When Benjamin Franklin Printed Money with Anti-Counterfeiting Features (opens in new tab)

Before Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity, before he was a Founding Father, he was a printer. One of the things he printed was paper money for the colony of Pennsylvania and eventually several other colonies. Paper money was a novelty in America, but became necessary when the supply of gold and silver coins couldn't keep up with the expanding economy. Franklin knew that the bills he printed would only work if people could trust that they were real. So he spent his time coming up ...