May 9, 2010 | BEP, currency
There seems to be a case of reinventing history not only in our education system but it appears to have come to the redesign of U.S. currency. After the Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced the release of the new $100 Federal Reserve Note, Newsweek performed a study on the evolution of the images that have appeared on US currency.
“Over time, America’s iconic forefathers come off looking good, even better than they used to—and it’s not just some airbrushing and smoothing out,” the article stated. “Put simply, if the Founders and their notable descendants lived in modern times, they might find themselves on magazine covers beside words like ‘nip and tuck.’”
Newsweek asked Dr. David Hidalgo, a New York-based plastic surgeon, to analyze pictures of the changes as if these were the images of patients. In his analysis, Dr. Hidalgo noted changes to the images as they the notes have been redesigned. The most dramatic may be the image of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, that might have taken ten years off his look.
Unlike changes to US coinage, the BEP is not required to have their designs approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. The CFA is supposed to maintain the artistic integrity of the projects they examine but they are also supposed to consider the historical significance of the images. Although it is fair to question whether the CFA would make the same mistakes as the BEP, it can be safe to say that an external review may have been a good idea.
May 9, 2010 | CCAC, technology, US Mint
As a proponent of using technology to advance all my favorite activities, I was happy to read about Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee member Donald Scarinci was tweeting about the last CCAC meeting in Philadelphia. The posts on his Twitter account (@Scarinci) made for an interesting read as to what was discussed at the meeting.
If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, I recommend that you read my previous blogpost about the service.
A few days after the meeting, I heard from Scarinci via email who said that he had been studying Twitter for a few months before deciding to use the service. This is understandable because for the uninitiated, Twitter can be confusing. Scarinci, whose interests include law, numismatics, and art, decided to try Twitter to share his interest with others. “I decided to go forward with Twitter in order to communicate to people and at the same time make it worthwhile for people to follow. I didn’t want to focus just on law or just on numismatics or just on art,” Scarinci wrote. “I wanted to show myself as a full multidimensional person—opinionated, insightful, diverse, sensitive, at times insensitive. If used thoughtfully, twitter will allow me to display my personality and my interests as a mosaic rather than as a single static snapshot.”
What makes Scarinci’s perspective on using Twitter interesting is that it provides an insight into one member of the CCAC. Many of us never meet the CCAC members. Sometimes we hear them speak at various shows. But using Twitter as a way to allow us to meet him, at least virtually, allows us to understand at least one of the personalities making the selection on the coinage we care about.
When Scarinci contacted me, I said that I wish I would have known before the meeting because I would have followed his tweets. Since discovering his tweets, I have added @Scarinci to my list of followers on both the account that I use with this blog (@coinsblog) and my personal account. Although it was difficult to be one his followers when he tweeted he went to Katz Deli in Manhattan the other day (stop thinking of their corned beef… it’s the best!).
After a recent online and public “discussion” with CCAC member Gary Marks about the lack of communications from the CCAC, it was refreshing to hear from Donald Scarinci with a very different and positive attitude on communication with the public. Scarinci wrote:
Reporting from the CCAC meeting as it was happening is something I always thought should be done. I never understood and still don’t understand why the Mint does not web cast the CCAC meetings. We are, after all, a citizens committee. Each one of us on the committee has different perspectives and different levels of knowledge about numismatics and about art. The CCAC is very much as congress intended it to be—a peoples’ committee. While imperfect, it is probably the only way to debate and decide coinage designs in a democracy. So why not bring people in as the discussion unfolds and involve anyone who has an interest into the very core of the process. Twitter allows that to happen in real time without attaching people to a viewing screen for hours at a time. Instead anyone interested in the subject can get information in brief sentences. If the writing is clear and simple, the communication will work for busy people with day jobs even better than a web cam. That’s my opinion.
Amen!
I applaud Scarinci’s initiative and appreciate his efforts. I hope the concept of using modern communication techniques can be institutionalized by the CCAC and the US Mint and expanded to include more citizens in the process. Scarinci will be tweeting during future meetings. I will be following those updates (@Scarinci) and suggest anyone interested in the work of the CCAC to follow, too.
May 6, 2010 | BEP, web
The websites for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and their storefront came back online sometime today. The site appears to be fully functional and a scan of accessible pages shows that all evidence of the malware discovered earlier this week have been erradicated.
BEP nor the Department of the Treasury has issued a statement regarding this incident.
BEP has not yet responded to an email inquiry about the incident.
