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A counterfeit is an imitation that is made usually with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. The word ''counterfeit'' most frequently describes forged Currency or Document s, but can also describe Clothing , Software , Electronic Stock Shares or Certificates , Pharmaceutical s, Watch es, or more recently, cars and motorcycles, especially when this results in Patent Infringement or Trademark Infringement . This covers a wide range of consumer items, from outright fakes in the sense that they are non-functional lookalikes (e.g. prescription drugs, computer Flash Drive s), functional but inferior items ( Memory Stick s, blank Videotape s) to fully functional items illegally manufactured without paying copyright fees ( CDs , DVD s, Computer Software , Toys ). In the latter case, there is often little or no attempt at disguising its origin as the end user will be aware that the counterfeit product will work at least as well (and sometimes better than) the original. The alternative term bootleg is more often used for this type of conterfeiting, where the user is fully aware of its illegal status. By contrast, a knockoff item may imitate a well-known one, be sold for a lower price, and be of inferior quality, but there is usually no attempt to deceive the buyer, or infringe upon brand names, patents, trademarks or copyrights. An example of a knockoff item is Dynacell batteries. Some counterfeits may even have been produced in the same factory that produces the original, authentic product, using the same materials. The factory owner, unbeknownst to the copyright owner (and perhaps also the manufacturing staff), simply orders an intentional 'overrun'. Without the employment of anti-counterfeiting measures, identical manufacturing methods and materials make this type of counterfeit (and it is still a form of counterfeit, as its production and sale is unauthorised by the copyright owner) impossible to distinguish from the authentic article. To try to avoid this all too common occurrence, companies may have the various parts of an item manufactured in independent factories and then limit the supply of certain distinguishing parts to the factory that performs the final assembly to the exact number required for the number of items to be assembled (or as near to that number as is practicable) and/or may require the factory to account for every part used and to return any unused, faulty, or damaged parts. To help distinguish the originals from the counterfeits, the copyright holder may also employ the use of serial numbers and/or holograms etc., which may be attached to the product in another factory still. COUNTERFEITING OF MONEY History Counterfeiting is probably as old as money itself. Before the introduction of Paper Money , the main way of doing it was to mix base metals in what was supposed to be pure Gold or Silver . Also, individuals would "shave" the edges of a coin so that it weighed less than it was supposed to, a process known as clipping. This is not counterfeiting but the exponents could use the precious metal clippings to make counterfeits. A Fourrée is an ancient type of counterfeit coin, in which a base metal core has been plated with a precious metal to look like its solid metal counter part. Kings often dealt very harshly with the perpetrators of such deeds. In , who got the nickname Alexander The Barber . Rather than being executed, when he was caught the Emperor decided to employ his financial talents in the government's own service. Modern counterfeiting begins with paper money. Nations have used counterfeiting as a means of warfare. The idea is to overflow the enemy's economy with fake bank notes, so that the real value of the money plummets. Great Britain did this during the Revolutionary War to reduce the value of the Continental Dollar . Although this tactic was also employed by the United States during the American Civil War , the fake Confederate Currency it produced was of superior quality to the real thing. Instances A form of counterfeiting is the production of documents by legitimate printers in response to fraudulent instructions. An example of this is the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925, when the British banknote printers Waterlow And Sons produced Banco De Portugal notes equivalent in value to 0.88% of the Portuguese nominal Gross Domestic Product, with identical serial numbers to existing banknotes, in response to a fraud perpetrated by Alves Dos Reis . Similarly, in 1929 the issue of postage stamps celebrating the Millennium of Iceland 's parliament, the Althing , was compromised by the insertion of "1" on the print order, before the authorised value of stamps to be produced (see Postage Stamps And Postal History Of Iceland .) In 1926 a high-profile counterfeit scandal came to light in Hungary , when several people were arrested in the Netherlands while attempting to procure 10 million francs worth of fake French 1000-franc bills which had been produced in Hungary; after 3 years, the state-sponsored industrial scale counterfeit operation had finally collapsed. The League Of Nations ' investigation found Hungary's motives were to avenge its post-WWI territorial losses (blamed on Georges Clemenceau ) and to use profits from the counterfeiting business to boost a militarist, border-revisionist ideology. Germany and Austria had an active role in the conspiracy, which required special machinery. The quality of fake bills was still substandard however, due to France's use of exotic raw paper material imported from its colonies. During World War II , the Nazis attempted to do a similar thing to the Allies with Operation Bernhard . The Nazis took Jew ish artists in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and forced them to forge British pounds and American dollars. The quality of the counterfeiting was very good, and it was almost impossible to distinguish between the real and fake bills. The Germans could not put their plan into action, and were forced to dump the counterfeit bills into a lake. The bills were not recovered until the 1950s . Today the finest counterfeit banknotes are claimed to be U.S. Dollar bills produced in North Korea , which are used to finance the North Korean government, among other uses. The fake North Korean copies are called '' Superdollar