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Researchers decipher the secrets of Benjamin Franklin's paper money
Notre Dame News ^ | July 17, 2023 | Brett Beasley

Posted on 07/23/2023 7:42:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies...

However, one major problem stood in the way of efforts to print paper money: counterfeiting. When Franklin opened his printing house in 1728, paper money was a relatively new concept. Unlike gold and silver, paper money's lack of intrinsic value meant it was constantly at risk of depreciating. There were no standardized bills in the Colonial period, leaving an opportunity for counterfeiters to pass off fake bills as real ones. In response, Franklin worked to embed a suite of security features that made his bills distinctive...

One of the most distinctive features they found was in Franklin's pigments. Manukyan and his team determined the chemical elements used for each item in Notre Dame's collection of Colonial notes. The counterfeits, they found, have distinctive high quantities of calcium and phosphorus, but these elements are found only in traces in the genuine bills.

Their analyses revealed that although Franklin used (and sold) "lamp black," a pigment created by burning vegetable oils, for most printing, Franklin's printed currency used a special black dye made from graphite found in rock. This pigment is also different from the "bone black" made from burned bone, which was favored both by counterfeiters and by those outside Franklin's network of printing houses.

Another of Franklin's innovations was in the paper itself. The invention of including tiny fibers in paper pulp — visible as pigmented squiggles within paper money — has often been credited to paper manufacturer Zenas Marshall Crane, who introduced this practice in 1844. But Manukyan and his team found evidence that Franklin was including colored silks in his paper much earlier.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.nd.edu ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: benjaminfranklin; coins; colonies; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; money
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To: Leep
The DS was way ahead of you. The DS set out to destroy Ben’s brother James for publishing the anti-establishment New England Courant.” They shut him down. The newspaper published critical commentary about smallpox inoculation which fueled the controversy during the smallpox epidemic in Boston. Ultimately it was suppressed in 1726 by British colonial authorities for printing what they considered seditious articles.

So there you have it…the DS never changes throughout history.

41 posted on 07/23/2023 10:14:38 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (We are proles, they are nobility.)
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To: Amendment10

“No State shall…pass any…Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts”

But the feds CAN pass a law impairing student loan contract obligations?


42 posted on 07/23/2023 10:26:47 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (We are proles, they are nobility.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom; SunkenCiv
Franklin was super smart. Now I know something else that sets him above so many.

I always like to point out that Franklin said, "Fart proudly, for you are an American".

43 posted on 07/23/2023 10:56:37 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: SunkenCiv

I wonder if Manukyan is from manayunk?


44 posted on 07/23/2023 11:48:32 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: SunkenCiv

Yes and they did open that money up. It was worth a small fortune. Imlived about a block from his grave for 2 years. You can look down his toilet off market street.


45 posted on 07/23/2023 11:52:19 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: SunkenCiv

All about da benjamins...


46 posted on 07/23/2023 4:31:25 PM PDT by Adder (ALL Democrats are the enemy. NO QUARTER!!)
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To: Adder

Yeah, another version of it actually used that for the headline.


47 posted on 07/23/2023 4:58:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom; Lazamataz
Wow, amazing info about Franklin.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ben Franklin was a precursor to Free Republic's Laz A. Mataz.

While a US envoy in Paris, Franklin "hit it" on so many high society peticotes that he is rumored to have descendents there.

And like Laz, Franklin flew kites in thunder storms.

48 posted on 07/24/2023 5:57:41 AM PDT by Candor7 (( Ask not for whom THE Trump trolls...He trolls for thee!)<img src=""width=500></img>)
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To: SunkenCiv

“A Counterfeiting Conspiracy?”

https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/a-counterfeiting-conspiracy/


49 posted on 07/24/2023 3:23:38 PM PDT by Pelham (President Eisenhower. Operation Wetback 1953-54)
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To: Pelham

The CSA should have hired him to print their currency for them, no one would have had to know.


50 posted on 07/24/2023 5:19:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I once ran across an article saying that the US Treasury was involved in counterfeiting Confederate currency. I couldn’t find it this time but this other article was equally interesting.

The Secret Service was created by Lincoln and its sole job was combatting counterfeit currency. Ironic. In the 1860s and up until 1913 banks printed their own currency, and the multiplicity of currencies created a rich environment for counterfeiting. Estimates of the amount of fake bills at the time are amazing. Something like 30-50% IIRC.


51 posted on 07/24/2023 6:23:32 PM PDT by Pelham (President Eisenhower. Operation Wetback 1953-54)
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