Birth of a banknote
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In addition to the material needs of our daily life and the warmth and sufficiency of our hands, the birth of each banknote records the history of that era, the design of the mind, the advancement of printing and anti-counterfeiting technology. In this issue, we will introduce the history of Hong Kong banknotes, design ideas, printing techniques and anti-counterfeiting knowledge with the title of "The Birth of a Banknote". Let us witness "the birth of a banknote".
Banknote design witnesses historical evolution
To elaborate on the story of the banknote, I believe it must be said by the first banknote issued in 1845.
In 1845, the Bank of China issued the first banknote. The early banknotes were larger in size, so it was called the “big cotton tires”. At that time, the design of the banknotes was quite simple. According to the mode of issuing the documents, only the note-issuing bank was on the banknotes. The name, denomination, date of banknotes and banknote number are interesting. It is interesting that each year's banknotes are signed by the bank's general manager and chief accountant on a line-by-line basis and date and number.
In 1859, the three banks of China's Renton Bank in China (later renamed the Bank of China) joined the bank of note-issuing banks. In 1968, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation opened and issued in the same year. Today, HSBC accounts for about two-thirds of the existing Hong Kong dollar banknotes. In 1959 HSBC acquired a favorable bank.
The banknote design entered a period of diversification from 1900 to 1958, and introduced a variety of designed banknotes, mainly symbolizing the prosperity of Hong Kong at that time, such as the use of Mochouli to represent business development, and the British goddess representing the United Kingdom; In addition, the image of Chinese characteristics has also been adopted as the theme of design, such as the streets, waterfront and tea making in China.
Since 1959, the design of banknotes has changed from a colonial color to a unique feature, designed with Hong Kong landmarks and the logos of the banks themselves. It was not until 1994 that the Bank of China issued banknotes for the first time, which turned into a situation in which banknotes were issued by three note-issuing banks.
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Hong Kong's annual note-issuing bank list
1845 Eastern Hui Bank (Hong Kong's first note-issuing bank)
1857 China's three banks in China's Renton Bank (ie favorable bank)
1859 India New Jinshan China Huili Bank (ie Standard Chartered Bank)
1865 Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation began to issue notes
1994 Bank of China issued notes
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Birth of a banknote
Design
In order to understand the design process of banknotes, the magazine invited Mr. Gu Zhengyan, senior manager of design and creation of the Public Affairs Department of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, to accept the interview and talk about the design of banknotes.
Mr. Gu is currently the only banknote designer born and raised in Hong Kong. In the past, Mr. Gu was responsible for the design of bank books, annual reports, Lee is right, calendar and other graphic design work. This is the first time he designed banknotes for Hong Kong. The conceptual design concept and the secret task force (including the design department colleagues) led by him have been undertaken by the team. After more than two years, nearly three years of efforts, 100 and 500 yuan denominations of banknotes were released in December 2003. It is circulated in the Hong Kong market; and the banknotes of 20, 50 and 1,000 yuan denominations will be launched soon in the second half of this year.
designing process
Mr. Gu said that the design process of banknotes was first started by the guidelines set by the HKMA. When the HKMA plans to issue new banknotes, it will give the banknotes of the banknotes the color, size, security features, location of security features, etc. With clear guidelines, designers must follow these guidelines and add their own design ideas to “concoct” new notes. Mr. Gu said that he had spent nine months in the initial design, searching for information, filming and then designing three sets. Each set of five denominations was designed in the form of Hong Kong's logo, birds and flowers. After the selection of the bank's top management, the design of Hong Kong landmarks as the banknotes was considered to have the most Hong Kong characteristics. Therefore, it was decided to use this as a topic and then carefully revised by Mr. Gu.
Go to London for plate making
Since the design of the banknote is a secret task, all the processes are the sole responsibility of Mr. Gu, because the printing plate used to print the HSBC banknotes is made by the authority of the London banknote platemaking, De La Lu, so the banknote design is completed. After that, Mr. Gu would bring the design blueprint to London to discuss the engraving issues. During this period, Mr. Gu communicated with all colleagues involved in the banknote production through confidential letters and e-mails. After completion, it will be printed by Hong Kong Banknote Printing Co., Ltd.
Security design
In addition to the anti-counterfeiting features set by the HKMA, Mr. Gu also spent a lot of thoughts on designing images that are more difficult to counterfeit, using the effect of Rainbow Color and the design of using more colors to blend into the background, adding forgery. Difficulty. Mr. Gu Zhengyan said that in this design, the back of the banknote is composed of three scenes, namely Tsing Yi Island, Tsing Ma Bridge and a tugboat drawn from white lines, which are stacked from far to near. , to create a deep layer effect, in which the anti-white pattern is more complicated, it is difficult to counterfeit; and in terms of color, Mr. Gu also took care of it, first in terms of the background color of the banknote, although the HKMA specified the color of the banknote, These colors are mostly made up of three colors. For example, the red color of the red shirt is made of red mixed purple and dark gray; the 500 yuan is made of dark brown, light brown and blue, but the color is The proportion and configuration are all decided by the designer. Mr. Gu uses more colors to mix into the background color, which is more difficult to counterfeit. In addition, the Rainbow Color is used to mix different colors and display differently. The gradient effect, the general printing technology is difficult to forge such a fine color change effect.
