WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 You know, you probably tapped your phone to buy 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:05.500 your morning coffee today, or maybe you swiped 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:07.419 a card without even really looking at the screen. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:09.980 Yeah, we treat money as just purely transactional 00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:12.599 now. It's basically an invisible data transfer 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:14.779 floating in the ether. Right. But if I asked 00:00:14.779 --> 00:00:17.739 you to actually pull a physical $20 note out 00:00:17.739 --> 00:00:20.190 of your wallet and hold it up to the light. You 00:00:20.190 --> 00:00:22.269 wouldn't just be looking at a tool for buying 00:00:22.269 --> 00:00:24.969 a sandwich. No, absolutely not. You'd be holding 00:00:24.969 --> 00:00:28.190 this fractured, microscopically perfect magic 00:00:28.190 --> 00:00:31.370 trick designed to thwart international crime 00:00:31.370 --> 00:00:33.810 syndicates, which is exactly our mission for 00:00:33.810 --> 00:00:37.030 today's deep dive. We are exploring this comprehensive 00:00:37.030 --> 00:00:40.210 Wikipedia article detailing the history, the 00:00:40.210 --> 00:00:43.130 design and the evolution of the Australian twenty 00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:45.729 dollar note. It's a great topic because physical 00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:47.990 currency is never just about commerce. You know, 00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:51.659 it's a highly engineered snapshot of national 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:53.750 identity. It really is. It tells you exactly 00:00:53.750 --> 00:00:56.670 what a nation values, who its heroes are, and 00:00:56.670 --> 00:00:58.429 how it wants to present itself to the world, 00:00:58.750 --> 00:01:00.969 and to its enemies, really, at a specific point 00:01:00.969 --> 00:01:04.370 in time. Okay, let's unpack this. Because I am 00:01:04.370 --> 00:01:06.790 just marveling at the sheer volume of history 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:09.489 printed on a flexible plastic rectangle that 00:01:09.489 --> 00:01:13.090 is, what, only 144 by 65 millimeters? Yeah, it's 00:01:13.090 --> 00:01:15.750 a tiny canvas. Yeah. But to understand it, we 00:01:15.750 --> 00:01:17.810 really have to go back to the beginning. The 00:01:17.810 --> 00:01:21.780 birth of the $20 note. on a very specific date, 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:26.840 February 14th, 1966. Valentine's Day, 1966. Right. 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:31.000 And this wasn't just a new design. It was a monumental 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.540 psychological shift for the entire country. Because 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:35.920 that was the day Australia formally ditched the 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:38.400 old British system, right? The Australian pound? 00:01:38.819 --> 00:01:40.799 Correct. They dropped the complicated shillings 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.019 and pence and they shifted to the new clean base 00:01:44.019 --> 00:01:46.200 10 decimal system, the Australian dollar. Wait, 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:48.609 okay. If you're trying to completely overhaul 00:01:48.609 --> 00:01:51.349 a nation's currency system and get citizens used 00:01:51.349 --> 00:01:53.629 to base ten dollars instead of pounds, why do 00:01:53.629 --> 00:01:55.769 the sources say they deliberately kept the new 00:01:55.769 --> 00:01:57.909 twenty dollar note the same color as the old 00:01:57.909 --> 00:01:59.890 ten pound note? It's funny. Right. It sounds 00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:02.170 totally counterintuitive. Yeah. Doesn't that 00:02:02.170 --> 00:02:04.109 defeat the whole point of a fresh start? Well, 00:02:04.109 --> 00:02:05.870 it was actually a brilliant piece of behavioral 00:02:05.870 --> 00:02:08.629 economics. I mean, imagine the sheer chaos of 00:02:08.629 --> 00:02:11.030 waking up one morning and the entire mathematical 00:02:11.030 --> 00:02:14.610 foundation of how you buy groceries has changed. 