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Article: Security by design.(Report from Europe)(Brief article)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- June 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It is said that money makes the world go around. Coins have been in use since ancient times, and the practice of clipping the precious metal from them arrived at approximately the same time. When banknotes were introduced in the West in the late seventeenth century, they were handwritten. Initially there was no uniformity of format or denomination, and, according to Andrew Bailey, the chief cashier of the Bank of England, "People, familiar with using coin, needed to be persuaded that a simple piece of paper had any value at all." That soon changed, however, and banknotes quickly became the target of fraud and forgery.
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