Officials at the FBI Steganographic lab announced the startling revelation that the recently released 100# Eurodollar contains a graphic element that has a US Treasury watermark.

European Union officials in Brussels have refused to comment on the assertion that they violated international copyright law by incorporating the nose of Abraham Lincoln into their new currency.

The stolen image element was discovered by accident as part of an ongoing investigation into the use of embedded "watermarks" in images as a means for terrorists to communicate messages. Famed terrorist Osama Bin Laden is reported to use this technique to disseminate instructions to his accomplices.

"We were shocked" exclaimed Bill Effingham, chief of the FBI Steganographic lab. "Lincolns' nose was the last thing we expected to find".

Effingham goes on to report that they usually uncover tourism propaganda watermarked into foreign currency, but rarely discover copyright infringement.

Copyrighted graphics being used illegally in currency is not new.

In the 1896 case of Ford Vs the US Mint, it was alleged that the vehicle depicted on the back of the US five dollar bill was taken from a copyrighted Ford Motor Company advertisement.

Under microscopic inspection it is clear that the image was indeed stolen from Ford, but then president Grover Cleveland issued a presidential pardon to the US Mint and the issue was dropped.

It is unclear whether the current administration would press the EU to pay a royalty for printing Lincolns' nose in their currency. Such a move could net billions for the US treasury, but cripple the tenuous European economy.