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:17.879 Oh, man. Yeah. would panic exactly they wanted 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:20.780 to smooth out that psychological transition by 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:23.780 keeping the visual language familiar like if 00:02:23.780 --> 00:02:27.000 your old 10 -pound note was orange your new equivalent 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.340 $20 note is gonna be orange yeah they anchored 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:33.900 the new scary math to a familiar visual cue which 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:36.699 brings us to the great color debate Is the note 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:39.560 actually red or is it orange? Ah, the classic 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:41.780 argument. The article officially clarifies this, 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:44.719 by the way. It's a highly specific mix of Clinton 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:47.900 red and orange, specifically chosen to represent 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.960 the deep, dusty, iron -rich earth of the Australian 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:54.240 outback. Right. But because of that very distinct, 00:02:54.419 --> 00:02:57.189 aggressive red -orange hue... The public almost 00:02:57.189 --> 00:02:59.129 instantly gave it one of the greatest nicknames 00:02:59.129 --> 00:03:01.629 in global currency. The lobster. The lobster. 00:03:01.909 --> 00:03:04.569 It's just so distinctly Australian to immediately 00:03:04.569 --> 00:03:06.750 strip the formality away from national currency 00:03:06.750 --> 00:03:09.569 with a colloquial nickname like that. And they 00:03:09.569 --> 00:03:12.370 printed so many of them. The sources note that 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:16.169 by June 2017, there were 164 million of these 00:03:16.169 --> 00:03:19.530 lobsters in circulation. That's roughly 11 percent 00:03:19.530 --> 00:03:22.050 of all banknotes out there. It carried a total 00:03:22.050 --> 00:03:26.039 physical value of over 3 .2 billion dollars. 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.400 That is a lot of lobsters. It is, but here's 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:31.000 the thing that really caught my eye about those 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.159 early days. It's like a corporate brand refresh 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:35.659 where the executives were too afraid to completely 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:37.580 let go of their original logo. So what do you 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:40.219 mean? Well from its launch in 1966 all the way 00:03:40.219 --> 00:03:43.379 until 1974, the main title printed on the note 00:03:43.379 --> 00:03:46.259 didn't just say Australia, it read Commonwealth 00:03:46.259 --> 00:03:48.659 of Australia. What's fascinating here is how 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:51.439 a simple typographical change on a piece of paper 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:54.500 perfectly mirrors a nation's shifting politics. 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:56.659 Right. During that first eight -year run they 00:03:56.659 --> 00:03:59.599 pumped out nearly 147 million of those Commonwealth 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:02.560 of Australia notes. It was this lingering psychological 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.460 tie to the British Empire. But then in 1974 they 00:04:05.460 --> 00:04:08.479 deliberately drop Commonwealth of. Yep and from 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.879 then until the end of the paper era in 1994 they 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:15.860 printed over 1 .6 billion notes that simply confidently 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:19.100 read Australia. It's subtle. But dropping those 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:22.259 two words is essentially a mass distributed declaration 00:04:22.259 --> 00:04:25.120 of independence handed out in change at every 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.079 bakery and petrol station in the country. Precisely. 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:30.040 They were stepping out of the colonial shadow 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.680 and asserting themselves on the global stage 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:36.459 as this modern, independent entity. So let's 00:04:36.459 --> 00:04:39.300 look at that first canvas, the paper era, because 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:41.540 the intellectual themes they chose to display 00:04:41.540 --> 00:04:45.139 on this new, confident currency are wild. They 00:04:45.139 --> 00:04:48.000 really are. You flip this note over, and it is 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.240 entirely dedicated to the obsession with flight 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:52.939 and physics. On the obverse of the front, you 00:04:52.939 --> 00:04:55.740 have Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, the legendary 00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:58.019 aviator. And on the reverse, you have Lawrence 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:00.620 Hargrave, alongside his intricate drawings of 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:03.000 early aircraft designs. Which makes sense for 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.019 an aviation theme. Definitely, because Hargrave's 00:05:06.019 --> 00:05:09.000 box kites and aerodynamic theories were actually 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.920 instrumental in the development of early flight 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.629 globally. He even influenced the Wright brothers. 