More dud notes - Beware

Blade

http://www.esatclear.ie/~lorenzo/dud_20.jpg

http://www.esatclear.ie/~lorenzo/dud_50.jpg

elexes

where are you from just wondering what part of ireland your picking these up in ???

Blade

Howth, Co. Dublin. Theres quite a few floating about the area, all the shops here are starting to check all the notes coming in now. The local Spar even has a sign up apologising for delays because of having to check all incoming notes. One busy pub in the area took in 3 of the 50 notes in one night.

Cake Fiend

What's the story with the holograms on the fake notes? I presume they look weird on those pics because of the scan, but do they look legit on the notes?

chernobyl

Whats "dud" in the 50?

The watermark and hologram?

Our man in Havana

The half 50 in the top left corner is out of line. easiest thing to check when you look thru it the complete 50 can be seen.

Gordon

This was bound to happen. People nowadays just look at the hologram as they think that that is the hardest thing to fake.

As James says, the note is misaligned so look through it to see the line up of the front and back. The safety strip (?) is there as well as the hologram but the watermark and the line up is not there. Apparently the feel of the notes is very material as opposed to the cheap feel of the €uro note

Blade

Yeh, see the holograms in a scan don't come out too well but it is very similar at a glance, it is a type of hologram that shines and changes as u tilt it etc but it doesn't have the actual detail of the original. It's very hard to spot if your working in a busy shop and your not specifically looking out for duds. Having said that the 50 isn't as good a copy as the 20 is and the 20 of course is much easier to pass off, I passed it off to 4 bar persons in my local as a test/mess.

Chernobyl they don't have watermarks or any of the other security features but you'll spot one quicker by looking at the hologram, problem is in busy places ppl don't bother. The dud hologram is just made up of squares where the originals are much more detailed with the notes value written on them.

Blade

Well I wasn't going to mention the half 50 because I really don't think that is the best way to check, a quick look at the hologram is much better. In fact the reason I said the 20 was the best copy too is because both halves of the 20 actually match up VERY well, on the 50 it doesn't though. So I wouldn't go by that if I was you

Gordon

What about the UV light and the safety pens can they show them as duds?

Blade

Originally posted by Gordon
What about the UV light and the safety pens can they show them as duds?

Oh absolutely they show up as duds, you can see in both my scans that we marked them with the pen, a dud shows up the pen mark as such where the real notes hardly show anything at all.

Also I'd like to add that apparently the holograms they used can be bought in the pound shops as covers for copy books! Or so I'm told by one of the girls who works for us.

Gordon

wow, didn't see the links due to 56k edness.

Typical, the hi-tech holograms are even easier to get than the apparently lo tech other features. I guess its all down to staff awareness (A tricky thing to implement )

SantaHoe

Originally posted by Blade
all the shops here are starting to check all the notes coming in now.

Too right... in the case of getting back change, I feel it's the shop/cashier's responsibility to make sure fake notes don't get back out... and kudos to my local Esso station, they scrutinize every note that comes in, no matter how trustworthy you look

It's pretty hard to tell from the scans, but how well (if at all) do these fakes emulate the watermark and the other bits, like the shiny horizontal strip at the back?
Also, what should you do in the event that you get stuck with one of these duds? Contact the Gardai? the shop/person (you think) you got it from?

Blade

Well all I can say is 'check your change!' if your a customer and if your a shop owner like me try and drill it into your staff to check every note though as Gordon said there thats easier said than done

If you get it in change give it straight back, but if you've left the shop and then try to go back in their not going to believe you, and they don't have to reimburse you by law AFAIK once you've left the property. I know a girl who got a dud from the bank and when she went back in they wouldn't believe her and of course they kept the note. Thats another thing, shops have to by law keep your note if they catch you trying to pass them a dud and they are supposed to call the police, their not supposed to give it back to you.

SantaHoe: It doesn't have any of the main security features, it's just the kind of note that at a quick glance will pass you by.

The Gopher

Euro notes are easy as anything to forge.Im always meaning to make a copy myself but i never got around to it.A friend of mine in school made a near perfect one on his PC.Sure it had no silver foil but it could be easily added if needed.It may be hard to get away with in a shop but in a noisy dark pub or club they wouldnt notice the difference.And the fact that the watermark on the euro is virtually invisible further acts as an advantage.Punts were hard to forge as the paper had a certain feel,but euros,with a little minor treatment with a bit of heat,havent got a distinctive feel and so are easier to forge.

Cake Fiend

Don't forget the raised and rough surfaces on the notes - that's how I used to check Irish notes when there were fake scares. The big numbers on the notes are rough, as are the smaller numbers in the bottom left corner. The watermarks in the white spaces on the Euro notes are much easier to see than the Irish notes also.

Our man in Havana

Dont forget the colour shifting ink on the €50 and above!