Designing banknotes two or three
The process of designing banknotes is not simple. As far as design is concerned, since banknotes have regional symbolic meanings, in addition to expressing local characteristics, they also incorporate the characteristics of local culture. Mr. Gu said that the new banknotes have a medium pattern symbolizing auspicious auspiciousness. With the representative Hong Kong landmarks, it is a reflection of the characteristics of Hong Kong's integration of Chinese and Western cultures. Mr. Gu even more laughed. When he decided to use the landmark as the design theme, he set about shooting, such as the Tsing Ma Bridge, Hong Kong Airport, etc., all of which had to arrange for the photographer to take a helicopter to shoot in the sky, but the passengers on the 500 yuan denomination banknotes. Buildings, airport control towers, if you want to take in the film, you need to apply for and explain the purpose of the filming, but because the process of designing banknotes requires a high degree of confidentiality, there is no application for filming. Mr. Gu only collects pictures of many airport administration books. Merged together.
Printing
Hong Kong Banknote Printing Co., Ltd. printed banknote flow chart:
1. Banknote printing white paper: First, prepare 100% cotton paper with anti-counterfeiting features.
2. Waterless Offset Printing: The background pattern of banknotes is printed on both sides of the front and back using dry offset printing technology.
3. Screen printing: Screen printing is a printing technology that has been added to the printing process in recent years. Previously, only banknote printing and gravure printing technology were used, but the effect of discoloring silver code and pearl pattern was better. Therefore, the screen printing technology is added, and the color changing ink and the pearl ink are printed.
4. Gravure printing: The remaining part of the banknote is printed by gravure technology, in order to increase the feel of the banknote and increase the anti-counterfeiting ability.
5. Large inspection: When the banknotes complete the basic printing process, the original banknotes will be inspected extensively. The banknote inspectors in the banknote printing company will undergo strict training and can easily print the defects of the printing and screen the problematic defects. Pieces.
6. Number and colorless luminescent ink printing: After a large inspection process, the number of the banknote and the colorless luminescent ink are printed.
7. Cut: The printed portion of a banknote.
8. Xiao Zhang check: In order to ensure the quality of the banknotes, after cutting into small sheets, it will be checked again.
9. Packing: After the final quality check, the banknotes will be bundled into small stacks and stored in a warehouse after packaging.
10. Destruction: The last thing is to destroy the bad parts printed.
After each production process, the banknotes will be stored in the warehouse and will be withdrawn by the note-issuing bank. When the note-issuing bank needs to issue banknotes, it must submit a relative amount to the HKMA at the exchange rate of 7.8 Hong Kong dollars to 1 US dollar according to the law. In US dollars, these dollars will be deposited in the Exchange Fund in exchange for a certificate of indebtedness, which is supported by the banknotes issued by the note-issuing bank. After the above procedures, the banknotes can be officially circulated in the market.
The life of a banknote is about 18 to 46 months, depending on its denomination, and the banknotes that are broken, damaged or contaminated will be recovered by the note-issuing bank and the relative dollar amount will be recovered from the Exchange Fund. These broken banknotes are chopped (about 2mm x 2mm pieces) and transported to the landfill for disposal.
Security feature
In 2003 and 2004, Hong Kong introduced five kinds of banknotes of different denominations, namely, picking up, picking up, picking up, smashing, and smashing. In order to facilitate the public to identify the authenticity of the banknotes, the new banknotes added more security features. In addition, the same use of the same anti-counterfeiting features and color to enhance the uniformity of the current currency circulation; in terms of security features, we invited the Commercial Crimes Investigation Division of the Hong Kong Police Force - the Chief Inspector of the Counterfeit and Forged Document Section Mr. President, analyze the types of anti-counterfeiting features, the anti-counterfeiting features of circulating banknotes, and provide us with some tips for identifying the authenticity of banknotes.
The Chief Inspector of the Commissioner is currently attached to the Commercial Crimes Investigation Division - the expert and support team in the counterfeit banknote and forgery document group. His main job is to identify the "true identity" of the suspected falsehood. Therefore, he knows the anti-counterfeiting features and identification methods of the banknotes. . Chief Inspector Yu said that the anti-counterfeiting features of banknotes can be generally divided into three aspects: paper, printing methods and ink.
