BSP heightens campaign vs proliferation of fake money

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has launched a different approach in its bid to strengthen the campaign against the proliferation of counterfeit money in the country.

A three-man team from BSP Manila visited the regional police office yesterday to brief police and the media on the basic information on how to detect fake money.

The team was composed of BSP deputy director Roberto Syquia, and counterfeit money examiners Rogelio Garcia and Maja Gratia Malic.

Malic said one must know very well the features of genuine paper bills and coins because ultraviolet lights that are being used to detect fake paper bills are useless if the operator does know the features of the genuine one.

In the case of counterfeit coins, the magnet is not the primary tool for detecting fake ones because some coins are not magnetic while the others are magnetic.

The BSP officials said counterfeit bills are not clearly printed and do not have fine security features such as window security threads and watermarks that could only be seen if inspected using lights.

The genuine bills are made of paper that is rough on the surface compared to the smooth surface of the counterfeit money. A genuine bill also changes color whenever its angle is turned to other side under an ultraviolet light.

In 2001, BSP had added additional security features to the paper bank notes. These include the visibly seen fine fibers of red and blue. Counterfeit bills do not have the same new features.

Few weeks ago, law enforcers had arrested a group of people suspected of proliferating counterfeit P10 and P5 coins in Manila. However, the circulation of these coins did not reach Visayas and Mindanao, Garcia said.

According to Malic, all P5 and P10 coins are non-magnetic while the P1 and .25 coins are magnetic and non-magnetic. Ten centavo and five centavo coins are magnetic.

BSP officials urged those who happened to receive counterfeit money to surrender it to their office or any agent banks, saying that anybody who surrendered fake money will be given a receipt so he could demand a refund.

They also asked the public to deposit their old and damaged bank notes and unused coins to the banks. - Edwin Ian Melecio/LPM