Counterfeit Detection
A Guide to Spotting Counterfeit Currency
Shiny Features
"Shiny" features are one of the newer types of security feature to appear in recent years. They provide good protection from most forms of counterfeiting, especially colour copying. Colour copiers are not yet capable of reproducing anything but colour.There are two types of shiny feature:
Holograms
Holograms are a relatively expensive security feature but do offer excellent protection. The image we see from a hologram will depend upon the angle of viewing and multi colours are always visible. The graphic below illustrates the images seen in a hologram.
Foils
The plain foil feature offers good protection against colour copy counterfeiting. It can be used in a variety of ways and is easily adapted to become an integrated part of the bank note design. Very often it is overprinted with intaglio ink, totally or just in part. This provides extra security. Holographic type foils can also be used.
