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Battling counterfeit currency
Joginder Singh
 Counterfeiting
money is as old as the currency itself. It has also been a tool to
weaken the economy of a country and not surprisingly the punishment used
to be death. Today, with improved and easy technology, more and more
people are faking currency. Perhaps the solution lies in adopting
plastic money as many countries are finding out.
Delhi police claims, to have busted a major ISI network, on 25th June,
2007, which was reportedly being used to pushing fake currency into our
country. Three arrested men, by name, Nayeem, Wasim and Mohammed Mus¬lim,
have revealed that Thar Ex¬press, running be¬tween Munnabao in Pakistan
and Jodh-pur in Rajasthan, is being used to smug¬gle fake currency into
India. Initial investigation, has also uncovered, that the fake currency
was arranged in Dubai and Rs 33 lakh was seized from them. According to
police, the Indian currency is printed in Pakistan and ille¬gally
brought to India through Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and
Thailand.
The interrogation has also exposed, that the ongoing rate is Rs 40,000
to Rs. 65000, for every lakh of fake currency, depending upon the
quality of notes. Earlier in April, 2007, two persons, who allegedly
smuggled over Rs 50 lakh worth of fake currency from Pakistan into
India, were arrested. The Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were of such fine
quality that only an expert could tell if they were fake.
The department of revenue intelligence has reportedly seized
consign¬ments of counterfeit currency worth over Rs 1 crore at the
Mumbai, Chennai and Kozhikode airports from March, to May, 2007. Quite
possibly, a huge quantity of "Made in Pakistan" notes may already have
been pumped into Indian financial system. Dubai and Colombo have become
the distribu¬tion and storing points
In early May, 2007 Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, arrest-ed a man
with Rs 20 lakh in fake currencies, all printed in Pakistan, at the
Kozhikode air¬port. In February, 2007, three persons were arrested from
the Chennai airport with over Rs 30 lakh in Indian fake currency. It
might appear bizarre, that a 77-year-old woman Laiquan, a resident of
Delhi's Trilokpuri area, was arrested, for smuggling fake Indian
currency of more than Rs 10 lakh in February, 2007 at the Delhi
International airport.
It is also believed that Pakistani ISI's is using Dawood Ibrahim's
network across Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Dubai and India for
financing terrorist activities and destabilising the Indian economy in
the long run, through circulation of fake Indian currency notes (FICNs).
Unofficial estimates put the number of FICNs in circulation at 61,000
million pieces (of different denominations) worth Rs 1,69,000 crore till
the year 2000. The actual seizures were merely worth Rs 5.57 crore in
2002, Rs 5.29 crore in 2003, Rs 6.81 crore in 2004 and Rs 1.12 crore in
2005 (till March).
There is no way, by which counterfeiting can be stopped, which is
probably, as old, as the money itself. Before the introduction, of paper
money, the two main ways of doing it, were to mix base metals in what
was supposed to be pure gold or silver, or to "shave" the edges of a
coin, so that it weighed less than it was supposed to. An English couple
Thomas Rogers and Anne Rogers were convicted on 15 October 1690 for
"Clipping 40 pieces of Silver" (in other words, clipping the edges off
silver coins). Thomas Rogers was hanged, and his wife Anne Rogers, was
burnt alive. The gruesome forms of punishment were due to the two's acts
being construed as "treason", rather than a simple crime. In America,
counterfeiting also used to be punishable by death. For example, paper
currency, printed by Benjamin Franklin, often bore the phrase "to
counterfeit is death."
Modern counterfeiting begins with paper money. Nations have used
counterfeiting as a means of warfare. The idea is, to overflow the
enemy's economy with fake bank notes, so that the real value of the
money plummets. Great Britain did this during the Revolutionary War in
USA, in 1776, to reduce the value of the Continental Dollar. This tactic
was also employed by the United States during the American Civil War.
The fake Confederate currency, it produced, was of superior quality to
the real thing.
During World War II, the Nazis attempted to do a similar thing to the
Allies with Operation Bernhard. The Nazis took Jewish artists, in the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp and forced them to forge British pounds
and American dollars. The quality of the counterfeiting was so good,
that it was almost impossible to distinguish between the real and fake
bills. The Germans could not put their plan into action, and were forced
to dump the counterfeit bills into a lake. The currency notes were
recovered only in the 1950's. Today the finest counterfeit banknotes are
claimed to be U.S. dollar bills produced in North Korea. The fake North
Korean copies are called Super dollars because of their high quality.
As home computers become just as common as telephones in America, U.S.
officials have been stretched by the counterfeiters. In fiscal 2002,
which ended Sept. 30, 39% of the fake currency in circulation in the USA
was made using a computer, up from 8% in 1992.
Unfortunately, our Government is shackled in the bureaucratic mind set
which is loath to change. At least 20 countries, in the world,
includ¬ing Australia, New Zealand and Romania, with vari¬ants in
Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Mexico, Singa¬pore and Sri Lanka, are using
plastic notes, which are sup¬posed to be more durable, being made of
non-porous polymer with a special protective coating that pre¬vents
absorption of moisture. Such notes are said to be more
counterfeit-proof. Some countries like Mexico that have used polymer
technology have clear stamp-sized plastic windows which are said to be
difficult to forge. Once their life is over, the notes can be re¬cycled
and used as plastic products. Reserve Bank of Australia, which claims to
have developed the technology for using polymers for currency, first
experimented with these currency notes in 1988 to mark the Australian
bicentenary. It has completely shifted to plastic money by 1996. New
Zealand and Romania have also done the same. It is worth trying this
experiments, at least with lower denomination notes in our own country
The only way, we in India, can tackle this problem is to exercise
vigilance, on the part of every citizen, “If men were angels, no
government would be necessary.” Remember, that if all men, were angels,
we would not need any external or internal checks. But as they are not,
so we have to be vigilant. This battle, is not only for the strong
alone; but for the vigilant, and the active.
Following tips can be useful for every citizen. The Government on its
part, should encourage fair and fearless reporting of the fake currency.
Otherwise, in the normal course, the person making the report becomes
the primary suspect. This leads to the generation of a tendency wherein
people prefer to suffer a loss, than face the hassle of registering a
case and then going to the court but remember criminals are always
better organized and it is a part of our duty, to defend our currency.
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