Editing Banknote (section)

===History of counterfeiting and security measures===

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When paper bank notes were first introduced in England, they resulted in a dramatic rise in counterfeiting.{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}} The attempts by the Bank of England and the Royal Mint to stamp out currency crime led to new policing strategies, including the increased use of entrapment.<ref>{{Cite journal |title= How Criminal were the Irish? Bias in the Detection of London Currency Crime, 1797–1821 |journal= The London Journal |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=36–52 |date= 2018 |doi= 10.1080/03058034.2016.1270876 |first= Adam |last= Crymble |doi-access= free |hdl= 2299/19710 |hdl-access= free }}</ref>

The characteristics of banknotes, their materials and production techniques (as well as their development over history) are topics that are not usually thoroughly examined by historians, even though there are now a number of works detailing how bank notes were actually constructed. This is mostly because historians tend to be more interested in a theoretical understanding of how money worked rather than how it was produced.<ref>[[#mockford-2014|Mockford, 2014; pp. 118–119]] quote="Detailed discussion of the material characteristics of Bank Notes, as well as the methods used in their construction, have therefore tended to constitute merely a footnote in historical works that have often prioritised both contemporary and modern theoretical understandings of money and exchange."</ref> The first great deterrent against counterfeiting was the death penalty for forgers, but this was not enough to stop the rise of counterfeiting. Over the 18th century, far fewer banknotes were circulating in England compared to the boom of bank notes in the 19th century; because of this, improved note-making techniques were not considered a compelling issue.

In the 18th century, banknotes were produced mainly by [[copper-plate engraving]] and [[printing]], and they were single-sided. Note-making technologies remained largely unchanged during the 18th century.<ref>[[#mockford-2014|Mockford, 2014; p. 121]] quote="The technologies employed by the Bank in the making of its notes were ones that altered very little throughout the course of the long eighteenth century, with major changes not occurring until well after the close of this period."</ref> The first banknotes were produced by [[intaglio printing]]: this involved engraving a copper plate by hand and then covering it in ink to print the bank notes. Only with this technique, at that time, could one force the paper into the lines of the engraving to make suitable banknotes. Another difficulty in counterfeiting banknotes was the paper, as the type of paper used for banknotes was rather different from the paper commercially available at that time. Despite this, some forgers successfully forged notes by dealing with and consulting paper makers, in order to make a similar kind of paper themselves.<ref name=mockford_122-123>[[#mockford-2014|Mockford, 2014; pp. 122–123]]</ref> Furthermore, [[watermark|watermarked paper]] has also been used since banknotes first appeared; it involved the sewing of a thin wire frame into paper mould. Watermarks for notes were first used in 1697, by Rice Watkins, a [[Berkshire]] paper maker.<ref name=mockford_122-123/> Watermarks and special paper made it harder and more expensive to forge banknotes, since more complex and expensive paper-making machines were needed.

In the early 19th century (the so-called [[Bank Restriction Period]], 1797–1821), the dramatically increased demand for bank notes slowly forced the banks to refine the technologies employed.<ref name="mockford_122-123"/> In 1801, watermarks, which previously were straight lines, became wavy—an idea of William Brewer, a watermark mould maker. This made counterfeiting bank notes harder still, at least in the short term, and in 1803 the number of forged bank notes fell to just 3000, compared to 5000 the previous year.<ref>[[#mockford-2014|Mockford, 2014; p. 126]]</ref> Banks asked skilled engravers and artists to help them make their notes more difficult to counterfeit during the same time period, which historians refer to as "the search for the inimitable banknote." During this time, bank notes also began to be double-sided and have more intricate patterns.<ref>[[#mockford-2014|Mockford, 2014; p. 127]]</ref>

The ease with which paper money can be created, by both legitimate authorities and counterfeiters, has led to a temptation in times of crisis such as war or revolution, or merely a spendthrift government, to produce paper money which was not supported by precious metal or other goods; this often led to [[hyperinflation]] and a loss of faith in the value of paper money, e.g. the [[Continental Currency]] produced by the [[Continental Congress]] during the [[American Revolution]], the [[Assignat]]s produced during the [[French Revolution]], the paper currency produced by the [[Confederate States of America]] and the [[Southern States Confederate Currency|individual states of the Confederate States of America]], the financing of World War I by the [[Central Powers]] (by 1922 1 gold [[Austro-Hungarian krone]] of 1914 was worth 14,400 paper Kronen), the devaluation of the [[Yugoslav dinar]] in the 1990s, etc. Banknotes may also be [[overprinted]] to reflect political or economic changes that occur faster than new currency can be printed.

In 1988, [[Austria]] produced the 5000 [[Austrian schilling|Schilling]] banknote ([[Mozart]]), which is the first foil application ([[Kinebar|Kinegram]]) to a paper banknote in the history of banknote printing. The application of optical features is now common throughout the world. Many countries' banknotes now have embedded [[holograms]].