Music plays
Money is perhaps the most complicated item man makes.
Not because it’s difficult, but because it’s broken down into methods that make
it impossible to duplicate.
Engraving the master plate is the first step against imitations.
Although it’s an exact and precise art, the fact that it is done by hand means it
would be impossible for one man to engrave two dyes exactly the same.
Differences in depth and width of lines would occur that an expert would soon pick up as
varying from the original.
Needless to say, the original dye is priceless and must be treated with great care.
Plastic impressions are taken from this original which is then locked away.
These impressions are set together and through electrolysis, a master plate is produced.
Join marks must be filed and rubbed down until the surrounds are perfectly smooth.
From this master is ground a metallic alto, which in turn produces the actual printing
plate.
While the printing plates are being ground to an exact thickness, the paper has arrived,
already impregnated with the watermark and metallic thread; two basic forms of security.
There are no fewer than three printing processes involved in the production of a banknote.
The first is offset printing.
This produces the multiple colours and the intricate line patterns that make up the backgrounds
of our notes.
These machines print ten separate colours in one operation.
Six on one side of the sheet and four on the other, all ready for the foreground to be
superimposed in the intaglio printing process.
The artists original hand engraving was made with a certain depth to give a third dimension
to the design.
The ink is therefore dispersed with corresponding thickness.
Because it’s so thick, it takes longer to dry.
Sheets must be inserted to prevent smudging, and only one side of the note can be printed
at a time.
But once it is dry, this raised ink film becomes the main security feature of money.
It gives a definite texture and feel that immediately distinguishes a genuine article
from the forgery.
Music plays
The third printing process is to number the notes.
The operators here, as in all stages, make spot checks on their output.
The main inspection is made by a barrage of girls whose only job is to sit all day and
look for faults in money.
Most errors are microscopic, and not many of them occur, but despite the monotony, these
girls do find them.
Try picking a fault yourself.
This note is right, and this note is wrong.
Did you see why?
Well look again.
In the right note, there is no printing in the white area, whereas here the foreground
has been printed out of register and is not acceptable.
Those that do get through usually become collectors’ items as there are so few of them.
The sheets are cut down to single notes, then more girls will sort out those marked as imperfect
to leave only the official legal tender.
Music plays
The
next stage is perhaps the most important of all.
The notes are bundled into stacks of 100 and must be very accurately counted before distribution.
These machines count 100 in one second but a double check is sometimes necessary.
After all the security checks that have gone on in every stage of production so far, it
is virtually impossible for even one note to be unaccounted for at this stage.
But the count must be absolute because from here the notes are packaged and sealed in
bundles of 10,000 ready for delivery.
Approximately 300 million notes are made here each year.
Not dollars.
Notes.
That’s a lot of money.
Some is stockpiled for a rainy day, but most of it is issued to replace damaged money which
is constantly being returned to the Reserve Bank.