This article is part of a continuing series that looks at security features in development for the security paper industry.

It’s not a connection you can make everyday, but some leading cancer research could also prove to be an important development for the security paper industry.

Quantum dots are a discovery of nanotechnology (much like the recent research on butterfly mimicry as a security device) and are showing how the most miniscule elements are leading the way in security devices.

The tiny dots are engineered individual crystals that emit intense light and they double as semiconductors. The conducting characteristics are closely related to the size and shape of the individual crystal meaning that the smaller the crystal, the more energy is needed to “excite” the dot. Because each the crystals aren’t uniform, each dot is unique and shines a variety of colours when “excited” by something like a UV light. This is one of the predominant benefits to the quantum dots because whereas fluorescent dyes and watermarks can only display a single band, quantum dots can display a whole range of colours providing each item with a unique “barcode.”

One of the amazing things about these nanoscale dots is that they were not solely developed as a security device. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed “water-soluble” quantum dots to aid in biological research. Bright, stable, and tiny, these quantum dots “are engineered to attach themselves to particular proteins [and thus] have become a popular research tool in areas such as cancer research for detecting, labeling and tracking specific biomarkers and cells.”

Outside of the medical research, some companies have already begun the process of developing inks and paints for security and anti-counterfeiting measures that can be applied to surfaces like paper, plastic or metal. However, according to Vicki Singer, senior consultant for corporate development at Life Technologies – a California-based company that makes quantum dots – whether or not banks are interested in this technology for banknotes or other security devices is a secretive affair. Whether or not anyone is actually using quantum dots on banknotes already is even more secret.

SOURCES:
Evident Tech: “Quantum Dot Applications”
John Mongillo: “Nanotechnology 101”
“Quantum Dots”
Lab Spaces: “Microwave Synthesis Connects With The Quantum Dots”
Canadian Business Magazine: “Counterfeit Cat-and-Mouse”

The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (CBCDG) is a group of 31 central banks and note printing authorities that investigates emerging threats to banknote security and proposes solutions for these threats.

Consisting of members from countries around the world including Canada, the United States, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Japan, France, Greece the United Kingdom, the CBCDG also supports and deploys technologies that deter the use of digital equipment – such as colour photocopiers and ink jet printers – to counterfeit currency.

A recent article written by Antti Heinonen, the Principal Advisor for the European Central Bank and a member of the CBCDG, details these technologies as having a dramatic “paradigm change” on the banknote industry saying these “new threats triggered the development of new security features” in banknotes.
Enter the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, a group that was first put into practice in 1992, and was initially formed as a governing body to help G10 banks deal with increased counterfeiting due to colour copying. Under the moniker Special Study Group on Modern Reproduction Technologies (SSG-2), the group began working within the colour copier industry to develop techniques and technologies to prevent successful forgeries.

As we wrote earlier this month, one of the first big steps for the CBCDG was the development of anti-counterfeiting software – Counterfeit Deterrence System (CDS) – added to programs such as Adobe Photoshop that would generate an error message if a user attempt to scan banknotes. The group also lobbied printer manufacturers and copier manufacturers to include the same software upgrades, resulting in misprints or blank pages if banknotes were copied.

Today, the CBCDG not only works with banks but also with law enforcement agencies to recognize counterfeiting trends and provide solutions.

Working very closely with the technology sector, the CBCDG closely monitors new developments in digital technology in order to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters.

Of course, an easy step to preventing fake bills can be as simple as public education. “Informing and educating the general public and professional cash handlers about banknote security features,” writes Heinonen, is now a necessity for central banks.

SOURCES:
Counting On Currency: “Counterfeit Deterrence – Beating The Criminal Element”
Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group: “FAQs”
“Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group”
Global Paper Security: “How Computer Software Can Prevent Counterfeiting”

In an effort to keep up to date with anti-counterfeiting technology and increasingly high-tech security features on banknotes around the world, the Bankgko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in the Phillipines announced this week that it will launch a new series of banknotes in December 2010.

