Counterfeit Prevention Measures in Modern Currency

Governments all over the world are protecting their currency from counterfeits by revising it frequently. Counterfeiting has become a serious problem in the past few decades.

With technology being cheap and computer equipments available at dirt prices it's becoming easier for the counterfeiters to duplicate the designs and images of modern currency. The threat of counterfeiting is a serious crime and governments the world over have taken severe steps to curb it. We will discuss a few of the methods that have been deployed against the counterfeiters worldwide.

In the late 80s the United States government issued 20, 50 and 100 dollar denominations that included a “security strip” inside the bill. This security strip is made of fluorescent plastic and is embedded in the bill itself. The strip runs from the top to the bottom of these bills and can be easily read when held under a fluorescent light bulb. The denomination of the bill is clearly written on the strip, which can help prevent counterfeiters from “upgrading” lower denominations of bill to higher denominations by “washing” the ink from the paper and reprinting the graphics of the bill using dye sub or laser printers.

Watermarking is another method that can prevent the counterfeiting of currency. This method is being used in the United States wherein the latest bills issued by the treasury contain images designed into the paper itself. These watermarked images on bills of different denominations match the images of different US Presidents. For example, the $100-bill bears the likeness of the former US President Benjamin Franklin with respect to the standard image as well as the watermark. These images can be seen quite easily when we hold the bills against a source of light.

It must be mentioned here that the counterfeit currency of some denominations is, at times, produced with those images that are actually meant for the bills of some other denominations. For instance, some counterfeit US currency in circulation internationally has $5-bills bearing the images that are actually meant for the $100-bill. Though such counterfeit bills have a very genuine look and feel, they can still be identified quite easily because it is not possible to bleach out the watermark, as is the case with the surface images. So, when the counterfeit $5-bills are held up against a source of light, they show up the image of former US President Lincoln in the watermark which is the actual image that should appear on all the bills of this denomination.

Finally, one of the latest counterfeit prevention technologies that have been put into use is special inks that appear to be different colors at different angles. When viewed from the left, for example the color may appear to the eye to be a light green, but as the viewer shifts over to the right, the color changes to black. These color changing inks are very difficult to reproduce as they use a special compound that is very difficult for counterfeiters to manufacture.

These, then, are some of the latest security measures in practice in the United States to control the rising incidence of counterfeit US currency. However, this battle is far from over, as the counterfeiters keep on finding new and better ways to ensure the continuation of their illegal trade with the help of the latest technology. Keeping this in mind, we shall continue our research in this direction in order to keep you posted about the fresher challenges faced by the US Government in this battle and how they measure up to the efforts of the counterfeiters in ensuring the victory of the genuine US dollar.

Copyright 2006, Devon Valenta, All Rights Reserved. This article may be published on web sites or in newsletters provided this notice and the resource box is included without ammendment.

Article Source: http://www.articlemonk.com

Devon Valenta is the webmaster and operator of Fone Currency, a web site which focuses on currency matters. For more information, go to: www.fonecurrency.com
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