Better security for notes
 

Fiji Times Online

23.09.06

The managing director of De La Rue, James Hussey explains the security features on the new notes

THE new series of currency notes that will be issued early next year will have improved security features, says Reserve Bank Governor, Savenaca Narube.

He made the comments yesterday at the unveiling of the security features for Fijis new design currency notes.

Mr Narube said the improvement in the designs and the security features of the currency notes was necessary because of the increased incidence of counterfeiting.

He said the new features and designs would also increase the durability of the notes.

The central bank decided to keep many of the features that have become familiar to the public.

Some of these familiar features would be improved.

Holograms will carry the same images and be used only for the $20 and $50 denominations.

The $10 note will carry Kaleidoscope, a metallic foil overprinted in such a way that an effect of movement is achieved when the note is angled.

Mr Narube said the cost of the new series of currency notes was $17million.

James Hussey, the managing director of De La Rue (an international company that has been designing Fijis currency notes since 1914) said the security threads would appear to the unaided eye just as they do in the current note series.

He said the thread would appear as a series of shiny dashes on the surface of the paper and these would become a solid line when held against the light.

Mr Hussey said the thread would carry text RBF and the Reserve Bank logo, as per the current notes. He said the thread would not be fluorescent when illuminated with an ultraviolet light.

Instead, he said the fluorescence would appear as a design elsewhere on the note, in two colours.

Mr Hussey said these two fluorescent colours would both appear to be the same colour in normal light.

He said the Fijian effigy would remain as the watermark and would be accompanied by a bright numeral within paper that would indicate the denomination of the note.

Mr Hussey said the new $100 denomination would carry a brand new security feature called Optiks, which is a wide security tape (more than five times wider than threads on the other denominations).

He said this would appear as an aperture on the front of the note, effectively producing a clear window in the note.