Neuroscientists helped design Europe’s new €50 so that anyone can spot a fake
Super cool approach to combating counterfeit bank notes, via Quartz.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has been particularly keen to redesign the yellow-orange bill that is its most popular denomination, accounting for nearly half of all banknotes in circulation—and is also among the world’s most counterfeited notes.
Like the €5, €10, and €20 notes in the Europa design series, the surface of the new €50 note features a collage of symbolic architectural motifs drawn by German postage-stamp designer Reinhold Gerstetter. Aside from the usual layers of security features—watermarks, color-changing inks, threads, and microprinting—Gerstetter’s design also features a “portrait window” that frames a hologram of Europa, a Phoenician princess in Greek mythology for whom the continent is named. The princess also appears as a watermark when the banknote is held up to the light.
The idea for using a face as an anti-counterfeiting device came from neuroscientists.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
