Andrea Firth

Currency Development Team, Bank of Canada

Understanding Authentication of Banknotes

 

The Bank of Canada is actively working to improve our understanding on how people interact with banknotes. We want to know:
1. How often retailers check the authenticity of banknotes?
2. How often retailers notice and reject suspicious looking banknotes?
3. What will retailers notice when handling banknotes?
In an effort to find answers to these questions two series of experiments were undertaken. One series analyzed participant’s ability to identify modified banknotes in a laboratory setting. Participants were provided with genuine samples intermixed with modified genuine banknotes and their accuracy and speed to correctly identify the modified banknotes was recorded.
A second study made use of the same modified banknotes and evaluated participant’s ability to detect the notes in a true circulation environment. In this case shoppers entered retail environments and made low value purchases using the modified genuine $20. Shoppers recorded the number of times notes were checked for authenticity and the number of times the notes were rejected as suspicious.