Benjamin Franklin added blue fibres to paper money as early as 1739, more than a century before such anti-counterfeit measures were thought to have been introduced
incorporated flakes of the translucent mineral muscovite into paper pulp as a way of strengthening the durability of paper money as early as 1754.
The findings “make a nice addition to Franklin’s practical scientific resume of accomplishments”, saysThe Continental Dollar: How the American revolution was financed with paper moneyBut Grubb is more sceptical of the idea that these ink and paper innovations were intended to help prevent counterfeiting. He described colonial America as having more cases of people counterfeitinginstead of paper money, and says that counterfeiting paper money on a large scale was a “rarity” at the time.
The most notable counterfeiting attempt came during the American revolutionary war, when the British copied and mass-produced Continental dollars issued by the Continental Congress as “a new type of state-to-state warfare”, says Grubb. But he says the Congress recalled and replaced the affected bills.
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