Europium

By 2009-09-01T00:00:00

Euro bills

Source: Jupiterimages

Seeing red? That'll be europium

If you look at a genuine Euro note under ultraviolet light, parts of it should glow red. This light is the luminescence from a phosphor compound containing the lanthanoid metal europium, which derives its name from the same source as the banknote. Banknote counting machines can detect forgeries from the lack of this element...

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