From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@access.digex.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 10:54:29 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Locating Color Copiers
Message-ID: <199403181854.AA19678@access1.digex.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


 
John C. Brice muttered something about...
::
::The Secret Service is a division of the Treasury Department.  One of their
::main duties is tracking down counterfeiters.  If someone has stolen a color
::copy machine, there's a very good chance that it was stolen for the end
::purpose of counterfeiting.  So I would imagine that that would be why the
::SS would be looking for this particular stolen property.  Make sense?
 
That's ridiculous.  I hate to start a flame-war, but if I decided that I
desperately needed a color copier but didn't want to spend that money and
figured I'd just steal one, why would there be a good chance that I'd be
doing this to start a counterfeiting process?  Maybe I just want to make
color copies.  If you truly believe that this would be the main impetus for
anyone stealing on of these devices you're thinking in the same ballpark as
those who we fight against with cryptography.
 
Additionally, it's only possible to photocopy $1, $5 and $10 because anything
larger than that has that funny little strip of plastic in the bill.
 
 
e x  t  r   a   p   o  l  a  t e                               steve j. white
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
Gort, klatu barada nicto.                          aragorn@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu
 
 
-<
 
I think the general point is that the secret service has authority
when there is a counterfeiting case.  I don't know the particulars
but in this case, if the secret service showed up, you can bet they
had authority.  Agencies are very possesive about jurisdiction.
 
Surely in this case the secret service was looking for the copier
because they had reason to believe it was being used in counter-
feiting.  That said, it's not too difficult to guess that they had
a good deal of information about the suspect and the copier already
and thus it's not real strange that they managed to track down the
copier quickly.
 
As for photocopying 1, 5's and 10's only, you seem to assume that all
the 20's and 50's without the polyester/foil strip in them have been
removed from circulation.
 
I got a silver certificate in change the other day if that tells you
anything about how likely that is.  (the 1988 series bills had no
such strip...)
 
-uni- (Dark)