“We want to take advantage of these technologies,” BSP Monetary Stability sector Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo told the Phil Star.

As a result, the new generation notes (the Piso) – issued in the P20, P50, P100, P200, P500, and P1,000 denominations – will contain heightened security features that aim not only to deter counterfeiting but also help make it easier for the public to detect fraudulent bills among their currency.

“As a matter of practice, central bans regularly change the designs of the money – whether coins or banknotes – to guard against counterfeiters,” another BSP source said. “By making it very difficult and costly for counterfeiters to produce exact copies of our money, we protect the integrity of our currency against criminals.”

Currently, the Piso banknotes contain standard security features such as security threads, security fibres, watermarks, invisible fluorescent inks, optically variable ink, microprint, moiré pattern and an iridescent band.
Other banknotes around the world have been outfitted with some of the most modern security devices known in the banknote industry recently. The new American $100 bill, for example, contains 3D holographs. Other up-and-coming anti-counterfeit devices include quantum dots (nanoscale dots that emit intense light), pixelating watermarks (photos that appear to be 3D because of the way the shades are printed), the reproduction of intricate patterns akin to butterfly scales, and see-through windows rooted between the layers of a polymer banknote.

Though the BSP hasn’t said which new features will be embedded in the notes, the central bank has said they will undertake a nationwide information campaign to educate Filipinos on the new features and help them learn how to tell genuine banknotes from counterfeits.

In terms of design, the new banknotes will pay tribute to Filipinos who played significant roles at various moments of the nation’s history and will also feature world heritage sites and iconic natural wonders of the Philippines.

The BSP also has plans to issue a new series of coins which aren’t expected to be circulated until 2012.

The current Piso series, which includes both coins and banknotes, hasn’t received a re-vamp in nearly 30 years.

SOURCES:
PhilStar.com: “BSP To Redesign Banknotes and Coins”
PhilStar.com: “BSP to Release 1st Batch of New Banknotes In December”
Philippine Coins and Banknotes: “FAQs: BSP Banknote and Coin Resdesign”
Bankgko Sentral ng Pilipinas: “BSP Notes & Coins”

The Pixel Watermark not only produces different shades, it also makes the images - like this angel's wing on a commemorative Mexican 200-peso not - appear 3D

This article is part of a continuing series that looks at security features in development for the security paper industry.

One of the most familiar – and recognizable – banknote security features is the watermark. First introduced in the 13th century in Italy, a watermark is an image or pattern on the security paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when held against the light.

A watermark can take many forms, but some of the more identifiable marks are usually found elsewhere on the bill. The Canadian $20 bill, for example, features a watermark which is a smaller version of the note’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, while the new American $100 bill’s watermark is a smaller portrait of Benjamin Franklin.

Despite the fact that watermarks are one of the most common security features for banknotes, and one of the most effective anti-counterfeit devices, some countries have taken watermark technology a step further to prevent currency forgery.

In 2009, the Bank of Mexico was the first to introduce the world to a new watermark called the Pixel Watermark. Consisting of patterns of dark dots of varying sizes on light backgrounds, the Pixel Watermark sets itself apart from regular watermarks in that the colouring of the pixels in the image creates an almost 3D effect.

Though the first bill to feature the Pixel Watermark was a commemorative 200-peso note, countries in Asia and Latin America have since adopted the security feature.

And the Pixel Watermark is picking up steam elsewhere. Recently, the security device won the award for the Best New Currency Feature at the 2010 Excellence in Currency Awards held in Buenos Aires. The watermark beat out other high-tech, new-to-the-industry security features like the Depth Image, a 3D hologram with strong colour switching and contrast.

SOURCES:
Currency News: “2010 Excellency in Currency Award Winners”
“Watermark”
Banknote News: “Pixel Watermark Debuts on Mexico 200-Peso Commemorative”
Bank of Canada: “Security Features”
Personal Money Store: “New 100 Dollar Bill Debuts To Help Fight Counterfeit Rings”
“Depth Image Hologram”

Fortress Paper President & CEO Chad Wasilenkoff appeared live on Bloomberg Television this week to talk about the future of money.

