Money From Nothing: Or Why the Serial Number Now Appears Twice on Each Piece of Currency

G4G13

Money From Nothing: Or Why the Serial Number Now Appears Twice on Each Piece of Currency

Stuart Moskowitz

Puzzle

Rec Math

Martin Gardner introduced me to Vanishing Area Paradox Puzzles in Aha! Gotcha! with the Vanishing Leprechaun Puzzle. He explained the paradox by describing an old counterfeiting method. I've learned the method and so I'm going to share it with you. But before you get too excited, you should know that the government has now learned how to thwart this method of making money from nothing, thus the title of the gift. Does that make this gift worthless?

I plan to submit a paper containing a photo of nine $100 bills and your task will be to cut them up and rearrange the pieces to make ten $100 bills. I also will include a copy of the Vanishing Leprechauns, as they appeared in Gotcha! In addition to the paper for the exchange, I also will bring copies of the money paradox for you to cut up.

G13-059