the wrong hands or add other security measures to prevent counterfeiting.

had any one else heard of this before or is this old news and are their any other potental unforseen consequences from trying to just phase out the hundreds?

more links en.wikipedia.org...
www.dias-online.org... guess we have known about it since 2006 but who knows how much high quality fake bills could already be out in the world

A fiss full of dorras

I wonder if this fate is waiting for them...............(WARNING VEWRY VEWRY VEWRY BAD LANGUAGE!)

i just think its mildly ridiculous that they print our money beg for our money and make threats then blow it on whiskey and military hardware while their entire civilian populace lives in squalor and we still end up giving them money and aid

not to mention the involvement of the swiss

Originally posted by KilrathiLG
i just think its mildly ridiculous that they print our money beg for our money and make threats then blow it on whiskey and military hardware while their entire civilian populace lives in squalor and we still end up giving them money and aid

Well, the West puts sanctions on them, gives them loans masked as "aid" and cuts them off from dealing with anyone else. So...

...what did you expect.



I like how cunning the dominant countries in the world are, especially at pulling the wool over everyone's eyes...

Start here.

reply to post by boncho


they could always come out of their oppresive regime and then perhaps the need for sanctions would dissapear and regardless of sanctions they still take what we give them to feed their military so i say until they actually care about the people they govern cut them off and make it as hard for them to screw us over

Originally posted by KilrathiLG
reply to post by boncho

 

they could always come out of their oppresive regime and then perhaps the need for sanctions would dissapear and regardless of sanctions they still take what we give them to feed their military so i say until they actually care about the people they govern cut them off and make it as hard for them to screw us over

Well... You aren't actually saying the sanctions are because they have an oppressive regime are you? Because the US supports a number of oppressive regimes. So.... That simply isn't true.

What they could do is cut ties with all the US enemies they are friends with, but because those countries are some of the few that are willing to even speak to them, I highly doubt they want to do that anytime soon. Their proximity to China and other countries too is not helping their options.