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Spotting fake Randelas

Cape Town – The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) on Tuesday welcomed the public’s vigilance in identifying and reporting counterfeit notes, and urged consumers to familiarise themselves with the security features of the new Randela banknotes.

Sarb spokesperson Hlengani Mathebula said the bank is aware of isolated cases of counterfeit notes of the new banknote series featuring former president Nelson Mandela.

He was responding to a question by Fin24 on a report in the New Age on Tuesday that counterfeit notes have made their appearance barely two weeks after the new Randela banknotes started circulating.
 
The New Age quoted an unnamed Hillbrow filling station manager, who said two motorists had tried to use fake R100 bills to purchase fuel.

“We had two incidents. The last one was on Friday. We noted the difference between the original and the fake one.

“Fortunately we managed to stop the man before he left. We called the police and they arrested him,” the petrol station manager said.

The Hillbrow police station confirmed the arrest.

Sections of the small business community, mainly spaza shops, say they practise caution when handling in particular the R100 and R200 denominations, especially at night.

The new banknotes, which feature former president Nelson Mandela on the front and pictures of the Big Five animals on the back, went into circulation on November 6.

Security features include watermarks, micro-printing and unique numbering. The notes feature raised printing for visually impaired people, and are the same size as those already in circulation to avoid confusion.

The new banknotes will circulate with the existing currency and both will be legal tender.
 
The launch was preceded by a public awareness campaign which included television, radio and print advertisements as well as electronic media and social networking.

Three things to look out for

Sarb lists three things to remember when checking a banknote:

 - Look: identify the security, technical and design features incorporated both on the front and the back of the banknote.

These features are the watermark, main motif, security thread, unique numbering, coat of arms, perfect print registration, micro-printing and the size of the new banknotes.

 - Feel: raised printing gives the banknote a unique and rough feel.

The raised features on the new banknote include the denomination numeral, main motif on the front of the new banknote (image of former president Nelson Mandela), words “South African Reserve Bank”, coat of arms and motif on the back of the new banknote and raised lines at the bottom left and right-hand sides on the front of the note (feature for the visually impaired).

 - Tilt (hidden/latent image): when you hold a new banknote almost horizontally to your eyes, the denomination numeral appears in the band below the image of Nelson Mandela.

Meanwhile, Capitec Bank said its staff members are on high alert to spot fake banknotes.

“Although we have not had incidents of false notes at our branches to date, our staff have been trained on the security characteristics of our currency and will be vigilant at all times to combat fraud in all its forms,” said Capitec’s Charl Nel.

 - Fin24
 


 
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