In our February feature on counterfeiting, Duncan Reid covered adversarial analysis. In this article he reviews the classification of counterfeiters, illustrated by case studies at each level.

Counterfeiting of Australian banknotes is approaching its lowest level in a decade. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has carried out an analysis of the factors playing a role in this decline and quantified their effects. The report – Recent Trends in Counterfeiting – has been published in its June Bulletin.

When a central bank is designing a new series or upgrading the security of the existing designs how can it be certain that the security features selected will be resilient against counterfeiting? How do they choose from the many features and technologies on offer?

On 1 January 1999, 11 EU countries fixed their exchange rates, adopted a shared monetary policy under the European Central Bank, and launched their new common currency. The euro was born as an electronic currency.

Counterfeiting is a sensitive subject. Without counterfeiters most of us would not have a job, but central banks have a difficult line to walk. They need the public to check their banknotes, but equally they need the public to trust and have confidence in their currency.

The Bundesbank reported in August 2020 a marked increase in counterfeits where no attempt had been made to mimic the security features. There is a high level of trust in the authenticity of euro banknotes.

It was only a matter of time! One of the claimed benefits of polymer is that it is more resistant to counterfeiting and hence more secure, and the figures bear that out.

COVID19 led to a decline in the number of counterfeit banknotes in 2020. Or did it?

Despite Sweden being in the vanguard of the cashless movement, its central bank – Sveriges Riksbank – is opening new offices to handle notes and coins.

The technology platforms used for banknotes continues to rise ever higher, for all security levels – 1, 2 and 3. Challenging and beating the counterfeiter is central to the design, functionality and security of banknotes. And we note that with a well-defined security feature matrix to raise the bar, there can be success.