26 September 2008
The bank of Botswana has issued a warned to the public about the presence of fake P100 and P50 banknotes in circulation.
According to a statement released by the bank's spokesperson Chepete Chepete , the P100 counterfeits bear the serial numbers
G/27 832232; G/33 636820; G/29 894749; and, G/24 419516. The P50 counterfeit bears serial number F/30 578648.
"These counterfeits are photo/scanned copies of genuine banknotes and, in an attempt to make them appear genuine, the counterfeiters have applied a thin film of a silver coloured substance on the hologram to give it a shiny effect.
"The counterfeit notes are printed on a paper that closely approximates a genuine banknote material in size and thickness and they have a rough feel and are ultra violet light neutral," he said.
Chepete added that the public is reminded of the following features of genuine banknotes:
"The hologram is a silver coloured dual-image metallic patch. The
images of the zebra and the number "100" on the P100 banknote hologram should not both appear at the same time, but should switch from one to the other when the banknote is tilted.
"Also, small diamonds should appear in the background," he said; Secondly and similarly, the images of the Kingfisher and the number "50" on the P50 banknote hologram should not appear at the same time, but should switch from one to the other when the banknote is tilted, with small kingfishers appearing in the background;, he added
Thirdly Chepete said, the windowed security thread is a metal strip woven into the banknote and it changes colour from red to green, depending on the viewing angle.
"When held up to the light, the thread appears as a continuous line reading "BoB 50" and "BoB 100" on the P50 and P100 banknotes, respectively," he said.
The bank further urged the public to be vigilant and exercise care when accepting banknotes from any source, especially old and worn-out banknotes and should closely examine the specified security features.
"Any suspicious banknotes discovered should be immediately reported to the nearest Police station and/or Bank of Botswana offices in Gaborone and Francistown,".
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