A new twist on old technologies

Improvements in security features are occasionally of the ground-breaking variety - the introduction of optically variable features such as holograms and OVI for example. Or polymer substrates with windows, and microlenses and, going back further, threads and fibres in banknotes and Orlof intaglio printing presses. All were 'out of the box' developments that represented a fundamentally new and different way of adding security to our banknotes.

Exciting though such developments may be, they are few and far between. Many of the advances in security in recent years have, instead, been incremental -  ever-wider window threads, different types of  latent image features, colourless or light infra red inks, combining colour shift with movement, electrotypes and pixel highlights in watermarks, paper/polymer hybrids and so on. These are no less significant for being variations on a theme, and the technology behind them can be every bit as complex, even more so, than the so-called 'breakthrough' technologies.

It is with this in mind that we cast a look over some of the recent developments, that fall into this latter category of incremental security enhancements - both existing features that are harnessing new technology for authentication, and new features that make use of existing authentication technology.

One example of the former is the work to show that smartphones can be used as a means of verifying one of the most common and traditional features in banknotes - the intaglio print. No refinement of the intaglio itself is required - simply optimisation of the camera hardware within the phones and development of verification software (although the word 'simple' is used advisedly).

If the developers can pull this off,  it could overcome the problem of all Level 1 features - namely the difficulty the public has in using such features to authenticate their notes, either because they don't know what the features are, or because they fail to differentiate them from counterfeits.

In another example, at Banknote 2011 last year Fabriano introduced SIGMA QR^TM, a watermark in which the image is a two-dimensional barcode (a datamatrix or Quick Response code). QR codes are rapidly gaining ground among manufacturers of consumer and industrial goods as a means of linking the code on the product or its packaging to a website that provides additional product and marketing information, the phone and its image capture capability plus connectivity to a database providing the means to do so.
Fabriano is the first to create the means to apply this concept to banknotes - the watermark image itself providing an overt recognition feature, while the code can be read and decoded by the smart phone, providing not just yes/no authentication but also information such as the note's serial number, which can be matched back to that on the note itself.

Whether or not the public would ever be sufficiently engaged to use their phones in this way, should they be given the opportunity, remains to be seen. But in principal, expecting the public to check their banknotes with special tools is unrealistic. Providing them with the means to do so via tools they already have in their hand is less so.

And then there are existing verification devices for traditional features, enhancements or new versions of which are being developed. An example is UV lights, which - like smartphones - are ubiquitous (among cashiers, retailers and the like, if not the public at large). However, the features they read have limited security value because of the now widespread commercial availability of fluorescent inks. Hence the opportunities provided by the development of bifluorescent or even multifluorescent features, which represent an exciting prospect not only because of the permutation of different design effects that can be achieved,  but also because the devices for checking them are already in widespread use.

Another example can be seen in the development by CTS Electronics of digital magnetic imaging technology for magnetic inks. Magnetic sensors are nothing new, and various types are already widely used in cash processing systems. But they have their limitations - particularly in resolution and/or the amount of data that can be recorded. The CTS solution is a magneto-optical linear sensor that can record in a very short period of time, potentially at high speeds, images with a resolution as high as 1000 dpi. The result is that a whole new series of applications for magnetic ink can be realised - micro text for example, or barcodes and unique magnetic ink digital signatures, all of which can be read by the sensors.

While developers are always in pursuit of the next 'big thing' in banknote security, it is sometimes useful to remind ourselves that many of the answers to enhanced security already exist right under our noses.

TITS BITS OF CURRENCY

• Serge Beaure, a French engineer had invented multi colour Intaglio.
• French Paper Mill at Vic-le-compte - It produces probably the thinnest Bank note Paper available.  It is also the most expensive and wears out a bit more quickly than most.  But it does have a very satisfactory Gallic rattle when new.  The paper is made of cotton, linen and ramie fibre.
• Finnish ten-mark coin designed by sculptor Antti Neuvonen has been chosen  the most beautiful coin in circulation in the world.
• In 1970, Netherlands introduced tactile dots, an indication of value for the physically impaired.  This was the first introduction of the blind marks on the bank notes.
• In 1990, Netherlands was the first country to introduce bar code in the bank notes.  A special decoder can read this code.  Under the bar code, small individual code numbers are printed.  This was designed by Bram de Does.
• Effective security is no guarantee of artistic satisfaction.  In 1926, when Netherlands brought a twenty-guilder note with 28 modest rosettes, the Press slated it as "negotiable wall paper".  "The Universal rose engine" , the guilloche machine was destined ultimately to lose the battle for survival to the computer.
• The average life of Canadian Notes was found to be around 10 months for the lower denominations of 2, 5 and 10 dollars; about 1½ years for 20 dollar notes, 3 years for 50 dollars and 6 years for 100 dollars.
• A paper money and design museum is open for public in London.  Japan also opened Bank note Museum for public.
• For detecting the hidden watermarks, which have gone obscure due to printing over them, the Bank of Netherlands developed Aqua watermark reading system.
• The Bank of Netherlands developed a detector system to find out the presence of Intaglio on the bank notes. The machine is called as the Intaglio scanning and recognition device (ISARD), which uses reflected light to check for the presence of Intaglio printing on the bank note.

