Adobe Photoshop: Counterfeit deterrence system

Your team needs to edit high definition images of bank notes?

If you were in charge of collecting money for school lunches, and a kid happened to try to pay for lunch with fake money, would you object? If you could feign ignorance and say you just didn’t know it was fake, would you let it slide, or would you tell the kid they won’t be eating today? Maybe they’re just messing with you, or maybe they don’t actually have the money.

It’s possible the lunch lady didn’t know, it’s possible she didn’t care, or it’s possible she knew exactly what she was doing.

It is a stylized version of Austria’s coat of arms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Austria

Yes, very definitely so but I was a little short of funds at the time having moved from Vienna Austria to Australia (the move cost me over $10,000 USD).

Nevertheless I'd managed to keep the note for the better part two years before I exchanged it at a Commonwealth Bank in Australia for which I recall I received around $730 AUD (roughly $500 USD).

Whilst the note has no monetary value today (having been superseded by the Euro), a keen notaphilist would pay about $3,300 AUD for a note in the same excellent condition as mine. That's roughly 4.5 times the amount I exchanged it for some 20 years ago.

Incidentally, I obtained the note in exchange for five 1,000† schilling notes at a Creditanstalt Bank in Vienna. At the time I'd seen the 5000 schilling banknote but never possessed one but after seeing a teller unwrap a brand new bundle of them I asked him to exchange one for me.

It's worth noting that at the time I'd never been so close to so much money in my whole life - nor have I ever been since.

The bank notes were clearly visible, they were stored immediately behind the teller so that he had immediate access to them whenever he turned around to face them. They were tightly stacked horizontally on top of each other in a row of vertical U-shaped storage channels arranged by ascending denomination (e.g.: 10, 50 ...5000) with their narrow side facing outwards.

I cannot recall the exact height of the channels but likely each was 30 to 50cm tall. In effect, the teller had wall of money behind him. How much money there was I'd hardly even be able to guess. The largest denomination was 5000 schillings - you figure it out, how much money would there be in a stack of tightly-packed, freshly-minted 5000 schilling notes some 30/50 cm heigh? A damn lot, more money than I'll ever own.

I found the whole scene sureal, especially the casual way the teller would turn around and grab notes from the stacks with one hand whenever he wanted them whilst simultaneously holding a cigarette in the other.

The Viennese are a trusting lot, I could never imagine a situation like that ever existing from where I come from.

My interest in possessing the banknote was multifold, the note was beautiful and I wanted to examine it closely, that was heightened by the fact that on its obverse side it had a bust of one of the greatest composers who ever lived and whose music I love - Mozart; and finally, printed notes use the finest printing technology available anywhere and examining then carefully gives one an insight into how such high quality printing is done. I also find it fascinating to compare the different approaches and technologies that various countries use in the printing of their currencies.

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† BTW, the 1000 schilling notes I used to obtain the 5000 schilling note is also of considerable interest, not only is it also a beautiful note but on its obverse side it has a bust of the famous quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger - of Schrödinger's equation fame along with his infamous cat!

I still possess several of these notes in mint condition along with others including the excellent 50 schilling note that's magenta in color which has a bust of Sigmund Freud on it.

In my opinion this series of Austrian banknotes is one of the best ever designed (by that I mean from an artistic perspective - not its technology).

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Edit/Update:

Here's the Sigmund Freud banknote: https://www.banknotes.com/at149.htm

And the Erwin Schrödinger one is here: https://www.banknotes.com/at152.htm

Certainly not. But I am peeved enough to block Adobe Photoshop on principal grounds. This shit does not stand.