In 1690, the Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first government in the Western world to issue paper money. Some of the first counterfeiters of paper money followed soon after. Within a generation, the authorities were engaged in a running battle against forgers, whom they tried to deter by various punishments: cropping their ears, for example, or hanging them. Many colonial notes soon came with a pointed warning: "To counterfeit is DEATH."

Last week, in a ceremony attended by Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke, government...