De La Rue Giori- The Premium name in banknote industry

"Organisation Giori" became the first company in the world to design, produce and supply machinery and specialised equipment for printing bank notes and security documents. Gualtiero Giori was associated with the Italian Security Printers, Milan. 

 

The company was established in the 19^th century.  Gualitiero Giori, was the first to develop and sell the revolutionary 6-colour intaglio printing press in 1947.  In 1952, Organisation Giori signed a co-operation agreement with Koenig and Bauer in Wurzburg, Germany.  This company was founded in 1817. It is the oldest manufacturing unit for printing machines.  The production of Giori machines was subsequently entrusted to Koenig & Bauer and the co-operation between the 2 companies has grown into a close and efficient bond. 

 

In 1965, Organisation Giori entered into a partner-ship with the De La Rue group, a company founded in 1813, which owns the world's largest facilities for printing bank notes and security documents.  A new company De La Rue Giori, SA was formed in which the 2 partners combined their expertise to offer customers a full range of services in the field of bank note and security printing. 

 

It is a limited company operating under Swiss legislation, with its head quarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The range of equipment manufactured and supplied by De La Rue Giori, SA include the equipment for origination (pre-printing), Offset, Intaglio, Auto inspection, Numbering, Finishing and spoil destruction. It provides complete supporting services to enable its customers to achieve and maintain autonomy in printing plants producing bank notes and other security documents.  They have 2 Training and Research centres at Le Mont and Sevelin near Lausanne, Switzerland.  The De La Rue Giori of America Research and Development centre for advanced technology is located in Sunnyvale, California.  On request, they design bank notes including origination and proofing as well as the production of printing plates.  They advise on the recruitment of qualified personnel.  Bank notes manufactured on De La Rue machines circulate in virtually every country in the world. 

New Symbol of Rupee

The Indian rupee will soon have a unique symbol, a blend of the Devanagri `Ra` and Roman `R` , joining elite currencies like the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen in having a distinct identity.

The new symbol, designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, was approved by the cabinet reflecting that the Indian currency, backed by an over-trillion dollar economy, was finally making its presence felt on the international scene.

Though the symbol will not be printed or embossed on currency notes or coins, it would be included in the `Unicode Standard` and major scripts of the world to ensure that it is easily displayed and printed in the electronic and print media.

Among currencies with distinctive identities, only the pound sterling has its symbol printed on the notes.

Unicode is an international standard that allows text data to be interchanged globally without conflict. After incorporation in the global and Indian codes, the symbol would be used by all individuals and entities within and outside the country.

The symbol will be adopted in a span of six months in the country, and within 18 to 24 months globally,and it will feature on computer keyboards and softwares for worldwide use.

The symbol, which reflects the Indian ethos and culture, would help distinguish the currency from the rupee or rupiah of other countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

State governments would be asked to proactively promote the use of the new symbol.

Kumar`s entry was chosen from 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakh.

"It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters, capital `R` and Devanagri `Ra` which represents rupaiah, to appeal to international and Indian audiences.. My design is based on the tricolour, with two lines at the top and white space in between," a visibly-happy Kumar said.

The jury, which had sent the five short-listed entries for the cabinet`s approval, was headed by a Reserve Bank Deputy Governor.

Security Features in a Banknote paper

Security Features Available for  the  Paper are as below:

§      Water Mark

§      Security Thread

§      Fluorescent Fibres

§      Iridescent Planchets.

§      Colour of Paper and Security Dyes.

§      Iridescent Coating

§      STEP

§      LEAD

 

Water Mark

Water Mark is nothing but an image created by varying the distribution of fibres within in an area of the paper. Water Mark can be lighter or darker than the surrounding sheet with or without gradations

 

Security Thread

The first security thread was a silk thread embedded into the bank note paper. Security thread is an important feature against counterfeiting. Initially silk thread was used as security thread. Now a days cellulose film is used.

 

FEATURES OF SECURITY THREADS

§     Plain

§     Machine readable

§     Micro lettered

§     Rainbow coloured

§     UV Fluorescent

§     Magnetic

§     Optically Variable Security Thread

 

Fluorescent Fibres

Cotton Fibres on the paper which has the quality to fluoresce under Ultra Violet light source.

