The Bank of Canada has a long list of criteria to look for, all of which are outlined on their Web site. It's the typical list of security checks: Look for fine lines in the hair and eyes of the people on the money, compare the colour of the ink against those of other bills of the same denomination, check for the ultraviolet Bank of Canada emblem, feel for raised ink and look for special iridescent details — such as the leaves on $5 and $10 bills — that shine and change colour as the bill moves. Special inks and printing processes are used to give the bill a unique tone and render the images with clear, small details. (The latter technique is commonly called micro-printing.) But obviously none of these security features keep fake bills out of circulation altogether.
With a myriad of inks available online and high-quality printers now relatively inexpensive it seems just about anyone with the time and motivation can produce passable Canadian cash. Teens are making them at home.
In March, some teens in Richmond, B.C., sold fake $10 bills to friends. A real tenner bought three fakes. According to police, the teens weren't using any sophisticated equipment for their little counterfeiting ring — just their home computers. But all kinds of businesses accepted the phony bills regardless before police nabbed the counterfeiting kids.
Businesses use tools to aid in identifying fakes so that they don't become victim of some teenage prank. The most common is an ultraviolet light, which makes otherwise invisible ultraviolet features fluoresce. These are typically small, inexpensive and easy to use. But since many counterfeiters are including UV features on their bills, it isn't enough to simply stick the bill under a UV light and check for the glowing emblem.
Jinette Crew, a senior analyst with the Bank of Canada, recommends people always check multiple criteria for each bill — the more the better. Yet, Crew wouldn't tell us about all of the security features on Canadian currency. Some, it seems, are reserved for a select few individuals who either work for the bank or the police.
Last week I saw an interesting counterfeiting detection system made by Woodbridge-based Vision Currency Technologies.
Barry Kruger, the company's vice-president of sales, brought a unit to the Star and scanned bill after bill with the device. Each time he inserted a new bill, an image of it would come up on a screen. But only certain parts of each bill would appear. Sometimes it was the jacket on a men's coat. Sometimes it was a serial number. And sometimes the bill just looked like a big blank rectangle.
Real bills, Kruger explained, have certain characteristics when viewed with his machine. Only certain parts of the ink would appear.
What exactly made that part of the bill special? I can't say. Unfortunately, Kruger wouldn't tell me how it works. He was the first of several people, in fact, who wouldn't tell me.
Kruger said many companies use the device, including several banks, but none of the banks wanted to admit they used it, let alone let me in on the details of its operation.
"I can't confirm or deny the bank uses any particular kind of equipment," said Royal Bank of Canada spokesperson Judi Levita.
The more I dug around for information, the more people clammed up.
What is clear is that many countries are known to use magnetic inks when printing currency. It's possible that Kruger's machine was picking up traces of just such an ink. That would also explain why his system worked for currencies from around the world.
Metameric inks are another popular option used to thwart counterfeiters. Metameric inks might be invisible under white light but add a red filter, for example, and a picture within the picture will suddenly become clear.
The Bank of Canada wouldn't confirm or deny the existence of either kind of ink in Canadian currency, though many Web sites suggested that both are used.
The bank wouldn't say if there were any security features at all, but the mere existence of Kruger's device suggests there must be.
The details that appeared when bills were viewed under his machine didn't correspond to any of the security features outlined by the Bank of Canada.
On the $20 bill, for example, only one of the serial numbers and two small bars at the bottom of the bill are displayed on the screen. That's not where the shiny parts are, or the ultraviolet features. So, clearly, there are features that the general public isn't supposed to know about.
I was skeptical that Kruger's device worked at all. But RCMP Sergeant Moshe Gordon, the counterfeit co-ordinator for Ontario, said that Kruger's device didn't just work — it worked well. In fact, he said it was the best he has ever used.
"There is no device out there that is completely reliable," Gordon said. "However, I haven't found a note yet that has really defeated that machine."
Kruger calls it the coffee maker, because of its resemblance to the small household appliance.
"It's probably the best counterfeit detection device out there, but we don't want people to only rely on a machine," he said.
Better to use it in tandem with other techniques as well.
As for how it works: Gordon knows, but he wouldn't say.
"If the Bank of Canada didn't reveal that info, I can't either," he said.
Unfortunately, it seems the best way to stay a step ahead of crime is to keep the public in the dark.
_______________________________________________
Rachel Ross deconstructs
technology Mondays in @Biz. Reach her at rross@thestar.ca |
