Page 65 - Exercise 3A

Page 65 - Exercise 3A

Ever since money was first introduced. People have tried to counterfeited. Counterfeiting is when fake money is produced and then used as real money. For hundreds of years, coins were made of precious metals. Like gold and silver. This was a problem. Because the metal itself was valuable. Gold and silver are also quite soft. People used different ways to counterfeited the coins. Firstly, the coins were melted down. Cheaper metals were mixed with the gold and silver to make more coins. Secondly, bits of gold and silver were cut off. So gradually the coins became smaller. The bits of gold and silver were then used to make new coins. To stop this lines were stamped around the edges of coins. If you look at the coins in your pocket. You’ll see that this is still done today. Even though the coins aren’t made of precious metals now. A third way of counterfeiting coins was to make a coin with a cheaper metals like copper. This was then covered with silver or gold. Counterfeiting was dangerous because governments didn’t like it. People counterfeiting coins were punished very severely if they were caught. They were usually tortured and then executed. As trade increased in modern times. It became difficult to use gold and silver. They were very heavy and they were easily stolen. So cheaper metals were used for coins. Paper money was also introduced. At first this made counterfeiting easier. So governments had to do things to stop it. Notes were designed with very complicated pictures. Or they were printed on special paper with special features such as metal strips or watermarks. Holograms are also used in modern banknotes. But counterfeiting still continues. In 2004, Alice Pike was arrested in the USA when she tried to buy things with a million dollar bill. The problem was the million dollar bill has never been printed by the American government.