5 Ways To Identify Fake Currency Notes

5 Ways To Identify Fake Currency Notes

Having a fake currency note in your pocket is as good as walking around with a piece of paper.

Because there’s absolutely no single monetary value attached to a fake currency, especially here in Nigeria. In fact, in some places, you can be arrested for being in possession of it.

Unfortunately, most of the times, you won’t actually know you’re having a fake currency with you, until it’s been spotted out.

So how can you know whether you’re having a fake currency or not?

It’s possible to identify fake currencies.

But at the same time, it can also be very trickish.

There are some popular ways to identify fake Naira notes in Nigeria and I’m going to discuss some of them below.

1. Currency Verifier: A currency verifier also known as currency validator is a device used in verifying whether a currency note is genuine or not.

The device is used for bulk identification of fake currency notes. It is found mostly in Banks, Retail Shops, Shopping outlets etc.

The process involves examining the notes inserted through the use of various tests, determining if the currency is counterfeit through the process.

How a currency Verifier Operates:

In a normal operation, when a currency or note, is accepted, it is retained within the machine and it falls into a storage container to allow a member of staff to collect it later when the machine is being emptied.

If the item is rejected, the verifying machine returns the item to the customer.

If it’s a coin for instance, where the coin is rejected, it usually falls into a tray or rolls out of a slot at the bottom where the customer can remove the coin.

If a banknote is rejected, it is pushed back out through the machine so that the customer can remove it from the slot into which it was inserted.

Other ways of identifying fake currency notes in Nigeria.

Besides using a currency verifier or fake money detector machine for bulk identification of fake currencies, there are other methods that can be used. These other methods of fake currency notes identification includes:

2. Checking the texture of the note

Checking the texture of the currency note is one of the most popular way to identify fake currency note. Especially for single currencies.
If the texture of the money is really soft in a way that gives you concern, you might want to have a recheck.

Also if the image on the currency note looks really dull and blurry, you can reject it and ask for another Naira note from whoever gives it to you.

3. Use water or other liquid

Besides using a currency verifying machine, one other way to identify fake currency note is the use of water or other liquid. Unlike genuine currency notes, the colours used in printing fake notes are soluble in water and some other liquids.

If you have a doubt about a note, place the note in water or petrol and scrub it gently. If it’s fake money, its colours will wash off like an artwork painted with water colour.

Again, once you immerse it in water, the paper becomes messed up. It will get rough and look more like a paper sheet. However, the real note won’t look like this when immersed in water or any liquid.

4. Check the gold foil

The N1000 note has a gold foil on the right side, just beside the CBN governor’s signature. If you scratch the gold foil of a fake note it will peel off but that of an original note doesn’t peel.

5. Check the ribbon/thread

Another interesting way to identify counterfeit Naira note besides using a currency detector machine is by checking the ribbon thread.

There is a thread that looks like a ribbon on all Naira notes, running from the top to the bottom of each note.

For genuine Naira notes, this thread can be felt. It is more noticeable on old Naira notes. However, in fake notes, there’s something that looks like the thread but it’s not.

What is there is just a straight line painting that looks like the thread in original notes. If you scratch the painting, it’ll peel off like the solver panel on recharge cards.

6. Use of mercury bulbs

The use of mercury bulb has been one popular alternative to currency detector machines, especially in the Banking sectors.

Some features of the paper Naira notes cannot be seen with Unclad eyes. These features are only in original Naira notes, and one cannot see them except with the help of mercury bulbs.

For instance, if a real N1000 note is placed under the rays from a mercury bulb, it’ll show a glowing 1000 (in numbers) written across the note. The same applies to smaller denominations.

After all is said and done, using a currency verifying machine is still one of the most productive ways to identify fake currency notes.

And you can get your currency verifying notes delivered to you wherever you are, right here in Nigeria.