Singapore's Paper Notes

#TriviaTuesday: Take a closer look at any dollar notes in your wallet and you’ll notice that the ‘line’ at the top of a note is a line of micro text.

Micro text is commonly found on banknotes to fight against counterfeiting. To the unaided eye, this appears as a single line, but the details can be seen legibly using a magnifying glass. You should be able to see the words ‘Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore’ or ‘Monetary Authority of Singapore’ spelled repeatedly above the four official languages of the word ‘Singapore’ on the front of the note. Previous security features in the Ship Series were carried over to the Portrait Series, and new ones incorporated into our paper and polymer notes during the printing process. All our notes have the intaglio (raised) printing which gives the note an embossed feel.

The two most prominent security features are the engraved portrait of our first president Yusof bin Ishak and the Kinegram, a printed security hologram. Paper versions issued by BCCS features its logo and the face value, while those issued by the MAS features its logo with the Merlion and the face value. Polymer banknotes have the Kinegram replaced by an image of the Singapore lion symbol with the face value, showing the coat of arms of Singapore when tilted at varying degrees. The use of intaglio printing on the Singapore Coat of Arms, the engraved portrait, the word "SINGAPORE" and other areas also offers good overall tactility.

Other security features include lithographic print, anti-copying line structures, perfect registration, microprinting, asymmetrical serial numbers and windowed security threads. Polymer versions also include two clear windows. Several features that are invisible to the naked eye appear when under UV lighting.

If you try to feel your banknotes, you’ll find dots at the top right corner. Each note has a Braille code that is printed in heavy intaglio ink, and different note denominations have a different Braille code to help visually impaired people to differentiate the notes.

Money might be something that we handle often, but these are the things that we normally otherwise wouldn’t notice unless we pay close attention.

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