Recently I have been working on designing some icons. One of them requires the look and feel of a bond/money so I started searching for some information. Before I started designing anything I wanted to make sure that I knew what the design elements were called and how they were done so I could do my own take on it.

I thought that the first part of my question was going to be easy. All I needed to know what the ornate border on money and bonds was called. My Google searches for "Money Design", "Ornate Boarder" and everything else I could think of did not provide any answers I needed.

At that point I decided to go social. I tapped into the hive mind and posted to Twitter that in turn posted to all of my other social media outlets. I got many replies and answers but none completely answered the question of "What is the Design on Money & Bonds Called?".

The next step was to enlist the help of my wife the librarian. Normally I try to avoid asking for things like this because I am dumb and "I can do it my damned self". So putting my pride aside I asked for help and to my amazement there was not much that she came up with that had no already been dug up.

That is until today.

Today I was sent an email from the wife and it was originally from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, U.S. Department of the Treasury. I was a little surprised as there was no mention of emails to the treasury or anything like that. She didn't mention it to me because she didn't know if they would reply and had given up on getting one due to the delay. Apparently over a week ago she sent them an email asking this:

I was wondering if there is a specific typographical term for the ornate decorative border around paper money? I have noticed that official bonds also have this ornate border and wanted to know if there was a term for it.

The Response:

Dear Dorn's Wife:

The geometric or ‘looping line patterns” you see in the border work of Federal Reserve Notes are commonly referred to as Guilloche patterns.  Other acceptable terms include: Cycloid patterns, Rosette, or Lathe Border. Three basic properties alter the appearance of these waves.  The Frequency: how many waves should be created; Amplitude: how tall should the wave be; and Phase shift or Period: what rotation should be applied to each wave. Your assumption that a mechanical process was used to make them is correct. At BEP, an Engraver used a mechanical lathe machine (also called a geometric lathe) to produce Rosettes of varying sizes and shapes depending on the needs of the banknote design. Imagine this machine as being a ‘super Spiro-graph’. The machine would be set up using a series of precision gears, which would direct a stylus to lightly cut the geometric pattern into a steel Die to create the Rosette. The gears were engineered to affect the Frequency, Amplitude and Phase on a basic wave pattern. These lines would later be etched by the Engraver to enhance their quality and engraving depth.The process to construct a border from a Rosette, however, was a much more complex process which employed the skills of a Siderographer.  To begin, the completed Rosette would be transferred to a steel roll. This roll would be heat treated so it could be used many times without image degradation. The Siderographer would “lay down” the required portion of the Rosette into a blank steel Die and repeat the process carefully as to not damage the roll or alter the new Die. The composed border Die would then be handed over to an Engraver for further enhancement. This process in fact would be repeated several more times so that all the components of the banknote – the portrait or vignette, the borders, the text, and the denomination would be composed onto a Master Die from which all notes would be produced.
Over the years, the BEP have created hundreds of Rosette Dies in support of the currency designs and other security documents. The BEP no longer has the mechanical lathe. Instead we’ve incorporated computer software to create Guilloche patterns. Our Engraving and Siderography staff are working with the software to create new and more complex Rosettes as well as digitally capturing archived images to design or incorporate the classic guilloches originally produced by the geometric lathe.

We trust that this information is helpful.

Thank you, BEP Moneyfactory.gov

So I now know that the design elements that is on money and bonds is called "Guilloche patterns"! I had no idea about any of this stuff even though I did intaglio printmaking for many years and until now had no idea of where to look to find it.

I did a little more poking around now that I knew what to look for. Here is what I found. Hopefully it will be of some use to you designer folks out there:

This is some general info

• Guilloché according to Wikipedia
• An informative thread at IllustratorWorld.com
• Decent Illustrator tip
  

Software. These are the best ones I have found

• SymmetryWorks
• Excentro

I have to thank "the wife" (who wishes to remain unnamed) for several reasons. 1) She took the time to do some searching for me. 2) She had the creativity of thinking of asking the source (US Treasury) and finally, 3) For tolerating all of my silly questions.

A Thank you also goes out the the nice folks at the US Treasury. :)