Security on paper
The paper applied to the banknotes is different from the general paper, and some of the security features on the banknotes are produced in the papermaking process, such as watermarks and security threads, so that the security features have been included in the raw materials alone.
Watermark
Watermarking is the use of the thickness of the fibers on the banknotes to form different patterns of light transmittance. Inspector Yu said that in general, watermarks are one of the more difficult features of forgery, especially on newly issued banknotes. Photometric watermark, which is formed by “scraping” the fiber in the papermaking process. As long as you hold any side of the banknote, the backlight can clearly see the watermark and denomination of the individual banknotes of the three banknotes. Digital high transparency watermark.
Safety line
The newly issued banknote has two top-down metal security lines, one is a young metal wire stored on the right side of the front side of the banknote, and the other is a multi-metal wire that is added to the right side of the back of the banknote. The two metal wires are used to sandwich the thin metal wire in the middle part of the paper during the papermaking process, so it can be clearly seen both on the front and back sides of the banknote, and the new window-opening metal wire has greater anti-counterfeiting function. The so-called window-opening design is that when the banknote is laid flat, the metal wire has an intermittent effect, but when the back side of the banknote is backlit, an unrelenting metal wire is seen. This metal wire The forgery is quite difficult because it must be in the papermaking process, part of the metal material is hidden in the middle of the paper, part of it is exposed to the surface of the paper, and the surface of the metal wire is printed with radium diesel Pattern and denomination values.
Printed security
As mentioned earlier in this article, the birth of a banknote was printed through a variety of different printing methods. The chief inspector of the president said that the macromolecules used the characteristics of different printing methods to produce some effective effects in the printing process of banknotes. Identify the fake features of true and false banknotes.
Lithography
A new perspective mark is added to the newly issued banknote. When the mark is viewed from the front, only a part of the pattern is seen, but when the backlight is observed, the pattern on both sides can be seen to completely match. This see-through mark is printed on both sides of the front and back sides of the waterless printing press, so that the printed pattern has no slight deviation, and it is difficult for a general printer or printer to print such a precise pattern.
Gravure printing
In addition to making the ink layer of the banknote thicker, the gravure printing increases the texture of the banknote, so that we can separate the counterfeit banknotes. The thickness of the original ink layer also creates the birth of another security feature. The eye-catching security feature is called invisible silver code/image. It is formed by the technique of gravure printing to control the thickness of the ink on the surface of the banknote. As long as the front side of the banknote is laid flat and in line with the line of sight, it can be easily detected by a little movement, but because of this hidden silver code/image in three There is no uniform location on the banknotes of the note-issuing bank, so it is more difficult to identify.
Anti-counterfeiting on ink
Color changing ink
The newly designed banknotes use the color-changing ink to print the denomination value in the upper right or lower right corner of the banknote (the banknotes issued by Standard Chartered Bank of Hong Kong and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the color-changing silver code is placed in the upper right corner; Bank of China (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. In the lower right corner, this color-changing silver code will clearly show gold and green when viewed from different angles. The effect of discoloration is obvious. It can be easily identified by the general public or bank staff, and placed uniformly on the right side of the banknote. The purpose of the top/bottom position is to facilitate the bank staff to easily detect the authenticity of the banknotes when collecting the banknotes. The chief inspector of the company said that the use of color-changing ink to print the denomination is the most reliable. In the method of verifying the counterfeit banknote, since the cost of the ink is relatively expensive, and the thickness of the ink layer affects the degree of refraction of the light, the effect of discoloration is also changed, and thus it is not easy to forge.
Fluorescent ink
Another special material used in banknote printing is fluorescent ink, which uses this ink to print fluorescent silver code and banknote barcode on banknotes. This can be regarded as an early anti-counterfeiting mark applied to banknotes. According to the Chief Inspector, at present, fluorescent barcodes and silver codes have lost their anti-counterfeiting effect. Because fluorescent inks and fluorescent toners can be easily found on the market, gangsters can purchase fluorescent barcodes by purchasing these special materials. And the silver code, so the anti-counterfeiting effect is not strong, but now the fluorescent bar code, silver code is used as the role of the institution to identify the banknotes and denominations of the banknotes, so it is still stored on the newly issued banknotes.
Identify real banknotes and counterfeit notes
The basis for the general public to judge the authenticity of banknotes is to feel the texture of the banknotes, or to look at the watermark on the banknotes. Further, most of them use ultraviolet light to take a look at the fluorescent silver code on the banknotes, but In addition to the advancement of technology and the increase in the "professional knowledge" of gangsters, the anti-counterfeiting features of the banknotes have been able to easily imitate imitation. In the end, how can the general public identify genuine and fake banknotes in the absence of professional equipment?
