Security thread in dollar bills How?

I’ve been reading about some new US bills coming out, and how they have all these enhanced security features. I’m not trying to counterfeit anything, just wondering how the hell they weave that security thread into $20 bills? I would image it must be an expensive process. Any thoughts Dopers?

Not sure, but I did find this really cool information on one of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing’s anti-counterfeiting pages (bolding mine):

I saw a big special on money printing on TLC or A&E or similar. Anyway, they followed the whole process from start to finish except that strip. That part is secret. Ssshhhh!!!

Nice link, thanks.

The threads are embedded into the wet pulp when the paper is made. For windowed security threads the paper is scraped off again at the spots where you want the thread to show.

That security thread (or lack thereof) once saved me $10. I went to a mini-golf place and it was $5 I handed the person a $20 and she gave me $5 back. I knew something was wrong but I was young and she claimed I only handed her a $10. So I let it go. When I got back in my friend’s mom’s car I told her about it and she went back to the booth and argued with the person. The point she made to prove that I gave her a $20 was that It had notches at the top and bottom where I ripped the thread out. I got my money back.

Not according to the same special on TV that Belrix refers to, because I was watching it too.

What they said, and show, is the paper being finished (IE, it’s dry and all) and ready to be stamped (Or however it happens) with the watermark when the thread is ‘secretly’ placed on the paper. According to the voice-over guy, the process of putting the strand into the paper took something like seven years to perfect.

The point is, if what they showed on TV was accurate, it was past the point of pulp when the thread was placed into/on the paper.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that it appears that it’s more complicated than them simply embedding it when it’s in the pulp stage.

Off topic a tad, what got me curious was that watermark. Apparently it’s so secret a thing that the machine that does it is blanketed by sheets and protected by a security guard around the clock. I never knew it was that complicated and/or secret a process before.

Seven years is about the time since I remember seeing perfect security threads in German Mark bills. Why didn’t you just ask us? :smiley:

I was referring to / summing up from this collector’s site: bbnweb.com is for sale | HugeDomains

It’s not liquid or mushy pulp, but it isn’t really dry paper yet, either. Seems the challenge here (and the secret to guard) is how to get the timing right between the thread slipping out again or not going in there in the first place. I’m not sure if every country uses exactly the same procedure, though.

Governmental paranoia. They showed the machines on TV when the euro was introduced. It’s just a big rotating cylinder with a fine wire mesh pressing a pattern into the (semi-)wet paper. I think I remember it isn’t very durable, so you want to guard what has to be easy replaceable. And it’s one of the parts that make the money authentic.

Here’s a page about how watermarks are usually done: http://members.aol.com/ggs949/Watermark/Watermarkx.html