Recently, the media have been reporting on the distribution of counterfeit dollars in Ukraine. The National Bank of Ukraine has repeatedly warned about the identification and circulation of counterfeit foreign currency banknotes.
Counterfeit banknotes, forms of documents, identity documents and their individual details is now a common crime, the spread of which is associated with the availability and constant improvement of modern copying equipment. Under such conditions, the forensic and technical examination of documents (technical and forensic examination of documents) is relevant and important.
As part of the technical examination of documents, experts of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise investigate the structure of the paper from which the banknotes are made, the protective elements, their compliance in content and properties, the design of the banknotes, and the presence of special infrared and magnetic security labels.
In everyday life when using foreign currency to protect from counterfeit money, experts advise first of all to pay attention to the presence of the main protective features of banknotes, namely:
- optically variable paints, which necessarily execute separate elements (when changing the angle of the banknote, their color changes);
- watermark (multi-tone image formed by the internal structure of the paper in different colors (light and dark from the paper), repeating the portrait image);
- protective tape (completely covered in thick paper);
- relief elements of images (elements of images made with special prints, the roughness of which is felt to the touch).
This list of protective signs is far from exhaustive, but attentiveness to them will help to protect from fraud.
