I read that article on TechWeb, and while I'm sure its accurate, I think they didn't go into enough detail about the quality of these electronic reproductions, or how many people those copies actually fooled.
To produce a copy of a bill printed 10 years ago that would look and feel even remotely believable to the inexperienced eye, I suspect you'd need the right paper (which would be very difficult to come by, unless you know how to make it yourself) and a quality full color laser printer.
Even then, there have been methods in place for a long, long time that deter counterfeits. Serial numbers are of course one of those methods.. I suspect most banks can determine whether the serial number on the bill is real. If the serial number test fails, there is enough detail on a bill that unless you have the capability to
print at very high resolutions, its going to be noticeable.
Like SE, I consider myself fairly proficient with technology and image manipulation, but even if I wanted to try to counterfeit a bill (not that I ever would
) I'm positive I couldn't do it convincingly.
The real threat in counterfeit money still comes from big time criminals with the funds to pull it off convincingly. And I doubt those guys use red-burning ink to print their bills.
I'm all for our government taking as many steps as possible to deter counterfeiters -- and I'd rather they spend already-budgeted tax money to do it than that they ignore it and let our economy be affected by criminals.