Counterfeit Prevention Measures in World Currency Today

Over the past few decades, the international phenomenon of counterfeiting of modern currency has slowly acquired such alarming proportions that it has turned into a serious problem for Governments the world over. In order to control this international criminal activity and protect the currencies of their respective countries, Governments around the world have been effecting changes in their currency notes from time to time.

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.

The United States government in the late 80s issued 20, 50 and 100-dollar denominations with a "security strip" inside the bill. The security strip made of fluorescent plastic was embedded in the bill itself. The strips run from top to bottom and can be easily read under a fluorescent light bulb. The denomination of the bill was written on the strip, to prevent counterfeiters from "upgrading" lower denominations of the bill to higher denominations by "washing" the ink from the paper and reprinting the graphics of the bill using dye sub or laser printers.

Another method that the United States government has implemented is watermarking. The latest bills that have been issued by the treasury have images embedded in the currency’s paper. You can view this watermarked image by holding up the bill to a light source. The image in the watermark should match the image of the president on the bill. The $100 bill, for example, features the likeness of Benjamin Franklin in both the standard image and the watermark.

The image in the watermark should match the image of the president on the bill. The $100 bill has Benjamin Franklin as the standard and the watermark image. Some currency notes such as the $5 bills have been counterfeited to $100 bills. This bill is a carbon copy of the genuine one, but under scrutiny, the watermark image will reveal Lincoln's face as per the $5 bills and the true colors of the fake currency.

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.

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Devon Valenta provides a range of resources at his web site: Fone Currency, where you will find information that will help you on many currency related issues. Why not take a look: www.fonecurrency.com
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