 

Iridescent Planchets

Iridescent planchets are round discs of paper or plastic of approximately 2mm dia added during the paper manufacturing stage. Unlike fluorescent fibers these planchets can be seen only in reflected light in bright and radiant  colours at 45 ⁰ angle. This is a very strong anti counterfeit feature especially for colour copying.

 

Colour of Paper and Security Dyes

Security dyes usage in paper colour is common with most of the security documents, to make a permanent mark if any attempt made to tamper the document, there by identifying the tampered document very easily.  The unique feature of a bank note paper is its quality and colour. The dyes used in normal paper manufacturing fluoresces under Ultra Voilet light, Where as the special dyes used in manufacturing the bank note paper doesn't fluoresce under Ultra Voilet light. The complete absence of fluorescence from paper itself makes the bank note paper distinct from the papers available in the market.

 

Iridescent Coating

It is a text or Graphic stripe usually in pastel colours. This coating is applied at the end of the manufacturing process by screen-printing process. The colours change depending on the viewing angle and reflection of light

 

STEP

 This is an Optically Variable device applied to the paper surface after its manufacturing at factory itself. The acronym of STEP stands for Shimmery Twin Effect Protection. STEP provides basically two predefined colours unlike iridescent coating.

 

LEAD

 This is a holographic stripe applied in the paper manufacturing plant before the paper is cut into sheets. The acronym LEAD stands for Long-lasting, Economic Anti-copy Device. It is large enough to include designs and numbers that can be easily recognized without mechanical aids.

 

SECURITY ELEMENTS IN THE DESIGN (so as to avoid photocopying of banknotes)

Several design aspects can be incorporated in the bank notes, which cannot be easily copied.  A number of options are available to the Designers.  Now Computer Graphics are capable to produce a variety of complex designs, which are difficult to be produced mechanically.  The designs can be further secured by using Intaglio in combination with offset and screen-printing. There are a number of elements, which can be introduced into the design without incurring any extra cost. These design elements are found to be very effective against colour copying. The special design background or intaglio print can introduce a variety of security features.

 

Computer Graphics: The graphics with 0.08 mm line width with a separation of 0.3 mm as ruling distance will be difficult to be reproduced exactly in analog type of colour copying. In digital computers, 0.06 mm line width will be difficult for reproduction. The colour copiers have a preferential angle or direction. The computer graphics generate intricate designs with the combination of different colours and variations in the line thickness most effectively. They use a laser plotter. Changing the parameters incrementally creates the guilloche patterns. They describe a simple harmonic wave function, which have been imposed on a number of circles with increasing radii. To make the guilloche patterns much more difficult and complicate, one image can be melded with other. They can be interrupted at any point or isolated. With this technique, a star shape can be melded to a circular wave pattern or a circular wave to a larger polygon. This technique is called as "Melding". The fineness achieved by computer graphics is difficult to be reproduced by colour copiers.

 

Multi-directional lines: The watermark area when carries fine multi-directional lines, becomes difficult to be reproduced as the lines cannot appear perfectly in the copies. The colour copiers have a preferential angle or direction. Lines, which are perpendicular to the movement, will be easily distinguished while lines, which are slanted at an angle different from 90 degrees, will produce a deformation.

 

See-through register: The simultaneous printing of front and back of  a bank note offset design in a single pass has been recognized as a security feature, since, all the colour copiers are not provided with front and back reproduction simultaneously.

 

Micro lettering: The note designs are filled with micro lettering normally near the portrait area. They are seen as a part of the design with the naked eye but when viewed under a magnifying glass, the micro lettering can be seen clearly. The copies cannot bring the clarity in this area and have a moiré effect. Micro letters are thought of as one of the preventive measures so as not to reproduce micro letters of height fewer than 400 microns with colour copiers.

 

Bleed off: The notes, which have a bleed off - that is an extension of the design to the edges of the note without leaving margin, will be difficult to be reproduced in the Copiers as they leave white border. The notes need further operation of trimming, which may not be accurate.

 

Intaglio: Intaglio printing provides durability to the notes with a three-dimensional effect. The machines, which give the raised effect on the designs, are unique and are not available easily to the commercial printers. The three-dimensional raised effect is not possible to get in the colour copying.

Intaglio process is chosen for bank notes because it has peerless quality of resolution, tonality and pictorial strength. Its tactility is fully exploited when brought together with the visible and invisible chromatic abilities. Intaglio inks with unique print characteristics are developed. There are intaglio ink pairs with characteristics of transparency and absorption in the infrared. Magnetic substances can also be included in intaglio and letterpress inks. However, they produce relatively strong body colours limiting the colour space to the designers as they contain iron oxide. Now soft magnetic pigments are used in intaglio inks to overcome this difficulty. Intaglio process can also seal a foil a full-face intaglio over print.