00:05:13.870 --> 00:05:15.769 But the designers didn't just put their portraits 00:05:15.769 --> 00:05:18.850 on the note. Behind Kingsford Smith, there is 00:05:18.850 --> 00:05:22.129 literal complex math. The curves, right? Yeah. 00:05:22.449 --> 00:05:25.790 The design explicitly includes five Lasage's 00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:28.410 curves drawn by a two -pendulum hermitograph. 00:05:29.180 --> 00:05:31.379 Now I have to ask, on behalf of the listener, 00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:33.879 what on earth is a two pendulum harmonograph? 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:36.879 Quite the contraption. And why dedicate incredibly 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.360 valuable real estate on your national currency 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:42.240 to abstract physics equations instead of just 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:44.379 slapping another politician on there? Well, to 00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:46.819 understand the harmonograph, imagine tying a 00:05:46.819 --> 00:05:50.000 pen to two swinging pendulums. One is swinging 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.740 side to side, the other is swinging back and 00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:54.360 forth. Okay, I'm picturing it. As they lose momentum, 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:58.620 the pen draws these beautiful, complex, overlapping 00:05:58.620 --> 00:06:01.439 continuous loops. Those are Lasage's curves. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.399 They visually represent the mathematics of complex 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:07.220 frequencies, vibrations, and resonance. Okay, 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.319 but how does swinging a pen on a pendulum relate 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:11.740 to flying an airplane? Because resonance is the 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:14.240 exact physics you need to master to keep an airplane 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:17.050 from shaking itself apart in the sky. Oh wow, 00:06:17.350 --> 00:06:18.750 I didn't even think of that. Yeah, if you've 00:06:18.750 --> 00:06:20.850 ever seen a washing machine violently vibrate 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:22.769 and break during a spin cycle because the load 00:06:22.769 --> 00:06:25.689 is unbalanced, that's resonance. Now imagine 00:06:25.689 --> 00:06:28.649 that mathematical force acting on a canvas and 00:06:28.649 --> 00:06:31.350 wood biplane over the Pacific Ocean. Putting 00:06:31.350 --> 00:06:33.949 those curves on the note wasn't just decorative, 00:06:34.389 --> 00:06:36.769 it was a statement. So they were showing off 00:06:36.769 --> 00:06:39.759 their priorities. Exactly. The paper note was 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:42.399 designed in an era where conquering the skies 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:45.259 was the absolute pinnacle of human progress. 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:48.220 Australia was telling its citizens that it valued 00:06:48.220 --> 00:06:51.220 intellect, the mechanics of progress, and the 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:53.220 underlying math that made survival possible. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:55.839 It's a literal physics lesson in your pocket. 00:06:56.379 --> 00:06:58.160 And speaking of the details on those paper notes, 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.560 there's a great nugget in the sources for the 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:02.899 collectors listening. Oh, the signatures. Yes. 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:05.759 Throughout the entire lifespan of the $20 note, 00:07:06.220 --> 00:07:08.220 the printing plates had to be updated to feature 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:10.819 exactly 14 different signature combinations. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:12.720 Right. The signatures of the governor of the 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:14.540 Reserve Bank and the secretary to the treasury. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.079 They act as the official authorization of the 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:19.220 currency's value. And if you happen to be checking 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:21.379 your old paper notes in a shoe box somewhere, 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:24.899 pay attention to the dates. The 1967 issue was 00:07:24.899 --> 00:07:27.660 printed for only a single year. Which makes it 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:30.709 incredibly valuable to collectors today. Exactly. 