THIS is part of the new Pounds sterling 5 note issued earlier this week
in the United Kingdom. It is the first time the Bank of England has issued
a note designed with a computer. Artists at the bank designed the new note
with a software package called, appropriately, MIDAS.
Developed by Tessella, a computer consultancy in Abingdon, Oxfordshire,
MIDAS allows the designer to produce pictures that contain both conventional
artistic images and abstract patterns generated by computers. Tessella says
that MIDAS was written primarily to help in the design of bank notes and
other documents which must be aesthetically pleasing but also secure against
forgery.
