How to Detect Counterfeit Money? Methods for Spotting Fake Banknotes
How do you detect counterfeit money? For jewellers, exchange offices, supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and every other business that takes in large amounts of cash, counterfeit banknotes are a serious security problem. Spotting a fake note takes more than a glance at its colour or general appearance. Several security features have to be checked together.
Banknotes carry a range of security elements: a watermark, a security thread, a holographic stripe, raised (intaglio) print, a hidden image, a colour-shifting stripe and features visible only under ultraviolet light.
1. Check the Paper and Its Texture
Genuine banknote paper is made from cotton fibre rather than wood pulp, which gives it a texture unlike ordinary printer paper.
If a note feels unusually slippery, thin or paper-like in your hand, that is grounds for suspicion. Texture alone, however, should never be the basis for a final decision.
2. Hold the Watermark Up to the Light
One of the easiest checks is simply to hold the note up to the light.
Genuine notes carry a watermark in the unprinted white area — on Turkish lira notes, for example, a portrait of Atatürk together with the numeral showing the denomination. Held to the light, the watermark should appear natural and detailed.
On counterfeits the watermark is often imitated by printing, or looks distinctly superficial.
3. Check the Security Thread
Genuine banknotes contain a security thread embedded inside the paper.
Held up to the light, this thread appears as an unbroken line carrying the denomination numeral and the currency letters.
On fake notes the security thread is sometimes imitated by printing it onto the surface of the paper. So do not only check that the thread is visible — check that it sits inside the structure of the note.
4. Examine the Holographic Foil Stripe
The holographic stripe on the front of the note produces coloured, bright reflections when the note is viewed from different angles.
As you change the viewing angle, the motifs on the hologram and the denomination value shift.
Holograms that give a fixed image, or that look like nothing more than metallic printing, should be treated as suspect.
5. Feel the Raised Print with Your Finger
Some of the text, numerals and motifs on the front of a genuine note are produced with raised (intaglio) printing.
Run your finger over these areas and you can feel a clear difference in height and texture.
That said, counterfeiting methods have improved, so a raised-print check should never be relied on by itself.
6. Look at the Colour-Shifting Stripe
The stripe on the back of the note containing the denomination and currency letters changes colour and reflection when viewed from different angles.
This is one of the security features that can be checked instantly, simply by moving the note.
7. Counterfeit Checking with UV Light
One of the methods used in professional counterfeit checking is the ultraviolet (UV) light check.
Genuine banknote paper does not glow as a whole under UV light. Instead, specific security fibres, serial numbers and special printing areas within the note react differently.
For this reason, businesses handling heavy cash volumes are far safer using professional banknote verification systems rather than relying on a visual check alone.
Can a Money Counting Machine Detect Counterfeit Notes?
Professional money counting machines today are not used simply to count banknotes quickly.
Depending on the model, advanced money counting machines can carry a range of banknote verification technologies: UV, magnetic (MG), infrared (IR), image sensors and CIS scanning.
These systems analyse several properties of a note at the same time, helping to flag suspect banknotes. For exchange offices, jewellers, hotels and retail businesses processing hundreds or thousands of notes a day, this gives a far faster and more consistent checking process than manual inspection.
Even so, no device should be presented as one that "detects every counterfeit with 100% certainty". The sensor technology, how current the software is, and the condition of the note itself all affect the result.
There is a point that often gets confused here: sending a suspect note to a separate pocket and detecting a counterfeit are not the same thing. We explained the difference in what does a reject pocket do.
What Should You Do If You Encounter a Counterfeit?
If you suspect a banknote is counterfeit, do not write on it, pierce it or damage it in any way.
Where possible, compare it against a genuine note and check its security features. Notes strongly suspected of being counterfeit should be handed to the relevant law enforcement authority rather than put back into circulation.
Professional Counterfeit Checking for Businesses
In businesses with heavy cash flow it is not practical to put every single note through a watermark or hologram check. Professional counting and banknote verification systems therefore both increase processing speed and reduce the risk of human error.
Among our models with counterfeit checking are the GLORY GFS-220, the GLORY GFS-120T and, for higher volumes, the GLORY USF-200.
At Elektro Değişim, since 1995, we have provided sales, installation, maintenance and technical service for professional money counting machines, GLORY above all.
To identify the money counting machine that matches your daily cash volume, or to learn more about the counterfeit detection features of your existing device, get in touch with Elektro Değişim.