00:07:31.189 --> 00:07:34.290 And the 1989 combination featuring the signatures 00:07:34.290 --> 00:07:36.670 of Philip and Frasier was issued for even less 00:07:36.670 --> 00:07:39.310 than a year. That's a rare find. But eventually 00:07:39.310 --> 00:07:41.569 the era of paper comes to an end, we conquer 00:07:41.569 --> 00:07:44.750 the skies, and then the narrative of the currency 00:07:44.750 --> 00:07:47.509 shifts dramatically downward, back down to the 00:07:47.509 --> 00:07:50.110 dirt. Specifically to the harsh, unforgiving 00:07:50.110 --> 00:07:53.199 terrain of the Australian outback. Because in 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.079 1994, Australia didn't just redesign the artwork. 00:07:56.500 --> 00:07:59.060 They pioneered a massive technological shift. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:03.500 From paper to polymer banknotes. Biaxially oriented 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:06.079 polypropylene, to be exact. That's a mouthful. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:08.980 But yes, plastic money. Here's where it gets 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:11.560 really interesting. Because when they switched 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:14.560 to polymer in 1994, they brought in designer 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:17.740 Gary Emory. And the sheer density of Easter eggs 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:20.120 he packed into this new design is staggering. 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:22.399 It really is a crowded canvas. It's like a Where's 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:24.579 Waldo of Outback history. I'm looking at the 00:08:24.579 --> 00:08:26.779 description and you've got a sailing ship, a 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:29.480 biplane, early colonial buildings. And wait, 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:32.179 is that a guy riding a camel? It sure is. Let's 00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:34.840 break down exactly who these people are. On the 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:38.279 front, we have Mary Rybie. How does someone featured 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:40.460 in the source's convict templates end up on the 00:08:40.460 --> 00:08:44.289 $20 note? Her story is incredible. She wasn't 00:08:44.289 --> 00:08:46.710 born into royalty. She was actually convicted 00:08:46.710 --> 00:08:49.409 of horse stealing in England as a teenager. Wait, 00:08:49.750 --> 00:08:52.590 seriously? Yeah. She disguised herself as a boy, 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:55.549 got caught, and was transported to the penal 00:08:55.549 --> 00:08:58.570 colony of Australia. But instead of letting that 00:08:58.570 --> 00:09:00.830 dictate her life, she eventually became one of 00:09:00.830 --> 00:09:03.490 the most successful shipping magnates and entrepreneurs 00:09:03.490 --> 00:09:06.529 in the colony's history. That is an amazing turnaround. 00:09:06.730 --> 00:09:09.509 It is. So her portrait sits alongside an early 00:09:09.509 --> 00:09:12.149 colonial building in Sydney and the sailing ship 00:09:12.149 --> 00:09:14.269 Mercury, which represents the fleet she built 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:16.840 from absolutely nothing. So the front is about 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:19.379 economic triumph over circumstance. And then 00:09:19.379 --> 00:09:21.559 you flip it over to the reverse, and it is a 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:23.720 master class in outback survival. Completely 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:25.779 different vibe. Yeah. You have Reverend John 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:28.379 Flynn, who founded what became Frontier Services, 00:09:28.820 --> 00:09:31.639 and the world famous Royal Flying Doctor Service. 00:09:31.899 --> 00:09:34.759 And to represent that, there's a Qantas -supplied 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:38.179 de Havilland DH -50 biplane named Victory right 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:40.389 there with him. But what really caught my attention 00:09:40.389 --> 00:09:43.389 was the inclusion of the pedal wireless, invented 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:46.289 by Alfred Herman Traeger. Oh, the pedal wireless 00:09:46.289 --> 00:09:50.230 completely revolutionized outback survival. How 00:09:50.230 --> 00:09:53.830 so? Well, in the 1920s, if you lived on a remote 00:09:53.830 --> 00:09:56.330 homestead and someone broke their leg or fell 00:09:56.330 --> 00:09:58.889 ill, the isolation could literally be a death 00:09:58.889 --> 00:10:01.610 sentence. There were no phone lines. So how did 00:10:01.610 --> 00:10:04.190 a pedal wireless solve that? I mean, just pedaling? 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:07.019 Traeger brilliantly combined a radio transmitter 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:10.179 with bicycle pedals. He realized that the biggest 00:10:10.179 --> 00:10:12.580 hurdle in the outback wasn't just the radio signal. 