Comments on: Bendable driver's license? WTF?

Question: Bendable driver's license? WTF?

delmoi — Sun, 27 May 2007 09:49:31 -0800

Why are New York driver's licenses made from a flexible material? And what is it?

I'm looking at my sister's NY driver's license. It's made from this flexible, soft plastic-y material. It looks like vinyl maybe. My sister said it looked "cheap" and it kind of does, but it doesn't seem like a cost saving measure to me. What's the deal?

By: danb

danb — Sun, 27 May 2007 09:52:19 -0800

I think it's supposed to be difficult to replicate. When I've gotten carded for things, people have bent it and felt it to see if it's authentic. I don't know what the material is, though.

By: Coffeemate

Coffeemate — Sun, 27 May 2007 09:55:45 -0800

Minnesota's are the same - very flexible, with a matte finish. I haven't seen the material used for anything else, so it's probably hard to come by, and thus hard to use to make fake IDs.

By: cosmic osmo

cosmic osmo — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:16:59 -0800

The material is called teslin. I don't know why they use it, though.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:30:57 -0800

It's durable, and (to disagree with danb) easy to print-on, making it lower cost to make a lot of them. (source)

By: Schlimmbesserung

Schlimmbesserung — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:31:41 -0800

Wikipedia would have us believe that it's because it's very strong and works well in standard printers. Sadly, it's not hard stuff to come by. I've seen very good fakes made of it.

By: Schlimmbesserung

Schlimmbesserung — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:32:06 -0800

Curse you, blue_beetle! That didn't even show up on preview. Harumph.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:33:44 -0800

thanks cosmic. According to wikipedia, it's basically a very strong kind of synthetic paper that works well with inkjet printers. It seems like it would make making a Fake ID even easier, since you can run it through a regular printer. It's marketed as something durable to be printed on, so I guess that's why they use it.

Thanks.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:35:19 -0800

(heh, I typed out my response before blue_beetle's comment too)