Are Note Issuers Ahead of Counterfeiters: Update on Counterfeiting Data

Kerre Corbin regularly addresses counterfeiting from different angles in her Counterfeit Corner in Currency News™. Against that background it is worth looking at recent developments in counterfeiting data.

It’s an old saying that central banks should be at least one step ahead of counterfeiters. A banknote is just a piece of paper, and its value depends on the trust in the issuer, one essential part of that being the note’s security. However, soon after paper money was invented the first counterfeits were discovered. Since then, an unending race between the issuing authorities and perpetrators has been going on.

As a first measure, the use of watermarked paper, which was not readily available to the public, was adopted. The printers, for their part, tried to prevent imitations by using different typefaces, decorative elements, reliefs, seals and vignettes. Intaglio printing was also introduced early on as an alternative to the other main printing method, letterpress. Thus, counterfeiting was deterred from the beginning by means of both the substrate choice and printing technique.