Forget Holograms, water marks and big bold words stating that someone is “UNDER 21.” New York doing things it’s own way. Starting in July, they will be rolling out a very retro license. Residents of the state will be getting hard polycarbonate cards with black and white photos. No more color pictures. Officials in New York say that this new design license will be able to stop sophisticated counterfeit market. J. David Sampson executive deputy commissioner of the State Department of Motor Vehicles said “We see the New York driver’s license as the first line of defense.”
There are features that will make the licenses virtually impossible to forge. So say officials. The new licenses are laser engraved on rigid polycarbonate. That means it will not be easily altered or fabricated. The new cards are so stiff that they sound like a CD when dropped. The elements of the new license are fused together into what the department calls “a solid, monolithic structure that cannot be separated into layers and tampered with.”
New York promises the license will have the most counterfeit and tamper-resistant document technologically available” with some 30 security features, including embedded fine lines, variable patterns, micro-lettering. The licenses would cost almost $1 more per license to produce and print. The department said that cost would not be passed on to drivers. It also said the waiting time for new licenses would not change.