CBC sees red on plastic bank notes
 

Taipei Times

By Steve Hands

04.09.99

Plastic currency

On June 15, 30 million NT$50 notes were issued, but a major flaw has just been discovered -- the security feature is easily rubbed off.

(The security system on Taiwan's new plastic NT$50 bill is flawed in that the image used to prevent counterfeiting can be rubbed off, so users cannot be sure if they are getting a worn bill or a fake.)

Central Bank of China governor Perng Fai-nan has been rubbed up the wrong way by the new NT$50 note -- because the security markings rub off.

The new plastic note has a transparent plastic insert that carries a pretty picture of the ROC flag. This is supposedly a security feature, intended to make such notes harder to copy -- you can no longer just put them through the color photocopier and pass them off to drunks in darkened pubs. However, it actually fails to achieve its objective as the flag emblem is readily rubbed off, and would-be forgers just need to have the transparent patch, and tell recipients of the duds that the flags wore off.

The defect was first brought to light early yesterday morning by Taipei City councilor Chen Yong-de. The central bank responded by convening an emergency meeting in the issuance department, attended by deputy governor Shea Jia-dong, according to local media reports.

Although 30 million of the notes were issued on June 15, the problem has only just come to light. Several countries have issued plastic notes, most notably Australia, which has used them for over 10 years, but this is Taiwan's first experiment with the new style money, and it is the first time in any country that images have been printed over the transparent window. As most of the issue was snapped up for souvenir purposes, the magnitude of the actual threat posed by the notes is small.

Bank notes in Taiwan are issued by the Bank of Taiwan, under the authority of the central bank. This procedure is a holdover from the early days of the ROC on Taiwan when the central bank had yet to be set up, and the Bank of Taiwan assumed the usual functions of a central bank in an unofficial role, in addition to its ordinary banking functions.

Plastic notes are likely to become much more durable than the traditional paper currency.