What can be built into design elements to provide security against counterfeiting? Designing a banknote is never a case of sitting down with a pen and paper and drawing something that looks attractive. It is desirable that as many components of the note as possible give some sort of counterfeit protection. Many of the design features are built around precision printing that can be achieved by the highly specialised presses used in the production of bank notes and are extremely intricate.

Others rely on the type of print that can be produced e.g the tactile nature of intaglio print. There are many many types of design elements that can be worked into a bank note to give protection but here is a general list.

Color copiers and electronic scanners have become quite a counterfeit threat in recent years and bank note producers have designed features that are not easily reproduced by these types of machines.

Anti copy features are generally composed of fine lines or dots and often have the word "VOID" or "FAKE" embedded within them. If copied these features are reproduced in a "distorted" form compared to the original, throwing up secret messages or interference effects.

The precision equipment used to print back notes enables the back and front of the litho portions of the notes to be printed simultaneously. They can also be accurately registered to one another.

Tiny messages can be worked into designs and printed by both the intaglio and litho printing processes. With most, if not all counterfeiting techniques these tiny messages are lost, so in that respect they offer good protection.

This is not strictly a design feature but the hand engraving mechanism by which intaglio images are initially generated produces such tonal variety and detail that it is in itself is a security feature.

Details such as those seen on the right are difficult to capture by any counterfeiting technique and as a results areas in which Intaglio is primarily used generally appear flatter and lacking in the tonal variety seen in an original.

Latent images are produced by intaglio print and the protection they offer is directly a result of the tactile nature of intaglio print. When viewed straight on, a latent image reveals nothing but lines...and that is if you look closely! But viewed at a glancing angle an image appears. This is a result of the intaglio print occluding the paper and creating a contrast.

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