From: Brad Dolan <bdolan@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 94 11:55:19 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: currency strips "salted" for neutron activation analysis?
Message-ID: <199411191955.LAA28746@well.sf.ca.us>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Re. detectability of the funny plastic threads in recent U.S. currency 
issues:

I think it would be interesting to try neutron activation analysis
on currency.  To do this, you would bombard the currency with neutrons
and then look at the activated gamma spectrum to see how much of 
what odd trace materials might be present.  

I don't have any specific knowledge that the threads are "salted"
for easy identification but this technique would work very nicely
and has been used elsewhere.

I used to have ready access to a californium source but don't
any longer.  Anybody else out there want to give this a try?

Brad D.