Matted to 3” x 6.5”
Jerry Heidt/International Dichromate Inc
Gift of Gary Cullen
Jerry Heidt
Consultant volume phase holography
Published Feb 22, 2024
I can’t remember the exact date that I mastered this hologram. It was sometime in the late 80’s. After some changes in ownership (another long story) Richard Rallison’s company, now called Dicrotek, is owned by Holley Seeholtzer and Dave Rayfield. Dicrotek, is located in Richmond Utah just a few miles south of the Utah Idaho border.
A US gold coin collector was having some holograms made of rare gold coins. He also had some rare US currency and showed us his $10,000.00 dollar bill. He asked if it was possible to make a hologram of it without damaging the bill. So, we experimented with some $100.00 bills using contact cement to adhere it on a piece of black glass. We would then use Bestine to remove it from the glass. Once we were successful, he gave us the go-ahead.
I was amazed that he just left it with us. Once complete we offered it as a product it quickly became a best seller. One of our distributors put a deal together with Sharper Image and asked for an exclusive. The final product was framed with a disclaimer that it was a hologram and not a real $10,000.00 bill. It became the best-selling product that Sharper Image ever had. On their scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best it scored a 15.
However, all good things must come to an end. One day the Secret Service showed up at the distributers place of business. They had an order that no more $10,000 bill holograms could be shipped or sold until there was a ruling about whether a hologram of such currency was considered legal or not. It took months for a ruling. The court determined that it is not legal to sell any holographic image of paper currency. This all came about by someone unsuccessfully trying to sell a holographic $10,000.00 as the real thing. Sharper Image and the distributor thought about filing an appeal. However, once they received an estimate on what it would cost, they bowed out.
It was also determined that holograms sold prior to the ruling could stay out there although all the distributors' inventory was confiscated. So, these are extremely rare holograms with a good story. I don’t know if it would be legal to sell one though. I had three of them originally. Two of them in the Sharper Image format. I gave one to my father for his birthday, I had one hanging in my home and the one that is pictured in this article was a loose one in a box. When my father passed, we couldn’t find his. I lost mine during my last move. Now all that I have is the loose one.
Before the ruling, Dave Rayfield, was putting together some framed arrays of the bills. I think each array had 25. His goal was to make four arrays for a total of $1,000,000.00. I don’t know if he succeeded before we were cut off.