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.159 It was generating the electricity to power the 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:17.059 radio. Oh, because they didn't have a power grid. 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:19.960 Exactly. So he hooked a generator up to a set 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:22.179 of pedals. You would sit there, physically pedal 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:24.299 like you were riding a bicycle to generate the 00:10:24.299 --> 00:10:27.019 electrical wattage and use that power to transmit 00:10:27.019 --> 00:10:29.970 a Morse code plea for a flying doctor. That is 00:10:29.970 --> 00:10:32.029 the definition of rugged innovation. It truly 00:10:32.029 --> 00:10:34.450 is. And tucked right in there alongside Flynn 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:37.809 and the pedal radio is College Harland. He was 00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:39.889 a missionary who serviced the inland people, 00:10:40.049 --> 00:10:42.669 and he's quite literally depicted riding a camel 00:10:42.669 --> 00:10:44.970 across the note. Along with a compass printed 00:10:44.970 --> 00:10:47.750 in the clear window with the rays number 20. 00:10:47.909 --> 00:10:50.090 Yeah. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:10:50.649 --> 00:10:52.830 Gary Emory's polymer design is telling a deeply 00:10:52.830 --> 00:10:56.549 cohesive story. How so? While the old paper note 00:10:56.549 --> 00:10:58.470 was about the theoretical physics of flight, 00:10:58.929 --> 00:11:01.470 the 1994 polymer note is fundamentally about 00:11:01.470 --> 00:11:04.450 grit and resilience. Oh, I see. It's about Mary 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:07.190 Reaby overcoming her past to build an empire. 00:11:07.649 --> 00:11:10.909 It's about Flynn, Trager, and Harlan using medicine, 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:13.750 mechanical generators, and camels to bridge the 00:11:13.750 --> 00:11:16.070 impossible deadly distances of the continent. 00:11:16.350 --> 00:11:19.129 It's a brilliant narrative arc. But as the stories 00:11:19.129 --> 00:11:21.190 printed on these notes became richer and more 00:11:21.190 --> 00:11:24.129 detailed, the vault protecting them had to evolve 00:11:24.129 --> 00:11:27.289 too. Because a beautiful note is useless if anyone 00:11:27.289 --> 00:11:29.809 with a printer can copy it. Right. Which brings 00:11:29.809 --> 00:11:32.230 us to the hidden defensive engineering of currency, 00:11:32.850 --> 00:11:35.450 the invisible cat and mouse game. Counterfeiting 00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:38.850 isn't just a nuisance. A flood of fake currency 00:11:38.850 --> 00:11:41.490 can completely destabilize a nation's economy. 00:11:41.659 --> 00:11:44.320 And the source material outlines exactly how 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.720 Australia's defensive measures had to aggressively 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.879 level up over the decades to stay ahead of international 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:52.519 crime syndicates. They had to. Let's look at 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:55.039 how analog the old paper era security used to 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:58.240 be. Their main defense was a watermark of Captain 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:00.820 James Cook hidden in the white space. Which, 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:02.659 funny enough, they actually just lazily borrowed 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:06.620 from the old pound notes. Yeah. Then, by 1976, 00:12:06.899 --> 00:12:09.740 counterfeiting tech got better, so the bank retaliated 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:12.500 by weaving a metallic strip into the paper. It 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:14.320 started near the center and later moved to the 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:16.340 left side of the note. But when they made that 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:19.960 massive shift to polymer in 1994, the security 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:23.019 features went full sci -fi. Totally. Polymer 00:12:23.019 --> 00:12:26.500 plastic itself is inherently much harder to source 00:12:26.500 --> 00:12:29.720 and print on than paper. That immediately knocked 00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:32.000 out the amateur counterfeiters. But the Reserve 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.139 Bank didn't stop there. They leaned into the 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:36.500 plastic aspect, right? Yeah, they utilized the 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:38.700 transparent nature of the plastic to create clear 00:12:38.700 --> 00:12:41.370 windows. They added a shadow image of the national 00:12:41.370 --> 00:12:43.830 coat of arms. And the tactile stuff too. Right. 