
FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface - alcari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FE-Schrift
======
dv_says
A similar concept is found in Chinese writing. Numbers are written using
relatively few strokes, making it easy to change a "one" into a "two."

1: 一 2: 二 3: 三 4: 四 5: 五 6: 六 7: 七 8: 八 9: 九 10: 十

For financial documents, a more complicated form of symbols is used:

1: 壹 2: 貳 3: 參 4: 肆 5: 伍 6: 陸 7: 柒 8: 捌 9: 玖 10: 拾

~~~
lloydde
Other than the one to two transformation, are there others? Was the formal
system a response to these problems or how it has always been done?

~~~
ygra
The more formal number ideographs are the original ones, the simpler ones were
simplified so numbers aren't as awkward to use.

You can also easily change a one into a ten, for example. Note also that it's
not exactly a positional number system like Arabic. E.g. the number 123 would
be written 1 hundred 2 ten 3. IIRC you can also easily change a ten into a
hundred or thousand, so for larger values with a few zeroes in between you
could shift a meaningful place into the zeroes to the left sometimes.

------
semi-extrinsic
Interesting: "it was tested at the University of Giessen's Dept. of Physiology
and Cybernetic Psychology." That's quite a name, sounds like it was lifted
straight from Command & Conquer.

~~~
nabla9
Cybernetics is more common term in the continental Europe. Anglo-Saxons use
"systems theory" and it's slowly replacing cybernetics. If you want to read
about cybernetic psychology and related subjects, you might want to google
"systems psychology", "systems neuroscience", "systems biology" instead.

------
x1798DE
>FE-Schrift has been the only typeface used on new vehicle registration plates
of Germany since November 2000, except for plates issued to military-
registered vehicles, which still use the former DIN 1451 typeface.

Interesting that the the military vehicles don't get it. It makes some sense
that they wouldn't _need_ it, but I can't imagine that it would hurt to have
it.

~~~
hwh
I guess they still have 1 million plates in some storage facility. Nah, jokes
aside: what they actually do is to not only legally, but practically issue
their own plates, which would include stamping them. Also, they don't use the
reflective background white. So not only they don't need it, they also have
reasons to continue with the old variant. (And actually, they might indeed
have a huge stock of them. Military supplies are often aquired at ridiculous
numbers.)

(PS: Sorry, auto-correct inserted a typo, just fixed)

~~~
DasIch
Why would it matter how many plates they have unless they stamp them ahead of
time?

The police issues their own plates as well and they manage fine.

~~~
hwh
Police does use the EU variant for the plates, though. You're right, of course
they could go with FE Schrift on their old (non-reflective, non-EU) plates.
That would, however, be a new combination that would match neither the new
civil plates nor the old ones.

------
Semiapies
It's an interesting design, but I find myself wondering how often license-
plate forgery happened.

~~~
gayprogrammer
Sometimes the severity of a crime outweighs the frequency. It may be worth
preventing any forgery since, when it does happen, the effects are bad.

~~~
MichaelGG
Are license plates that hard to forge? How much work is it to stamp one? (Not
to mention that you can get away with printing plates even on paper. A buddy
was driving his car intercountry but didn't have his official plate, just the
temp ones. Border agents were particular about that part. A bit of Photoshop
and applying a bit of dust and no problems at all during a trip spanning 3
countries.)

~~~
ianbooker
You can actually just buy one for 12 euros, with any combination you like. The
stamp, at least in Germany, seems to be the harder thing. It is more common to
steal a plate and punch them out.

When you think about it, although the stamps are not that hard to fake,
stealing a number plate is a matter of a second. You just clip it out of a
plastic frame.

Source: My number plate was stolen in Germany last year.

------
tommarmstrong
I found an article that has a little more info but also an interactive demo of
why they're hard to forge

[http://www.fsd.it/usefuldesign/german_plates_font.htm](http://www.fsd.it/usefuldesign/german_plates_font.htm)

