the-BA : Worth the paper it's written on?

What’s your name? You know who you are; but can you prove it? In Britain we are not yet required to carry ID cards. When necessary we prove our identity with a birth certificate, passport or driving licence. For various reasons, some people adopt false identities, using forged documents. It costs them a lot, though. The art and science of forgery doesn’t come cheap, because it’s not a simple as it might appear. Neither is detecting a good forgery.

Have you ever wondered how to spot false documents?

You might like to …

• start with a simple example – an altered cheque. Investigate the use of thin layer chromatography to show that an extra zero has been added to the amount using a different ink, even though the colour looks the same (note: think about how the cheque’s coloured background might affect your analysis)
• investigate ways of distinguishing between the inks used in original documents and in copies produced on: a) a colour photocopier, b) a computer scanner and printer
• investigate ways of comparing the types of paper used in original documents and copies produced as above (hint: look at descriptions of paper in catalogues to get ideas about what differences you might investigate)
• write “£10” on a rectangle of paper to represent a banknote; use a money “detector pen” on your ‘tenner’, and on genuine banknotes; find out how and why the pen works, and whether it can also be used with foreign banknotes.

Further links:
http://www.planet-science.com/whodunit/go/Default.html

www.qdewill.com/

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