Before Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity, before he was a Founding Father, he was a printer. One of the things he printed was paper money for the colony of Pennsylvania and eventually several other colonies. Paper money was a novelty in America, but became necessary when the supply of gold and silver coins couldn't keep up with the expanding economy.
Franklin knew that the bills he printed would only work if people could trust that they were real. So he spent his time coming up with printing methods that were hard to counterfeit, such as bespoke paper with embedded particles that could be seen, but were hard to duplicate. He also developed a unique type of ink. And his designs reflected intricate patterns based in nature. This work technically made Franklin a materials scientist, and some of his techniques are still in use. today. Read about the anti-counterfeiting methods developed by Benjamin Franklin at the Conversation.
(Image credit: Benjamin Franklin and David Hall)
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