Tech Tools for Anticounterfeiting

Nanomarkers, holograms, microlenticular technology and other anticounterfeiting measures

September 01, 2006 — CSO — In 1739, Benjamin Franklin, then a Philadelphia printer with a colonial government contract, intentionally misspelled Pennsylvania on the currency his house printed in order to battle counterfeiters. As the Smithsonian Institution tells it, Franklin reasoned that a counterfeiter would correct the spelling to make a bill look legitimate.

Today, manufacturers use both overt and covert technologies to provide a multilayered approach to security. Ed Dietrich, director for the Americas at Reconnaissance International and a newsletter publisher and consultant on authentication techniques, provides us with a primer on the state of anticounterfeiting technology development and use.

Anticounterfeiting technologies


Technology	Description	Used In
Holograms (Overt)	Stickers or labels containing complex 3-D images	Retail and pharmaceuticals; financial and government sectors for document authentication
Optically variable Inks (Overt)	Inks that shift color when viewed from different angles	Documents such as currency, passports; product security
Microlenticular technology (Overt)	Microengineered plastic screen laminated over microprinting, forming irreproducable image	Currency, migrating to product security
Special inks (Covert)	Ultraviolet and infrared ink; also thermochromic ink, changes color when they contact heat	Variety of government documents
RFID	Tracks product movement through supply chain	Pharma, retail
Nanomarkers (Covert)	Particles engineered into a product; possibly ink in labeling. Readable with electron microscope	In testing (new technology)