00:12:43.950 --> 00:12:46.370 They physically embossed the number 20 directly 00:12:46.370 --> 00:12:48.909 into the clear plastic panel. So a blind person 00:12:48.909 --> 00:12:50.350 or just someone checking their change in the 00:12:50.350 --> 00:12:52.809 dark could physically feel it. That's so smart. 00:12:52.950 --> 00:12:55.370 They even added fluorescent coloring to the serial 00:12:55.370 --> 00:12:59.009 numbers and a special value patch that is completely 00:12:59.009 --> 00:13:02.429 invisible until you expose it to ultraviolet 00:13:02.429 --> 00:13:04.590 light. And we have to talk about the star feature. 00:13:05.019 --> 00:13:08.019 This is the coolest piece of engineering on the 00:13:08.019 --> 00:13:10.740 entire note, in my opinion. Oh, the star is incredible. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.460 There is a circular pattern printed on the polymer, 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:16.379 but it's fractured. Four points of a star are 00:13:16.379 --> 00:13:18.580 printed on the front of the note, and three points 00:13:18.580 --> 00:13:20.700 of the star are printed on the back. And to the 00:13:20.700 --> 00:13:22.960 naked eye, they just look like random chaotic 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.259 geometric shapes. Right, until you hold the note 00:13:25.259 --> 00:13:27.340 up to a light source so you can see through the 00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:29.500 plastic. Exactly. So what does this all mean? 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.639 When you hold it up to the light, The front and 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:36.899 back shapes align to form a flawless, perfectly 00:13:36.899 --> 00:13:39.759 symmetrical seven -pointed star. It's amazing 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:42.379 precision. It's like cutting a complex QR code 00:13:42.379 --> 00:13:45.039 in half, printing one half on a window in New 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:47.259 York, the other half on a window in London, and 00:13:47.259 --> 00:13:49.360 requiring them to line up perfectly when you 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:51.720 look through them. This raises an important question 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:54.340 about the sheer scale of the invisible war between 00:13:54.340 --> 00:13:56.200 national banks and counterfeiters. How do you 00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:58.740 mean? Well, every single feature you just mentioned 00:13:58.740 --> 00:14:02.259 requires a manufacturing process called intellioprinting. 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:05.639 It utilizes extreme pressures and simultaneous 00:14:05.639 --> 00:14:07.820 front and back alignment. Oh, so it's not just 00:14:07.820 --> 00:14:10.580 stamping it twice? No, not at all. If the printing 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:13.120 press shifts by even a fraction of a millimeter, 00:14:13.820 --> 00:14:17.059 that star fails to align and the note is destroyed. 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:20.340 Wow. The bank is spending millions of dollars 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:23.419 to engineer physical architecture with printing 00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:25.899 tolerances that are simply too mathematically 00:14:25.899 --> 00:14:28.860 complex and expensive for a criminal enterprise 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:31.159 to replicate. And on top of all that, they still 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.559 have to ensure this high -tech fortress of a 00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:36.399 note can survive being crumpled up in a wet swimsuit 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:38.940 or read perfectly by a vending machine optical 00:14:38.940 --> 00:14:42.230 scanner. And that arms race never stops. Counterfeiters 00:14:42.230 --> 00:14:44.629 get better computers. So the bank has to build 00:14:44.629 --> 00:14:48.009 a better note. Which is why on October 9th, 2019, 00:14:48.450 --> 00:14:52.230 they released the next generation twenty dollar 00:14:52.230 --> 00:14:55.090 banknote. Right. They kept the exact same Clinton 00:14:55.090 --> 00:14:57.710 red and orange lobster color mix to maintain 00:14:57.710 --> 00:14:59.490 that psychological continuity we talked about 00:14:59.490 --> 00:15:01.190 earlier. And they kept the characters of Mary 00:15:01.190 --> 00:15:03.850 Reby and John Flynn, too. But they upgraded the 00:15:03.850 --> 00:15:07.120 security to a whole new level. It features massive 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:10.559 clear top -to -bottom windows and dynamic color 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.399 -changing ink that actually shifts as you tilt 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:16.320 the bill. And they made one really specific historical 