An official of the People s Bank of China (PBC) said during an interview that the PBC had taken notice of reports that some 100-yuan banknotes starting with the serial number of HD90 were found to be fake, and similar emergency alarms were spreading on the Internet, which have caused panic among the public.
The coding of RMB banknotes is otherwise referred to as serial number beginning with alphabetic prefix. Alphabets are a combination of two to three English letters that mark the printing batch according to certain rules of printing factories, while numbers refer to sequential Arabic numerals following alphabets indicating the sequence of each banknote in the same batch. Serial number is one of the counterfeiting measures, but serial number alone is not sufficient to tell the authenticity of a banknote.
In the recent two years, the PBC has discovered forged 100-yuan banknotes starting with HD90 among fake banknotes surrendered by financial institutions, alongside with counterfeit banknotes starting with HB or FA coding. The PBC immediately notified public security agencies and financial institutions the situation, and asked financial institutions to examine all their counterfeit money detectors so as not to accept or hand out counterfeit banknotes. In 2007, public security agencies cracked a counterfeit money-printing mill, seizing a wealth of 100-yuan banknotes starting with HD90.
The PBC dismissed the allegation of high quality 100-yuan banknotes starting with HD90 as well as media reports that counterfeit banknotes could escape the screening by banks and counterfeit banknote detectors . Instead, certain skills can help with detection of counterfeit money.
PBC officials alerted the public to the danger of counterfeit money especially during the Spring Festival when frequent transactions require larger-than-usual RMB banknote circulation. It is advisable to learn counterfeit money detection skills, understand laws and regulations concerning counter fake banknotes, report fake money cases in a timely manner rather than knowingly using fake money in the wishful thinking that it would not be found out.
PBC branch offices and PBC authorized authentication institutions are obliged to authenticate RMB banknotes. Those who doubt the authenticity of banknotes they have received can bring the banknotes to the above-mentioned institutions for authentication.
