When Franklin opened his printing house in 1728, paper cash was a relatively brand-new principle.” To maintain the notes dependability, Franklin had to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters,” said Manukyan. Another of Franklins developments was in the paper itself. Manukyan and his group discovered proof that Franklin had actually included colored silks in his paper much earlier.
The group identified that Franklin started adding muscovite to his papers and the size of this muscovite crystals in his paper increased over time.
University of Notre Dame researchers exposed Benjamin Franklins innovative anti-counterfeiting methods in Colonial money printing, exposing his use of distinct pigments and products to deter forgery. Credit: Barbara Johnston/ University of Notre Dame
Physics methods provide a rare glimpse into the early American monetary history.
Benjamin Franklin is frequently commemorated for developing bifocals and the lightning arrester. However, researchers from the University of Notre Dame suggest he should likewise be understood for his ingenious ways of making (actual) cash.
During his career, Franklin printed almost 2,500,000 cash notes for the American Colonies utilizing what the researchers have identified as highly original strategies, according to a current research study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Colonial Money and Counterfeiting Concerns
The research study team, led by Khachatur Manukyan, an associate research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has spent the past 7 years examining a trove of almost 600 notes from the Colonial period, which belongs to a comprehensive collection established by the Hesburgh Libraries Special collections and unusual books. The Colonial notes span an 80-year duration and consist of notes printed by Franklins network of printing stores and other printers, in addition to a series of fake notes.
Manukyan discussed that the effort to print cash for the recently established Colonial financial system was important to Franklin not just as a printer however as a statesman also.
” Benjamin Franklin saw that the Colonies financial self-reliance was required for their political independence. Many of the silver and gold coins brought to the British American colonies were quickly drained away to pay for produced goods imported from abroad, leaving the Colonies without sufficient financial supply to expand their economy,” Manukyan stated.
Khachatur Manukyan and his group employed cutting-edge spectroscopic and imaging instruments to get a better look than ever at the inks, paper, and fibers that made Benjamin Franklins bills unique and hard to replicate. Credit: Barbara Johnston/ University of Notre Dame
Nevertheless, one significant problem stood in the method of efforts to print fiat money: counterfeiting. Paper cash was a reasonably new concept when Franklin opened his printing house in 1728. Unlike gold and silver, paper moneys lack of intrinsic value meant it was continuously at danger of diminishing. There were no standardized bills in the Colonial duration, leaving a chance for counterfeiters to pass off phony bills as genuine ones. In reaction, Franklin worked to embed a suite of security functions that made his costs distinctive.
” To keep the notes reliability, Franklin had to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters,” said Manukyan. “But the ledger where we understand he recorded these printing choices and techniques has actually been lost to history. Using the techniques of physics, we have actually had the ability to bring back, in part, some of what that record would have shown.”
Scientific Analysis of Franklins Techniques
Manukyan and his group used cutting-edge spectroscopic and imaging instruments housed in the Nuclear Science Laboratory and four Notre Dame research core facilities: the Center for Environmental Science and Technology, the Integrated Imaging Facility, the Materials Characterization Facility, and the Molecular Structure Facility. The tools enabled them to get a more detailed look than ever at the inks, paper, and fibers that made Franklins costs tough and distinctive to reproduce.
Among the most distinguishing characteristics they found remained in Franklins pigments. Manukyan and his group identified the chemical aspects used for each item in Notre Dames collection of Colonial notes. The fakes, they discovered, have distinctive high amounts of calcium and phosphorus, but these elements are found just in traces in the authentic bills.
Their analyses exposed that although Franklin utilized (and sold) “light black,” a pigment produced by burning veggie oils, for most printing, Franklins printed currency used a special black color made from graphite found in rock. This pigment is likewise different from the “bone black” made from burned bone, which was favored both by counterfeiters and by those outside Franklins network of printing homes.
Khachatur Manukyan. Credit: Barbara Johnston/ University of Notre Dame
Another of Franklins developments was in the paper itself. The creation of consisting of small fibers in paper pulp– visible as pigmented squiggles within fiat money– has typically been credited to paper manufacturer Zenas Marshall Crane, who presented this practice in 1844. Manukyan and his group found evidence that Franklin had actually included colored silks in his paper much earlier.
The team likewise discovered that notes printed by Franklins network have a distinctive look due to the addition of a clear material they determined as muscovite. The team figured out that Franklin began adding muscovite to his papers and the size of this muscovite crystals in his paper increased gradually. When it proved to be a practical deterrent to counterfeiters, the group speculates that Franklin initially began adding muscovite to make the printed notes more resilient but continued to add it.
Obstacles and Collaborative Discoveries
Manukyan said that it is uncommon for a physics lab to deal with archival and uncommon products, and this presented special difficulties.
” Few scientists are interested in dealing with materials like these. Sometimes, these expenses are unique. They need to be handled with severe care, and they can not be harmed. Those are restraints that would turn many physicists off to a project like this,” he said.
For him, the task is a testimony to the worth of interdisciplinary work.
” We were fortunate to have student researchers on this project with interests both in physics as well as in history and art conservation. And the core research study centers as well as the Rare Books and Special Collections group were unbelievable research study partners. Without an uncommon level of cooperation across disciplines, our discoveries would not have been possible.”
Reference: “Multiscale analysis of Benjamin Franklins developments in American paper currency” by Khachatur Manukyan, Armenuhi Yeghishyan, Ani Aprahamian, Louis Jordan, Michael Kurkowski, Mark Raddell, Laura Richter Le, Zachary D. Schultz, Liam Spillane and Michael Wiescher, 17 July 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.2301856120.
In addition to lead investigator Manukyan, the research group for this job included Armenuhi Yeghishyan, a lab specialist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy; Ani Aprahamian, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics and concurrent teacher in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Louis Jordan, an associate University librarian emeritus for scholastic services and collections; Michael Kurkowski, a previous undergraduate scientist studying physics and mathematics; Mark Raddell, a former undergraduate researcher studying financing and physics who is now a specialist at Deloitte; Laura Richter Le, a previous undergraduate scientist who is now a college student at the Conservation Center at New York Universitys Institute of Fine Arts; Zachary D. Schultz, a former associate professor at Notre Dame who is now a faculty member at the Ohio State University; Liam Spillane, who operates at Gatan Inc.; and Michael Wiescher, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics.
This research study job was funded by an internal grant from Notre Dame Research.