From the technological advances in security features, to the composition of a new banknote series, to the continual need for bills around the world, Wasilenkoff highlights the importance of turning paper into cash in this interview.

Watch the video:

Irisafe is a modern security device developed that cannot be copied by scanners or photocopiers

*This article is the last in a three-part series on counterfeiting. Read the first two articles in the series: Part 1, Part 2

Anti-counterfeiting technology in and on banknotes has been evolved more over the past 30 years than it has in the entire history of money.

Today’s banknotes are not just used as currency; they are also becoming high-tech anti-counterfeiting devices.

Because copying technology like scanners, colour photocopiers and digital imaging software not only increased in popularity but also dropped in price, the act of counterfeiting banknotes became easier in the late twentieth century. In the United States alone, it is estimated that nearly $10 billion in counterfeit bills were circulated between 1990 and 1995.

In the face of this surplus of bogus bills, the US government began improving their designs and embedding security devices in their banknotes. The US Department of Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the division of the US government that is responsible for the actual design and printing of money crafted new 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollar bills with bigger faces, multi-coloured paper, holograms and reflective inks that change color depending on the lighting.

Around the same time, Europe was developing its single currency – the euro. Given the history of counterfeiting, and the increase in counterfeit bills in the US, officials involved in the creation of the euro to great lengths to protect the currency. Detailed images of the new banknotes weren’t publicized until almost the last moment.

The euro featured four layers of security. The first layer, watermarks and security threads, was announced to the general public. The second layer was a set of seven or eight measures that were announced to about five million professional money handlers. The third layer was another set of features to help machines spot bogus banknotes. The fourth layer still remains a secret.

Creating banknotes with multiple layers is now a common strategy to prevent counterfeiting. Fortress Paper, a leading international supplier of security and specialty papers, recently announced the launch of their multi-layered banknote paper called Durasafe, for example.

Durasafe is a hybrid banknote substrate that consists of a polymer core sandwiched between two 100 per cent cotton paper layers. The outer layers also contain “traditional” security features such as a watermark, security fibres and security threads. In addition to all that, Durasafe banknote paper also features a transparent window through all three layers maximizing the paper’s security potential.

Fortress Paper has also developed a feature called Irisafe, an iridescent striped coating that is integrated into security papers and is characterized by brilliant and changing colours when you change the angle of view. A colour copier cannot reproduce either the brilliancy or the change of colour present in this feature. At best, a photocopied forgery will show spotty stripes instead of the trademarked Irisafe qualities.

Many other security features have been introduced to banknotes around the world. Microtext (tiny repetitive letters or numbers), intaglio printing (raised lettering), holograms, and protection ornaments (markers next to the note’s denomination) are just some examples.

Intricate re-designs of banknotes every few decades, and consistent development of new security measures also provides surety that counterfeiting, while it may still exist, is definitely by no means an easy task these days.

SOURCES:
Banknotes of the Modern World: “Security Features”
“A Short History of Money”
“History of Counterfeiting”
Fortress Paper Ltd.
Global Paper Security: “The Launch of Durasafe Banknote Paper”
Global Paper Security: “Fortress Paper’s Irisafe”

Benjamin Franklin wasn't only a founding father of the United States, he was also a founding father of anti-counterfeiting devices on banknotes

*This article is the second in a three-part series on counterfeiting.

In the world of currency, developing anti-counterfeiting measures have always followed the emergence of counterfeit banknotes and coins, and they have taken on many different forms.

As seen in the previous article in this series, (read: Part 1: A History of Counterfeiting), one of the earliest attempts to deter counterfeiters was blatant threats. When paper money debuted in China during the 13th century, the notes were emblazoned with a slogan reassuring prospective criminals that counterfeiting carried with it the threat of death.

Other strategies to prevent counterfeiting often included creating currency in a very unique way, with very unique tools.

