Credit card forgery is costly to both companies and consumers as criminals devise new methods. One form of credit card forgery involves the use of am embossing machine to put a legitimate credit card number, obtained illegally, on a credit card blank. Another use of the embossing machine is to put new numbers and letters on a stolen card. Characteristics of the stolen card can be erased with heat, and flattened portions can be re-embossed with different numbers and letters. An experiment was conducted to examine the usefulness of depositing a thin metal film on the credit card to make examination of the credit card easier. Several credit cards were coated in a vacuum metal deposition chamber with a thin film of silver. Credit cards that might contain unique embossing characteristics or that had been re-embossed were placed in plastic sleeves that left only embossed areas exposed. They were then examined using controlled incident lighting with a stereo microscope, and areas of interest were photographed. Results demonstrated coating credit cards with a thin metal eliminated the interference from background printing and made examination easier. 5 references and 4 photographs