Banknotes

[Spiffor]

I have recently gazed at a 5 € banknote, while I've never payed too much attention in the past.

I was amazed by the amount of things on this note to prevent counterfeit money :
- "transparent drawing" obviously (no idea of the English name, I mean the drawing you can see when looking at the note in bright light)
- strap of metal paper that glows strangely and differently according to the light and the drawing on it.
- one of the "5" can only be seen wholly if you look at the bill in bright light
- tons, really tons of very small lines in specific patterns. Some are ondulated. The distance between parallel lines is sometimes hardly seeable.
- the words EUROEYPΩ written tons of times in a barely readable font (you can read if you focus much on them)
- carved signature of the ECB


The amount of things you can find on these small pieces of paper is truly amazing So, How do your bills look like ? What is their technology against counterfaction ?

[Buck Birdseed]

In sweden it's similar- colour-changing ink, complex metal strip, complex pattern, multiple, difficult-to-replicate colours is a constant gradient, several watermarks (the "transparent" pictures you mentioned), one set of numbers that are half-written on one side and half on the other so they're only "complete" when looking through the note, symbols that appear under UV light, hologrammatic metal field.

England only has the watermark, a simple metal strip (which, however, is threaded through the note occasionally appearing outisde the paper), the hologram, the UV-light thing and reasonably complex patterns. Simple, non-garduated colours, no provision for checking the sides are properly lined up, no colour-changing ink.

[Buck Birdseed]

Apparently (checking the central bank website) they also have a raised area (the picture of Karl XI, specifically, on the 500 kr notes) and of course are made from special, difficult-to-replicate paper.

[Buck Birdseed]

More info here: http://www.riksbanken.se/default.asp?id=5718&path=

[Dr. A. Cula]

In Romania they started making new banknotes from some sort of plastic material that looks like paper, plus they have some of the security features already mentioned.

You'd think nobody in their right mind would want to print fake romanian money, but I have seen many fakes over the years. The National Bank says plastic notes are harder to fake, but I don't know.

[Dauphin]

Re: Banknotes

Originally posted by Spiffor
- "transparent drawing" obviously (no idea of the English name, I mean the drawing you can see when looking at the note in bright light)

Watermarking.

Edit - as stated by BB.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
England only has the watermark, a simple metal strip (which, however, is threaded through the note occasionally appearing outisde the paper), the hologram, the UV-light thing and reasonably complex patterns. Simple, non-garduated colours, no provision for checking the sides are properly lined up, no colour-changing ink.

The people chosen for the notes often have beards or taches (no this does not include the Queen), to make forging harder.

[Kidlicious]

If you deface the dollar, you can make it say "We Trust No One" instead of, "In God we Trust." You can fold it to make the Twin Towers two, but I don't know what that is suppose to mean.

Oh, to check my dollars I look for the tiny red and blue fibers embedded into the paper. Also, you can move your thumbnail on the presidents clothing and feel the ridges. The second way works if there is dim light.

[Boris Godunov]

The new American bills are designed to thwart counterfeiting as much as possible, and I believe they've been pretty successful. They are getting ready to colorize them, which will be something completely new for us Yanks. I, for one, can't wait...it's about time we had colorful bills, like the rest of the world.

Down with ugly money!

[PLATO]

On the news this morning they are talking about adding a third color to US bills. (currently black and green are the only colors)

edit: Boris beats me to the punch again!

[Spiffor]

Will you Yanks change the represented people on your notes, or will you still suffer from the Pyramids with an eye, the "In God we trust" and the old guys ?

[Dauphin]

Dubya will be honoured I'm sure.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Will you Yanks change the represented people on your notes, or will you still suffer from the Pyramids with an eye, the "In God we trust" and the old guys ?

AFAIK there are no plans to change the format on the currency. When they updated the portraits a few years ago they kept the same folks.

The "pyramids with an eye" is an interesting thing. The actual origin of this is from the tenets of freemasonry. It is know as "The all seeing eye" Most of the founding fathers were members of this fraternity and a large number of current politicians are as well. It is unlikely to go away.

[Boris Godunov]

The plan is to add differentiating colors to the current bills. So $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 etc. will all be different colors, allowing easier identifying. The design will be the same.

I don't think it will effect the $1, which weren't changed anyway (though I can't see why not), and it is the $1 where the masonic pyramid appears.

This also means that the current batch of new bills will be quite short-lived, so the bills will likely become collector's dreams.

[PLATO]

Boris, I dream of collecting bills all the time. Unfortunately, so do my creditors!