Tell us more about life in Germany, Fred. It is important and relevant.

That last sentence is pretty scary especially since we are limited to carry only up to $10,000 out of the country without declaring it.

As a child in East Germany I can remember the government closing banks every couple of months in the mid 1950''s to replace currency and you were only allowed to have up to 100 Marks in cash. Anything above that had to be in a bank account. the intent was to keep the population from hoarding money in order to escape form East Germany. Almost all East Germans needed to travel by train to get to West Berlin. this was before the Wall and there was a good chance to be pulled off the train and disappear. We managed to get out in 1957 but not without the loss of much of our savings.

Fred

Susanne, you are right, these new bills (going back to 2000 actually) are intentionally easier to track. In point of fact, every bill has a unique number - and always has. Collectors know the serial numbers of colonial and state notes signed by the Founders who signed the Declaration, Articles, and Constitution. So, really, every banknote is unique. In theory every coin is unique, but generally, we do not consider that. Basically, coins are anonymous: Aurem non olet - gold does not smell (it leaves no traces).

As for detecting counterfeit coins, that has always been a problem, but generally, the technology of coin production today is not interesting to counterfeiters. It is easier to counterfeit paper.

I have seen counterfeit silver bars. At an ANA convention, I tried to warn collectors about counterfeit coins from China. Mostly, all we can do is be wary and rely on some common safeguards and cautions.

The security strip makes the money easy to track. See Susanne's comment below. As a numismatist this is all abstractly interesting to me, and I accept that the strips carry data. Also, I have been told (have read) that if you have a lot of these in a briefcase, they set off alarms in the airport.

That strip is a security device that is supposed to make it impossible to counterfit. Of course that doesn't mean that the printing presses by the Fed isn't working overtime printing money which could be worthless in a couple of years.

Fred Speckmann

This is not far from the truth. I just got a series 2009 $100 bill from the bank this weekend and it has a decidedly Monopoly Money blue tint to it, and also features some sort of strip running through it top to bottom, like a Euro bill.
http://www.hundreddollarbill.info/