The Chief Inspector of the Chief Executive said that in fact, they will regularly discuss with the representatives of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the three note-issuing banks and the printing bank to discuss whether the anti-counterfeiting features of the existing banknotes are perfect and whether they can add some new anti-counterfeiting techniques to enhance the anti-counterfeiting. The effectiveness, to prevent the possibility of counterfeit banknotes, and the addition of new security features, the public can effectively identify the authenticity of the banknotes in more ways.
(1) Color-changing silver code: The silver code printed by color-changing ink will display two colors of gold and green when viewed from different angles. The chief inspector of the president said that the color-changing silver code is the most reliable method for testing counterfeit banknotes. First, but the public does not pay much attention to this new security feature.
(2) High light transmissive watermark: The common watermark, the forgery situation is more common, so the new banknote adds a high transparency to the original watermark, presenting the denomination of the banknote.
(3) Window-opening safety line: The front side is a security line with a laser pattern printed intermittently, but when viewed from the back, it will present a complete security line.
(4) Perspective pattern: a part of the image is seen on the front side, and in the case of backlight, the two sides are completely matched.
(5) Paper is not reflective: When many citizens use ultraviolet light to detect, the focus will fall on the fluorescent silver code in the center of the banknote, but the chief inspector of the president said that because the central silver code is easier to imitate Therefore, it is not safe for the public to use the image of the fluorescent silver code to identify the authenticity of the banknote. He suggested that if the banknote is detected by ultraviolet light, it should be observed whether the paper is more reflective than the fluorescent image. The reason is that it is generally used. In order to make the writing smoother, in the general papermaking process, a layer of chemical material will be applied. The layer material will show strong reflection under the ultraviolet light, and the paper used to print the banknotes, the materials applied It is an all-natural animal subcutaneous fat. The purpose is to prevent the ink from being extravasated. Since the animal sebum will not be in a reflective state, the paper used for the genuine banknote will not be reflected under the ultraviolet light.
Fight against counterfeit banknotes
Judging from the number of counterfeit banknotes, there has been an increasing trend in recent years. Chief Inspector Yu said that the number of counterfeit banknotes has increased, in addition to the doubling of the number of counterfeit banknotes on behalf of the criminals, on the other hand, it represents the police against counterfeit banknotes. There are significant results. The Chief Inspector of the Chief Executive said that the main reason for this was that the public would generally deposit the remaining banknotes back into the banks to increase the chances of bank inspections. The Commercial Crime Bureau of the Police Force, the Counterfeit Banknotes and the Forgery Papers Division, also strengthened. In connection with the banks, as long as the bank staff finds the suspected banknotes, they can be further tested by the Commercial Crimes Investigation Bureau, which can effectively counter the counterfeit banknote ratio in the market.
The number of counterfeit banknotes seized each year
Advanced instrumentation
Commercial Crimes Investigation Division - Experts in counterfeit banknotes and forged document groups are judged not only by visual observation or by "hand feeling", but also by using various advanced instruments to detect all suspected counterfeit banknotes and take out the essence. Evidence to prove their "identity."
(1) Ultraviolet light: The ultraviolet light used by the police can adjust the wavelength to detect the fiber on the banknote. The chief inspector of the company said that with this ultraviolet light, it can be seen that there are some paper on the banknote. Fluorescent fibers of different colors are scattered in different places. This anti-counterfeiting feature can only be seen by using these advanced instruments, so it is difficult for ordinary people to detect.
(2) Magnifying glass: In the laboratory for testing banknotes, there are various magnifying glasses that are not multiples, and some of them can be connected to the fluorescent screen for careful study.
Magnifying glass that can be connected to the display
(3) Spectrometer: The spectrometer is equipped with a variety of different light, such as ultraviolet light, infrared light, etc. to detect watermarks, ink wavelengths, light refraction and other more in-depth projects.
Spectrometer with ultraviolet light and infrared light as test means
HK$100 bills added security features
Banknotes
(1) The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is the only note-issuing bank in Hong Kong that issued a one-dollar bill. It was 1872.
(2) Sir Thomas Jackson, the general manager of HSBC, is the first and only person in HSBC who can print portraits on banknotes.
(3) In 1890, India's New Jinshan China Huili Bank issued a banknote with a denomination of 25 yuan.
(4) In 1977, HSBC issued the first issue of 1,000 yuan banknotes.
(5) Bank of China issued banknotes for the first time in 1994 and signed it for the first time in Chinese.
(6) The smallest banknote in the world is a 10-bar-denomination banknote issued by the Romanian government in 1917. It is only 1.49 inches long and 1.09 inches wide.
Monetary Authority Information Centre
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has an information centre, which is divided into two parts, the exhibition hall and the library. It shows the operation of the Hong Kong financial system and introduces the historical development of the financial system. There is also a historical corridor inside the world, which records the world since 1842. Historical evolution and an overview of Hong Kong's currency and banking development.