New safeguards introduced in currency
Beginning June second don’t be surprised if you notice something a little bit different on the bills in your wallet. On that day, the Central Bank of Belize will put into circulation a modified issue of the 1998 upgraded family of banknotes, beginning with the twenty and hundred dollar series. The new bills still have the same basic design, size and security aspects, except that three features have been enhanced to protect Belize’s currency from counterfeiters. Manager of the Banking and Currency Department of the Central Bank, Marilyn Gardiner, says because of incidents in the past, they found it necessary to make our money more easily recognizable as genuine and more secure against advancing technology.
Marilyn Gardiner, Manager, Banking and Currency Dept.
“Well as you are aware, we don’t necessarily respond to a specific need, but we are always committed to enhancing the integrity and security of the Belize currency note. We also address particular types of incidents whenever they arise, but we are committed over specific periods of time to look at note, review the notes and the security features and to see how well and how secure they continue to hold up given changing technologies.”
“As you can see, the notes are basically the same design, but we have enhanced three of the existing features. On the hundred-dollar note alone, we have the intaglio overprints. It is in the shape of the periwinkle applied on top of the hologram. The hologram is in the shape of the toucan. This should make the process of duplicating this note much more difficult for the counterfeiters and more recognisable as genuine to members of the public. We also have the security thread, it is a bit wider and it goes blue under ultraviolet light. We have another extremely important feature, which is the denominational value incorporated in the paper of the note itself, it’s just under the watermark, the jaguar or the Sleeping Giant on the notes. This denominational value will be seen even if the counterfeiter uses a lower denomination to apply the feature of a higher denomination, because it is in the paper itself. And those are the three features that we have enhanced.”
Jacqueline Woods
“And the same applies for the twenty dollar?”
Marilyn Gardiner
“Yes. The only feature that is unique to the hundred dollar alone is the intaglio overprint, which is in the shape of the periwinkle. All the other features, the wider security thread and the denominational value are in all the notes.”
Gardiner says while the new twenty and one hundred bills will be circulated on June second, other denominations will be introduced later this year or early in 2004.
