Photoshop and Images of Currency

[HDProman]

I have scanned some craft projects for my wife and one is a gift card holder. She included a folded dollar bill in the slot for the gift card and when I tried to open the image in Photoshop I was informed Photoshop can not edit images that include currency.

I was able to prepare the image for her web site using only Lightroom, however if it is possible I would prefer using Photoshop.

Any ideas?

[Schewe]

Yes, Photoshop has a built in currency detector for US and Euro bills. If the bill's size fits within a certain size/resolution, you can't open the image files (as you've found out). I can't remember what version that kicked in (I think it was CS2 or CS3). You might try opening the image with some other app and see if it works. There's a sweet spot where the bill makes Photoshop punt, if you can use something else to get the sizes down, you might be able to get it into Photoshop for saving to the web.

[Gary Brown]

Yes, Photoshop has a built in currency detector for US and Euro bills. If the bill's size fits within a certain size/resolution, you can't open the image files (as you've found out). I can't remember what version that kicked in (I think it was CS2 or CS3).

Here's an old forum message from 2005 that says:

“I still have PS 7 because I occasionally do graphic arts work involving currency images that PSCS refuses to open.”

(It's in a thread about CS2, so I'm not sure if he meant CS2 or was referring to something earlier.)

[Schewe]

Hum...CS huh...by, that was a long time ago!

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

To raise the spookiness level a notch, the question is: does PS send your IP address and PS serial number to the FBI when you try to open a bill?

[Schewe]

Naw...that would be too much work.

BTW, a lot of color scanners and copiers will also belch when trying to scan/copy currency. Not all, but some.

[Gary Brown]

Wikipedia has a couple of articles on the topic: Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (the organization that developed the technology) and EURion constellation (reportedly one of the ways it detects currency).