May 4, 2010 | BEP, web
Security researchers discovered that the website for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and associated “MoneyFactory Store” were hacked on Monday. The attacker added instructions to the front page of both sites that would run a script to allow a Ukrainian-based system insert instructions that will allow someone to attack a user’s computer through the browser.
Currently, the BEP website (moneyfactory.gov, bep.gov, and bep.treas.gov) and the BEP’s online store (moneyfactorystore.gov) are off-line. The website used to support the launch the new $100 Federal Reserve Note (newmoney.gov) was not infected by this attack.
The system that would have been used to launch the attack from the Ukraine is also down but do not count on it staying down. Attacker systems can be transient in order to throw off investigations.
As an information security professional, I urge everyone to ensure they practice safe surfing! Here are five basic rules to help you keep your system safe online:
- Make sure your system and software is up to date. While many products will check for updates on their own, you may have to check Microsoft Windows and Office on your own. In your “Start” menu select “Windows Update” to allow your system to be properly updated.
- Run an anti-virus and anti-malware program. Malware is “malicious software” that would do harm to your computer. This attack would install malware on your system through your browser. Some service providers (like Comcast) offers a free download of an anti-virus program. Take advantage of that offer! If you want a good basic anti-virus program is the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. It is not as full featured of others, but it provides good protection.
- Once you install your anti-virus program, make sure you keep it up to date! Keeping it up to date means that you download the information about new attacks from the manufacturers of the anti-virus program. Threats are constantly changing and you need to keep up to date. If you are using old information, it is like leaving holes in your defenses for the attackers to get through. Make sure the software keeps updated. Also, pay for the yearly service to keep it updated. Think of it an insurance policy for your critical data!
- If you are not running the latest version of your browser, upgrade it now! If you are running Internet Explorer version 5 or 6 it is similar to leaving the doors of your car unlocked in an unsafe neighborhood. I know Internet Explorer 7 looks different that others, but it is worth updating. Do so now! This also is true if you are using any other browser including Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.
- Turn on your system’s firewall service. The firewall is software used to protect the system from threats that come directly from the Internet. All modern systems come with a firewall, turn it on and use it. Many anti-virus packages have better firewalls than the one that come with the operating systems. Use it!
Microsoft has a very good Online Safety and Privacy Education website with information and resources written in plain English (as opposed to Geek English) along with easy to follow How-To guide and instructional videos. You can find a more comprehensive information at the Home PC Firewall Guide.
Please stay safe online and watch my Twitter account (@coinsblog) for when the BEP is back online.
May 2, 2010 | ANA, CCAC
After taking some time off from blogging following the announcement of the new $100 federal reserve note, there have been a number of news items I wanted to mention that will talk about in more details over the next few days. But I wanted to mention a few as a “preview” of things to come.
Dave Harper wrote on his blog about Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee member Donald Scarinci was tweeting from the CCAC meeting at the Philadelphia Mint this past week. You can read the tweet on his account @Scarinci. As a proponent of using technology to reach out to everyone, I was very happy to go back and read Scarinci’s tweets from the meeting and hope he continues and others follow. I will write more about this topic soon with quotes from Scarinci.
The American Numismatic Association has change how they are assigning convention sites and has decided to add a convention in the Fall. I was a bit confused by the announcement after reading the the World’s Fair of Money will be centered in Chicago and the National Money Show will be part of a rotating series of cities. This is clearly a nod to finding what has been described as “the best bourse cities” which benefits the dealers more than the collectors. Interesting, in the May 2010 edition of The Numismatist, President Cliff Mishler quoted ANA Governor Jeff Garrett that Mishler told him, “He reminded me that there are not two classes of ANA membership—dealers and collectors—but rather a single community, one that cares about the well-being of the hobby.” It is interesting how Mishler could tell an ANA governor that the ANA is a community yet support a convention policy that is clearly geared to the dealer community.
In the April 2010 edition of The Numismatist, Q. David Bowers writes about the aging of the ANA membership noting that 47-percent of its membership is between the ages of 50 and 60. While Bowers notes that there “are several reasons why numismatics has lost its appeal to younger people,” he claims that it is nothing “the ANA has done or not done.” Bowers sites studies that show that younger people have embraced technology and social media to fill their spare time. With all due respect to Mr. Bowers, then why has the ANA not embraced this new social media paradigm? Why isn’t the ANA trying to fit in that electronic social networking space? The ANA has no social media presence or outreach program to these users with the exception of a website and Facebook page and not real electronics communication policy. By the way, did you know the ANA was on Facebook? It is not even advertised on the front page or the ANA’s website!
Finally, your intrepid blogger was recently interviewed for a national publication that will be printed in the late summer. I will write more when it gets closer to the publication date.
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