WASHINGTON - Federal appeals court judges indicated they were troubled that blind people are unable to distinguish between a $50 bill and a $1 bill, but said yesterday they were reluctant to force a redesign of U.S. currency.

“Where does this stop?” asked Judge A. Raymond Randolph. Are postage stamps illegal? Government Web sites? When mail carriers leave handwritten notes on front doors, are they discriminating against blind people?

“The National Gallery is having a Hopper exhibit,” Randolph said. “Those paintings, do they violate the Rehabilitation Act?” The case erupted last year when a judge said the government discriminated against the blind by keeping bills the same color, shape and texture. He gave the Treasury Department just days to begin solving the problem, but changes have been put on hold while appeals play out.

Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not rule immediately, citing concern about the consequences. (more…)

ATHENS - It’s time to answer questions about North Korea’s long-reported production and laundering of high-quality counterfeit US $100 notes. There’s a good opportunity at hand: an unusual meeting this week in New York between senior US and North Korean officials. One of its purposes is to reopen talks about Pyongyang’s alleged illicit financial operations.

Back in 1976, Pyongyang purchased from a specialized Swiss firm a sophisticated intaglio (high-pressure) press for printing currency. At the time, it was identical to the presses used by the US Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to turn out hundreds of millions of dollars in genuine greenbacks annually (and is thought to be still highly similar).

After nearly a decade’s delay, high-quality counterfeit intaglio-printed $100 bank notes with only microscopic flaws – dubbed “Supernotes” by bankers and currency buffs – were spotted and seized, first in the Philippines, then in Hong Kong, Thailand, and finally, in the early-1990s, in Europe and the Americas. Read Full Story

By Karen Daily, Aiken Standard

Investigators say they don’t know where an Augusta man picked up the much-publicized $1 million bill that he tried to open a bank account with but added that it has been seized and is now in police custody.

Alexander D. Smith, of the 500 block of Fairhope Street in Augusta, was charged with forgery after the 31-year-old man presented the counterfeit bill to a teller at Regions Bank in Clearwater Monday afternoon, said Aiken County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Michael Frank.

The bogus bill, however, is actually a religious tract, according to national media reports.

Last year, the Secret Service became involved in a North Carolina investigation after a bank customer there tried to deposit one of the phony bills. Agents tracked the bill to a Denton, Texas-based ministry where they’d found more than 8,000 of the Grover Cleveland bills. (more…)

Mike Byers has just published the latest issue Of Mint Error News Volume #21.

For Error Coin enthusiasts, the Mint Error News has become in indispensable resource for the latest discoveries within this specialized area of coin collecting. However it is also the only comprehensive source for regular pricing information on error coins of all types. The print version of the magazine, published quarterly, is difficult to come by as all copies are distributed quickly, however Mr Byers makes the full magazine available in PDF format on his web site www.minterrornews.com

Both the print and online version of the magazine are filled with excellent photos that accompany the articles and news stories. However the magazine offers collectors much more.

Contributing editor Allan Levy (www.alscoins.com) has compiled price information from prices realized on recent ebay sales and other sources to present the only up-to-date pricing information on a wide assortment of error coins. We know of no other source for error coin pricing that even comes close to the charts and scope of Mr Levy’s contribution. (more…)