I'm suggesting NO changes to the note system we already have, these are additions so relax and enjoy!
There have been previous suggestions for things like art, banknotes stocks and bonds and the like. Such as here;
http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0
The obvious problem with the concept is that these items require relatively easy manufacture and yet be identifiably unique. As in the above thread suggestions of things like coded matrixes have been put forward, but as Prut says;
I just want this cheap and easy to make, and hard to falsify!
Complicated seal manufacture with expensive and rare resources would not work
This whole slew of ideas stems from this simple system. A new "family" of notes which I'll name printed, canvas, cloth and photo for ease. These will work in just the same way as the current notes but for three differences.
1, A tool or machine and resources are required to create the note. (with one special exception).
2, Instead of the current "eye" link for viewing the item there will be an appropriate icon to match the document. E.g.; a picture of a scroll for a printed document. (Normal notes will retain the "eye").
3,When the document is created a hidden "timestamp" containing the time and day will be saved with it.
So how will this work?
Lets start with the printing press and printed documents.
Machine: Printing press. 5 kilos of iron, 2 kilos of steel and a kilo of oil. 15 days with a wrench, screwdriver and hammer. (for example only).
You create a note that you want to print in the normal way. Then you use your printing press to start a printing project, submit the document and input the required amount.
The length of the project is decided by the amount of copies you want, perhaps 10 an hour, with a one hour minimum. (the machine needs setting up after all).
At the end of the project you get the copies which are identical to the original except it now has a Scroll icon instead of the Eye icon, there is no copy function associated with these printed notes and they each have a hidden timestamp which is the time/date of the start of the project.
The problem with notes is that they have no intrinsic value, their only value is the info they contain. These printed notes immediately have some value, even if they contain no information, lets jump in at the deep end and consider banknotes.
If my character enters a location and finds a load of notes I usually have a look through maybe take some copies of maps that I don’t have, maybe read some of the more interesting ones. Promissory notes are nothing but junk to me. Say there’s one that says “I promise to pay the bearer 1 kilo of iron“, or “I owe Joe 1 kilo of iron“. They are both junk to me because I can pick them up and make multiple copies.
Now I see a note which has been printed on a press and has the "printed" icon, It says I promise to pay the bearer one kilo of Iron from the Cantr Bank. Now this note is worth taking because I cant copy it and the person that made it obviously has access to iron and steel, it might actually be worth a k of iron! In any case someone I meet on the way to the bank might give me something for it, the note has intrinsic value. Right now if I work for an iron producer and am paid in iron my charries tend to have to carry that payment around. Some of my charries would defiantly accept a 100gram note, and I could imagine the scramble if someone died and dropped a handful of 1 kilo notes.
Here is a though experiment to clarify. You make your note in the normal way, you create your printed document on the press. You now have two identical notes except one can be copied and edited and one cannot but has the “printed” icon showing it was made on a press. Which one is more valuable to you?
There is a debate whether money would be used or even if it needs to be implemented, and though I've used cash as an example here its just an example. This system can be used for so much more; peace treaties, introductory notes, treasure maps, id cards, trade agreements, deeds, titles and even fishing/hunting licenses. The list goes on and I'm sure there are many uses I have failed to spot.
Ok so we have a printable form of document that cannot be copied normally, yet it can still be counterfeited. Here is how you can become a forger. You need a printing press and one of the notes you wish to copy, you follow the same procedure as making an original but submit the printed document to
copy. Ok, now your thinking what use is that if its so easy to forge... First don’t forget the considerable outlay of building the press and here is where the time stamp comes in.
We have a tool called a magnifying glass; 50 grams of iron and 100 grams of glass. File and screwdriver 2 days. (perhaps).
You use this tool to look at the document and it reveals the hidden timestamp. This obviously doesn’t say categorically that a document is a fake but a good bank should keep printing records, or could incorporate the date into its designs! A good forger might get around this by doctoring that design to match the timestamp, but of course the banks records would still reveal the fake.... unless those records were doctored. So it goes on, allowing both fairly secure currency and the possibility forging in a very simple system.
That’s printed documents now onto canvas and cloth.
You can make a tool called an "artists brush" 20 grams of wood 10 grams of hide, (maybe feathers or something).
For the "painting project you need a "canvas" Hide or cotton cloth and wood, (maybe some other resources to represent paint). You start the project and submit a jpg file which will become the painting. The note can only consist of a single jpg image and no other content. Perhaps a painting of 100x100 pixels will take a day or two, one around 200x200 would take 4 or 8. 400x400 16...32 up to a maximum deemed fit due to space and bandwidth constraints. Basically the picture size would determine the length of the project and the necessary resources. When finished you would have a note called a painting which would have a paintbrush icon instead of the “eye “and the hidden timestamp. It could be forged by someone with suitable resources and a paintbrush who has had access to the original.
How do you forge a painting?
When you see the picture you save it to your pc and then start a painting project using it. Of course someone with a magnifying glass would be able to tell which one is the original by comparing the two paintings and seeing which was older. A clever forger may thin of some ideas to get round this or even use it to his advantage, of course it would be very difficult to fool the artist armed with a glass!
Cloth pictures would be almost the same as paintings cept they would be more tapestries and embroidery. The would need a sewing/embroidery kit and more materials than painting and take much longer. Perhaps they could be larger as a trade off.
The extra wrinkle with canvas and cloth that I would like to see would be the ability to submit a thumbnail at the start of the project which would replace the paintbrush/needle icon. Perhaps twice as large as the normal icon. This would allow people to see a room full of pictures at a glance and then look at ones that interested them as in a gallery, or to have a flag or emblem shown in town that show on the objects page. Of course these object would be subject to the same rules suitability and taste that current notes are held to. In
addition I would suggest that obvious photography or plagiarism be forbidden.
As these items would be practically unique, take time to create and may even become very valuable I've put forward being able to pin notes down to a location in a separate suggestion. This would be a necessary precaution to stop newspawns running off with your valuable artworks.
The last new note type I've come up with is probably going to surprise some, a "photograph". These would be created using a "camera", and would a in the form of a descriptive text. They would have a "camera" icon to denote a photograph and a hidden timestamp. They would be a little different than the other new note types in that the original would require a camera but then copies could be freely made in the same way as normal notes. The description of cameras is a rather bigger subject than the previous ones so I'm submitting it as a separate photography suggestion.
The Photography suggestion doesn’t require this new note type to function, but I think would benefit greatly from it.
These new note types seem such a simple idea I cant think why I didn’t come up with it sooner. I think this might mean its an idea with legs. Even as I’m trying to get all this down into an understandable form new ideas are constantly popping into my head. How about the timestamp degrade over time by removing the last digit, so that the older the note the harder it is to pin the exact date down. Or when making a painting or tapestry, have the artist/forger be able to pick a display size for the finished artwork, this would make it harder to forge and give possible visible differences between an original and copy. I’m going to stop with the suggestions now , I could go on but I‘ll never get to finish if I don’t stop. Think there is plenty to discuss. *smiles*
I look forward to taking a picture of a local bigwig buying a painting with a hundred k note!