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:19.639 update in that 2019 release. They swapped out 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:23.590 Flynn's original plane. The old Victory biplane 00:15:23.590 --> 00:15:26.049 was replaced with a highly detailed depiction 00:15:26.049 --> 00:15:29.870 of a de Havilland Dragon Rapide airplane, specifically 00:15:29.870 --> 00:15:32.789 shown taking off from a remote homestead in Broken 00:15:32.789 --> 00:15:35.610 Hill. It's just this beautiful continuous polishing 00:15:35.610 --> 00:15:37.970 of the story alongside the security. It really 00:15:37.970 --> 00:15:40.710 is. It perfectly encapsulates the dual mandate 00:15:40.710 --> 00:15:43.490 of modern currency. They are refining the historical 00:15:43.490 --> 00:15:46.309 accuracy and the storytelling while simultaneously 00:15:46.309 --> 00:15:48.350 upgrading the physics to make the note essentially 00:15:48.350 --> 00:15:51.159 impossible to forge. So let's look at the incredible 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.460 journey this piece of currency has taken. We 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:56.659 started in 1966 with a simple color continuity 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:59.480 trick matching the old 10 pound note to comfort 00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:01.740 a public that was terrified of decimalization. 00:16:01.779 --> 00:16:04.080 Right, easing them in. Then it became a paper 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:06.440 tribute to the physics of flight and the golden 00:16:06.440 --> 00:16:10.570 age of aviation. In 1994, it transformed into 00:16:10.570 --> 00:16:14.029 a highly engineered polymer canvas, celebrating 00:16:14.029 --> 00:16:17.190 the sheer rugged resilience of outback pioneers 00:16:17.190 --> 00:16:21.289 and pedal -powered radios. And today, it's a 00:16:21.289 --> 00:16:23.809 cutting -edge fortress of anti -counterfeiting 00:16:23.809 --> 00:16:27.470 technology that still remembers to honor a missionary 00:16:27.470 --> 00:16:30.889 riding a camel. It is a profound evolution for 00:16:30.889 --> 00:16:32.929 an ob. Most people just shove into their pockets 00:16:32.929 --> 00:16:35.629 without a second thought. Truly. Which is exactly 00:16:35.629 --> 00:16:37.830 why I want to put a challenge out to you, the 00:16:37.830 --> 00:16:40.169 listener. The next time you are handed a physical 00:16:40.169 --> 00:16:43.200 $20 note, or honestly... any piece of physical 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:45.519 currency from anywhere in the world, don't just 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:47.580 instantly put it away. Take a second look. Yeah, 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:49.399 take a second look. Hold it up to the light and 00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:52.399 look for that perfectly aligned star. Feel the 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:54.799 raised ink of the intaglio printing. Look for 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.059 the micro printing, the hidden physics equations, 00:16:57.460 --> 00:16:59.879 or the tiny historical figures fighting for space 00:16:59.879 --> 00:17:02.600 in the background. Spot the stories and the science 00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:04.539 before you hand it over. And as you do that. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:06.859 Here's a final thought to mull over. Let's hear 00:17:06.859 --> 00:17:09.339 it. We've spent this entire deep dive exploring 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:12.279 the incredible physical art, the layered history 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:14.559 and the tactile engineering woven into these 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:17.960 polymer canvases. But as our society rapidly 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:20.680 shifts toward digital payments, Apple Pay and 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:23.900 tap and go cards, are we slowly losing this pocket 00:17:23.900 --> 00:17:26.470 size medium for national storytelling? That's 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:28.410 a great point. Will the intricate, carefully 00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:31.430 curated legacy of the lobster, with its harmonographs, 00:17:31.630 --> 00:17:33.529 convicts turned magnates and hidden watermarks, 00:17:33.869 --> 00:17:37.049 one day be replaced entirely by a sterile, invisible 00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:39.289 line of code on a bank server? It really makes 00:17:39.289 --> 00:17:41.470 you wonder, because that instant, frictionless 00:17:41.470 --> 00:17:43.890 precision of a digital transaction is convenient. 00:17:44.269 --> 00:17:46.670 But it certainly isn't as beautiful or as human 00:17:46.670 --> 00:17:49.609 as the messy, dusty Clinton red history staring 00:17:49.609 --> 00:17:51.809 back at us from the Candace right inside our 00:17:51.809 --> 00:17:52.250 wallets.