Holograms

You probably stared at it the first time that you saw it. You probably even thought it was to coolest thing that you had ever seen. No we’re not talking about that new phone or computer. We’re talking about the hologram that is on your credit card.

The hologram sticker exists for one reason: to counter fraud. It is designed to make forgery difficult and has become so popular that several countries around the world have placed them on their currency notes and passports. Various security features like Covert Laser Readable Images, concealed images, nanotext, kinetic images, Guilloche images, and combination effects all help to fight the good fight against forgery.

Holograms are typically just the recording of a light field rather than an actual photograph. A laser is used to illuminate the subject matter and to give it a three dimensional appearance. This process also allows a different image to be viewed at different angles.

The first holograms were developed alongside the laser and in true Cold War fashion both American and Soviet scientists claim the first true hologram. In 1962 Yuri Denisyuk in the Soviet Union and Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan claimed to have developed the first true holograms. The most common type of hologram is the reflection (or Denisyuk hologram) and are capable of multi-colored imagery and can view different images under illumination. It did not take long for people to fall in love with holograms and by the 1970s it was common for people to make their own using homemade equipment. Holograms as an art form exploded and it only intensified as the price of acquiring a real laser became more affordable in the 1990s when lasers became an integral part of the DVD player and were now mass-produced to meet this demand.

The credit card hologram that we know today was patented by Herman Lopata in 1987. Lopata was at the time the president of the Automatic Toll Systems Inc. You may have heard of his company, it is known today as EZ-Pass. The hologram affixed, which was not easy to remove, allowed for not only an extra layer of security but also allowed for branding. The idea expanded to various currencies (British Pounds, Euros, Canadian Dollars, Japanese Yen, Brazilian Reais and others) and in official identity cards like passports or government ID cards like a driver’s license. After all credit cards are not the only thing thieves are trying to forge.

Today’s holograms are becoming increasingly more and more complex and require much more specialized equipment to create to try to stay a step ahead of forgers. Since lasers now cost only a few dollars to acquire the end product must be so much more intricate and complex to make forgery as difficult as possible. It is also up to the merchant to recognize what a legitimate hologram is and what is a forgery. With the ease of cloning a card the hologram becomes a more and more important security feature in the battle against credit card fraud.