In ancient Rome, for example, craftsmen struck coins, and did not cast them in molds therefore detail to the coins could only be provided by the talented smiths.

In the age of paper money, printers developed special typefaces and type ornaments, sometimes cut by hand, in the hopes that counterfeiters would find it too expensive to reproduce the banknotes.

But soon, with more and more people worldwide having access to a printing press, counterfeiting became not only easier, but also more professional.

By the eighteenth century, particularly in America, anti-counterfeiting measures were on the rise. In 1739, Benjamin Franklin devised a series of banknotes that included realistic images of three blackberry leaves and a willow leaf. The leaves, as historian Eric P. Newman wrote, “not only had exceedingly complex detail but also internal lines that graduated in thickness.”

However, a larger problem permeated the American currency system in its first 100 years. In its infancy, America had about 1600 state banks that designed and printed their own bills. Each bill carried its own design, but the country saw nearly 7000 varieties of bills circulating. In 1862, a national currency was adopted as an attempt to prevent the counterfeiting of these bills that were sometimes unrecognizable even between states.

Some three years later, the United States Secret Service was established with a primary purpose of suppressing wide-spread counterfeiting. Throughout the early 20th century, some security features were added to banknotes, including watermarks, seals, serial numbers, and colored inks.

Anti-counterfeiting technology has been developed more over the past 30 years than in the history of money.

From polymer, security threads, iridescent strips and see-through windows, today’s banknotes are not just used as currency; they are also becoming high-tech anti-counterfeiting devices.

In the final installment of this series, we will look at some of the latest developments in banknote security measures.

SOURCES:
“History of Counterfeit Money”
“A Short History of Money”
“History of Counterfeiting”
“History of Counterfeiting”
“The Golden Age of Counterfeiting”

Nearly 200,000 counterfeit euro20 banknotes were seized in the last six months says the European Central Bank

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced today that the number of fake euro banknotes seized in the last six months rose by eight per cent from the first half of the year.

“In the second half of 2009 a total of 447,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation,” an ECB statement said.

Though the increase is significant, ECB officials say it is a step up from the first half of 2009, which saw a 17 per cent increase in seized counterfeit notes.

The most frequently forged bills were the euro20, which accounted for 47 per cent of the fakes, and the euro50, which accounted for 39 per cent.

The euro contains many security features that attempt to foil counterfeiters. Specific watermarks, security threads, hologram foil stripes & patches, iridescent stripes, and colour-shifting inks all play their part in deterring the reproduction of fake notes.

Though the ECB’s statement demonstrated concern at the growing ability to produce successful counterfeit euros, the Central Bank also remained steadfast in believing it was a manageable problem.

“When compared to the 12.8 billion genuine banknotes in circulation,” the ECB statement said, “the proportion of counterfeits is still very low.”

Nearly one million counterfeit euros were seized and withdrawn from circulation in 2009.

SOURCES:
Chicago Sun Times: “Amount of counterfeit euros up.”
“Fake euro seizures rise by 8%: ECB”

Experts believe 95 per cent of the security features were accurately reproduced in a recent seizure of counterfeit rupees.

India will put together a ‘financial terror dossier’ this week in an attempt to garner international support in pressuring Pakistan to immobilize a booming counterfeit currency ring that exports bogus Indian banknotes into the country.

Since the attacks in Mumbai last November, India has been aggressively building a number of cases against the neighboring Pakistan, including a case against counterfeiting.

“There is enough evidence with us of Pakistan’s incriminating role in printing fake Indian currency notes and pumping it into India,” a senior intelligence official told DNA, an Indian news outlet.

Indian intelligence agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation believe there are multiple fake printing units throughout Pakistan, and reports indicate that the country has been importing currency paper and ink in massive quantities from European countries for diversion into counterfeit notes.

Authorities, bank officials, and experts have been shocked by the amazing accuracy in the reproduced rupees. Recently seized notes could not be detected as counterfeit by the naked eye.