s'' because of their high quality. Bulgaria and Colombia are also significant sources of counterfeit currency. Recently, on May 23rd, 2007, the Swiss government has raised some doubt as to the ability of North Korea to produce the "Superdollars". note]] There has been a rapid growth in the counterfeiting of Euro banknotes and coins since the launch of the currency in 2002. In 2003 , 551,287 fake euro notes and 26,191 bogus euro coins were removed from EU circulation. In 2004 , French police seized fake 10 euro and 20 euro notes worth a total of around €1.8 million from two laboratories and estimated that 145,000 notes had already entered circulation. In the early years of the 21st century, the United States Secret Service has noted a substantial reduction in the quantity of forged U.S. currency, as counterfeiters turn their attention towards the Euro . In Russia , authorities estimate that 90% of products sold to people are counterfeit In 2006, a Pakistani government printing press in the city of Quetta was accused of churning out large quantities of counterfeit Indian currency, The Times of India reported based on Central Bureau of Intelligence investigation. The rupee notes are then smuggled into India as 'part of Pakistan's agenda of destabilising (the) Indian economy through fake currency,' the daily said. The notes are 'supplied by the Pakistan government press (at Quetta) free of cost to Dubai-based counterfeiters who, in turn, smuggle it into India using various means,' the report said. Pakistan printing fake Indian currency - Times of India at Forbes This money is allegedly used to fund terrorist activities inside India. The recent blasts in Mumbai were funded using fake currency printed in Pakistan. Impact on society Some of the ill-effects that counterfeit money has on society are:12 # Reduction in the value of ''real'' money # Increase in prices ( Inflation ) due to more money getting circulated in the economy # Decrease in the acceptability (satisfactoriness) of money # Companies are not reimbursed for counterfeits. This forces them to increase prices of commodities At the same time, in countries where paper money is a small fraction of the total money in circulation, the macroeconomic effects of counterfeiting of currency may not be significant. The microeconomic effects, such as confidence in currency, however, may be large.3 Anti-counterfeiting measures ]] Pound coins. The left coin shows poor surface clarity, irregular reeding and no side lettering. The right coin demonstrates poor metal quality.]] Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised Intaglio printing on bills which would allow non-experts to easily spot forgeries. On coins, ''milled'' or ''reeded'' (marked with parallel grooves) edges are used to show that none of the valuable metal has been scraped off. This detects the ''shaving'' or '' Clipping '' (paring off) of the rim of the coin. However, it does not detect ''sweating'', or shaking coins in a bag and collecting the resulting dust. Since this technique removes a smaller amount, it is primarily used on the most valuable coins, such as gold. In early paper money in Colonial North America , one creative means of deterring counterfeiters was to print the impression of a Leaf in the bill. Since the patterns found in a leaf were unique and complex, they were nearly impossible to reproduce. {Link without Title} In the late twentieth century advances in Computer and Photocopy technology made it possible for people without sophisticated training to easily copy currency. In response, national engraving bureaus began to include new more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting systems such as Hologram s, multi-colored bills, embedded devices such as strips, microprinting and inks whose colors changed depending on the angle of the light, and the use of design features such as the " EURion Constellation " which disables modern photocopiers. Software programs such as Adobe Photoshop have been modified by their manufacturers to obstruct manipulation of scanned images of banknotes. Photoshop and CDS There also exist patches to counteract these measures. For U.S. Currency , anti-counterfeiting milestones are as follows:
The Treasury had made no plans to redesign the $5 Bill using colors, but recently reversed its decision, after learning some counterfeiters were bleaching the ink off the bills and printing them as $100 bills. It is not known when the $100 Bill will be redesigned in this format, but the new $10 Bill (the design of which was revealed in late 2005 ) entered circulation on March 2 , 2006 . The $1 Bill and $2 Bill are seen by most counterfeiters as having too low of a value to counterfeit, and so they have not been redesigned as frequently as higher denominations. In the postage stamp, also used on savings cards for paying television licences and telephone bills, was invalidated and replaced by another design at a few days' notice, because of widespread counterfeiting. Later, the £20 Central Bank Of Ireland Series B banknote was rapidly replaced because of what the Finance Minister described as "the involuntary privatisation of banknote printing". In the 1990s , the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong was placed on the banknotes of the People's Republic Of China to combat counterfeiting, as he was recognised better than the generic designs on the Renminbi notes. In New Zealand, all notes since 2000 have been printed with multi-colored inks on transparent plastic, with see-through sections that are almost impossible to reproduce on photocopy machines. In Australia, the original paper decimal currency banknotes introduced in 1966 were eventually replaced with new designs printed on clear polyester film which also have see-through sections. Money art A subject related to that of counterfeiting is that of money art, which is art that incorporates currency designs or themes. Some of these works of art are similar enough to actual bills that their legality is in question. While a counterfeit is made with deceptive intent, money art is not - however, the law may or may not differentiate between the two. See JSG Boggs , the American artist best known for his hand-drawn, one-sided copies of US banknotes which he spends for the face value of the note. Famous counterfeiters |
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