Many probably paid attention to the special quality of the material that is used to make banknotes. Indeed, special paper is used to print money. This protects paper money from counterfeiting and ensures that banknotes are resistant to wear and tear.
Money printing paper: the highest degree of protection
Paper with protective properties is used not only in the manufacture of paper money, but also in the issuance of securities, packaging of prestigious and expensive goods, documents of special importance. The special material developed using a special technology creates an almost insurmountable obstacle for intruders who often seek to counterfeit banknotes.
Specialty papers with security features fall into several categories. The material of the highest quality, belonging to the first category, just becomes the raw material for the manufacture of banknotes.
Passports and other identity documents are also made from such paper, which are subject to the highest requirements in terms of protection against counterfeiting.
Financiers often say that money loves silence. Therefore, it is not surprising that the technology of producing money paper in any state belongs to the highest category of secrecy. People who are not privy to the intricacies of production know only the simplest distinctive features of such paper, which, however, quite reliably allow distinguishing a real bill from a skillful counterfeit.
Security paper manufacturing technology
Security grades of paper are made in a completely different way from the products that go to the manufacture of newspapers and magazines. There are differences in the composition of the raw materials, and in the accuracy of the equipment, and in the special methods of processing the material. At different stages of the manufacture of special paper, special additives are added to the composition, which become elements of protection.
Manufacturers of banknote raw materials meet strict requirements for paper weight and weight per square centimeter of area. A certain amount of cotton fibers and other substances are added to the composite mass, most of which is cellulose, which become visible only under special lighting, for example, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.
It is believed that the presence of at least three types of fibers of different origins in the paper provides good protection.
One of the distinctive features of banknotes is watermarks. They are formed at one of the stages of the technological process of manufacturing raw materials, using the so-called embossed calendering cylinders. Passing between the rolls, the paper web changes its thickness in certain places. After that, a visual effect arises, which is the latent image. It can be a pattern or text located both over the entire area of the bill, and in its individual places.
For some time now, multi-colored fibers of different lengths have been introduced into banknotes. They are usually visible without special lighting, although some types of banknotes may include villi, which appear only under the influence of ultraviolet lamps. This method of protection is good because it is almost impossible for attackers to reproduce it using copying or printing equipment.