Currency specialists say the security features on these counterfeit notes have been copied with over 95 per cent accuracy, including – among others – the light and shade effect and multi-directional lines in the watermark of the Mahatma Gandhi series.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India announced it would begin a trial period of introducing low-denomination polymer banknotes in an attempt to combat counterfeiting (Read: India To Begin Trial Period for Polymer Banknotes).

SOURCES:
DNA: “India gears up to tackle ‘financial terror’”
Reserve Bank of India: Security Features

A watermark in a Durasafe bill helps prevent counterfeiting. (Courtesy FOXNews.com)

Counterfeiting has never been easier. All it takes these days is a fairly inexpensive color printer, some graphic design software and a willingness to spend a few decades in jail if you get caught.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, so criminals struggling in a tough economy and savvy with advanced printing equipment have figured out how to replicate bank notes. Some bleach $1 bills and print $100 bills; others use holographic wrapping paper available at any dollar store. And it’s not just the little guy. The big guys — the major crime syndicates — have set up complex printing operations to print illegal tender in large quantities.

Fake bills look remarkably similar to the real McCoy, with intaglio (textured printing) and holographic markings.

“Internationally, we have seen a marked increase in counterfeiting in the last five years,” says Bonnie Schwab, a consultant who worked for the Bank of Canada and has advised the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group. “Causes are improvement in technology available to the general public and to the traditional counterfeiters. More and more people with little skill in design and printing are able to download images and print to desktop printers.”

Because your basic inkjet printer is constantly improving in output quality, the best way to combat counterfeiting is not to create increasingly intricate designs, but rather to improve the paper it’s printed on.

Security fibers like these are embedded in bills from Fortress Paper.

One approach is to make the printing process and substrate — the layer beneath the surface of the paper — more complex and difficult to replicate, even for the pros.

Polymer-based currency, first developed in Australia, has become common and is harder to counterfeit. In 2008, Crane Currency started using a “nano thread” for $100 bills that allows the Bureau of Engraving and Priting to embed new security features, including a strip that becomes visible only when you hold the C-note up to the light.

The U.S. Treasury has taken other measures, including the new $5 bill with its color-shifting ink, an embedded watermark, and a different color that glows for each bill when you hold it up to an ultraviolet light source. Yet according to Schwab, because U.S. bills are so popular all over the world, they are a prime target for counterfeiters, and given enough time and the right technology, criminals tend to learn even the most advanced techniques.

A new option — announced at the Bank Note 2009 Conference in Washington last week — is a hybrid paper called Durasafe, which uses a three-layer substrate made with a polymer core and a 100-percent cotton outer layer.

Made by from Fortress Paper, Durasafe’s major advancement is a transparent window that can be any shape and size. Criminals have a hard time replicating these windows because of the complex printing process involved.

“Durasafe uses two substrates with a window in between, so that rules out printers and advanced color copier machines,” says Russell Stanley, a financial analyst with Jennings Capital.

Chad Wasilenkoff, the CEO of Fortress Paper, says Durasafe is also designed to last twice as long as traditional banknote paper, which is an attractive option for national banks — especially in the U.S. where, he says, there are as many as 1 million fake bills in circulation. Durasafe-based currency will stay in circulation longer and, Wasilenkoff says, the printing costs will be similar to traditional banknotes.

“Durasafe acts like a sponge for the polymer and improves the tactility of the bank note,” says Wasilenkoff, who explained why the touch and feel of a banknote are important for the “level one” security concern, meaning the first point of contact that criminals make. In most cases, counterfeiters pass fake bills off at nightclubs and McDonald’s or Starbucks in a chaotic or low-light environment. When a bill just doesn’t feel right, the cashier might take the time to inspect the currency.

Vancouver-based Fortress would not comment on which countries may end up using the bills, due to security concerns. But the company says the first mass-produced banknotes that use Durasafe will appear in late 2010.

–By John Brandon, FOXNews.com

SOURCE:
FOXNews.com: “The Dollar Bill Goes High-Tech”