I edited the quoted text down for copyright reasnos.

Here’s the Snopes text:

Origins: The ongoing effort to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters has led to the inclusion of a number of security features in U.S. currency. One countermeasure in particular has come to be the focus of a widely-believed bit lore: the embedded inscribed security thread. […..]

To respond, there would be little value in scanning $20 bills from miles away.

Other measures are surely available to prevent counterfeiting. So why the RFID tags in bills?

I assume they could put RFID scanners in cash registers and vending machines. They could also put them in ATM machines and at bank teller windows. Transactions, transactors, and methods of payment can be more readily matched, even in purely cash transactions. Most of these devices already “phone home” and update central computers regularly.
Eventually the TIA concept looks more possible as fewer and fewer transactions will be conducted by individuals anonymous to the government. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In a free society, most transactions should be untraceable by the government. Unfortunately, due to the ineffectual drug war, leading to money laundering, the ongoing war on terror, and the uncontrolled borders, leading to millions of untraceable individuals, many of them violent, there is a need to constrain freedom, at least temporarily.

In the short-run, due to past and current indulgence of threats, some freedoms must be shrunk. In the long run, we need to stop the threats to society and restore liberty. Those who truly love freedom should support an effective war on drugs, victory in the war on terror, and strong border enforcement.

We must temporarily sacrifice a little liberty for a great amount of long-term security.

As for the RFIDs in bills, I don’t see how that is necessary to protect society against threats. It seems to me it is a naked power grab by the government. Instead of tracing transactions after the fact, and most likely after violence has occurred, we should approach it wisely. Why track who purchases what food and magazines?

Dangerous transactions (such as the purchase of explosives) should be monitored per transactor, and if the transactor does not pass a computer check, then deny the transaction. That creates less of a paper trail that can later be used for illicit citizen-tracking. It also gives us more of a chance to prevent harm to innocent people a la the Oklahoma City bombing.

Assuming they knew which $20 bill you had in your pocket and that every $20 bill had a different RFID code, they would still need to be within a few feet to read it. Which would make using it as a tracking device kind of useless.

However if currency carried an RFID that could be used to verify a bill’s authenticity that could be useful.

Sometimes there is logic, evidence and common sense behind a mere attitude of skepticism. You just have to look. If none of that is enough - try this link to Snopes.

As citizens of a country that have created our own free government, we are morally required to probe into our government’s affairs, to ask questions, and to voice honest criticism so that the very thing that causes us to associate as a country–our freedom–can be maintained and protected by the institutions we have set up.

My web site is dedicated to free intellectual inquiry without borders save those of logic, evidence, and common sense. I will not be deterred by a mere attitude of skepticism.