 

Blind Intaglio: Some countries have started blind intaglio embossing without inking on the bank notes. This blind intaglio on the offset backgrounds carries the same effect as intaglio printing. This is called as PEAK technology. This printing is done with several combinations and sequence with offset, intaglio and screen-printing. PEAK (Printed and Embossed Anticopy Key) - Consists of a background of printed lines overlaid with a blind – embossed structure produced by the intaglio process. This results in latent image.

 

Latent image:  The system of latent image was developed to defeat the purpose of photo colour copiers. The image is not visible in the normal course but when the note is tilted at an angle, the image becomes visible.

The latent image can be incorporated only in the Intaglio design and is considered as a satisfactory security feature. M/s. Bradbury Wilkinson was the pioneer in latent image technology.

There are two opinions about retention of the latent image. M/s. Giori feels that the latent image will not be visible when the notes get soiled and hence does not provide any security feature in the long run, whereas the majority of others feel that the latent image can be seen even after the notes soiled. The latent image is obtained in Intaglio printing. The design variations in the depth of intaglio engravings on different plates reflect a latent image on printing, which can be seen only at an angle. This provides a durable image, which changes with angle. It fully integrates with the conventional bank note printing. Average particle size of colour tones is approximately 10 microns. The digitizer analyses a discrete number of dots per unit of scanned surface. When the digitizer finds two dots or lines separated less than resolution, it produces one dot or line instead of two. An adequately arranged design with rough and fine ruling having 10-15 % of dot area will act as an effective latent image.

 

OMRON: Arrival of colour copiers into the market, threatened the bank note printing industry. The industry and the Interpol together requested the manufacturers of colour copiers to find out ways and means by which the colour copier identifies the bank note duplication and rejects or voids it or leaves a mark on the duplicated notes.

A software company – OMRON from Japan have come out with a solution. Accordingly, the bank notes carry a common mark in offset design that enables an optional recognition of security documents by colour copiers. The mark area consists of a common mark, non-mark design element and background. The mark area has certain specifications to ensure the correct recognition of common mark by the Common Mark Recognition system. The common mark has a circle outlining. The design and size of the common mark shall be as per the master film provided by the SSG-2. These common marks have specific size, thickness number (quantity) and placement in the mark area, besides their colour density. The colour copiers are incorporated with a mechanism to recognise these features and classify them as security documents.

 

 

Evolution of Paper Money in Post Independent India (1951 to 1987)

The effigy of George VI in the notes just prior to independence was replaced by the emblem of the Nation - the Ashokan lion pillar - capital of Sarnath.

1951: New notes were issued in with a completely new design for 100 Rupees, showing elephants. The first issue contained denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 100 Rupees. Later on, in 1953, it was realized that the national language Hindi was not accorded a proper place on the new notes. Consequently, notes with denominations written prominently in Hindi were issued. The Hindi so introduced was grammatically incorrect, and the mistake was corrected in the next two years.

1956: high denomination notes of 1000, 5000 and 10000 Rupees were issued. The 1000 Rupee note had the picture of Rajarajeshwara Temple at Tanjore, while the Gateway of India at Bombay featured on the 5000 Rupee note.

1964: new notes of a smaller size were issued. The size of high denominational notes, however, was not changed. These notes had the following depiction:

2 Rupees Royal Bengal Tiger
5 Rupees Indian Blackbuck
10 Rupees A sailing boat (dhow)
100 Rupees Hirakund Dam on river Mahanadi

1969: the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi was celebrated. New notes of a commemorative design showing Gandhi reading a prayer book on back were issued.

1972: notes of a new denomination of 20 Rupees were introduced. Similarly in 1974, notes of 50 Rupees denomination were issued.

1977: the high denominational notes were demonetized.

During the 1980s: an entirely new series for all denominations was issued. The new designs show various panels such as:

1 Rupee Off-shore oil platform at Bombay
2 Rupees Indian Satellite "Aryabhatta"
5 Rupees Tractor tilling the fields
10 Rupees Panel showing peacock, the Indian National Bird
20 Rupees Sculpture of wheel at Konark Sun Temple
50 Rupees The Indian Parliament House, New Delhi
100 Rupees Agrarian scene

1987: notes of 500 Rupee denominations were issued for the first time, after nearly 75 years. These notes show the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the face, with the sculpture "Gandhi leads the nation" on the back. The same effigy in obverse was utilized once more in 1996, when new notes of 10, 50 and 100 Rupees were issued. These notes bear the representations of animals,
Parliament House and Himalayas on the reverse, respectively. Mention must also be made of a different design of 10 Rupees employed during 1988-1995, which bears the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar, Kashmir.