The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has secured the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to tackle fake currency in the country.
ABCON has gotten the agency’s nod to begin a nationwide campaign against the fake currencies in circulation.
This development came following the importation of fake $100 bills from India. The dollar notes were already said to be in the circulation of the public domain.
Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, the President of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), who raised alarm over the counterfeit notes, said the $100 bill is majorly counterfeited because of huge profit margins that come with it.
How to detect fake dollar bills
In order to ensure proper measures are taken against fake dollar bills, ABCON had released a guide to all Bureaux De Change operators, on how to detect a fake dollar bills, made up of seven notes- $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 and the seven steps to authenticate them.
- The weight of each bill is one gram, 2.61 inches wide and 6.14 inches length.
- It is 75 per cent cotton and 25 per cent linen.
- Your finger can feel thickness and texture.
- The portrait watermark is partly overlapped by the Treasury seal, while the $100 bill is printed on the right side of the bill.
- The strip is thin, faint and runs vertically from top to bottom to the left of the watermark portrait.
- The 3D security ribbon, also called the thread, is bright blue and vertical on the bill.
- The raised printing feels rough on the right shoulder of Benjamin Franklin portrait, while the colour shifting ink works under ultraviolet light.
Gwadabe explained that the dollar bill undergoes microprinting, which is the production of recognizable patterns or characters in the bill at a scale that requires magnification to read with the naked eye. To the unaided eye, the text may appear as a solid line.
