March 02, 2004

RFID in your wallet. Aparently the RFID chip in new US twenties explodes when microwaved. Plans to embed RFId in Euro and Yen notes have been publicly discussed, but this is the first I've heard of it in US currency. I wondered when tv commercials for the new 20s were running last year why on earth they would have to spend money advertising money - now it is becoming clearer.

My next thought is: is there a less destructive method for removal?

posted by sandmonk 20 years ago
  • Just use a degausser such as is used to clean multitrack tape heads, or such like. Wave it near the notes, and pfoooofh!
  • Magnets? I'd think a magnet would mess up the circuitry. Though that'd run the risk of messing up your credit cards as well. Also, I may be the only person who regularly carries magnets around. Perfect for irritating people, or "accidentally" causing electrical shorts.
  • I'm so gonna take a hole punch to my 20's and gouge out Jackson's eyes. That one's for the Native Americans! And Pez, might I recommend Gaussboys? Just don't sit on any metal benches. Or get near any metal. Ever. Or you can die. no, seriously
  • See, I'm going for harmless fun. Those, those are for accidental maimings. Or lifting over 350 pounds. Yeesh. I wonder how close you'd have to get with one of those to totally fry a pacemaker?
  • I wouldn't mind one of those Gaussboy magnets. The fun I could have walking into Dixons and destroying all their computers.
  • being a somewhat curious person...why would anyone want to microwave their money anyway??? and if one destroys the rfid's then isn't one left with the potential for losing their money as being counterfeit? i know it's caveat emporium for funny money here...use it and lose it. but then all our money is funny...
  • FWIW, we put a single $20 bill in the microwave here at work and nothing happened. It sort of begs credulity that anyone would actually put $1000 in cash in a microwave to see if it catches fire. Also, the common RFID tag in use right now is about the size of an address label on an envelope. We're being asked to believe that these tags are the size of a head of a small pin. How much would it cost to produce these tags, and how much would that raise the cost of minting the bills? I smell a hoax.
  • This is totally untrue. First, as people on slashdot have pointed out, RFID scanners aren't in wide use yet. SEcondly, there is only $600 in that picture and only about 6 of the bills are new $20s.
  • Alternative explanation: I guess that the new 20s have a piece of metal wire in them to make forgery more difficult, like notes from many other countries, e.g: www.bundesbank.de. This could become magnetised in a rich variety of ways. I would also bet that the store anti-theft scanner uses a magnetic system, like many store scanners: howstuffworks.com So the scanner was triggered by a magnetic effect from the security threads, and we all know what happens when you put metal in the microwave... ... and no sinister government RFID tracking in sight. [Disclaimer: I haven't actually looked at a 20 to verify this]
  • I'm so gonna take a hole punch to my 20's and gouge out Jackson's eyes. That one's for the Native Americans! You, sir, owe me a new monitor.
  • The site mentioning the exploding twenties is run by Alex Jones. He is Austin's own conspiracy nut. The stores wouldn't pick up the super secret RFID in the currency. Only black helicopters and UN soldiers on US soil have the equipment. For the reasons outlined above RFID in US money isn't true (haven't there been rumours about that for decades?). I wish I had the money to replicate the experiment. But I wouldn't cook the money. I'd spend it like a good consumer should.
  • I smell a job for Discovery channel's Mythbusters!