The ‘un-fakeable’ banknote by Roger Pfund - Geneva, 2012

‘The world’s second oldest profession’, forging currency is as old as money itself. In antiquity, counterfeiting typically involved diluting the quantity of precious metal in a coin with base metals and then covering it with a thin layer of gold or silver. Yet as minting and printing technologies improved, so too did the forger’s skillset. Since the appearance of banknotes, increasingly high demands have been placed on the artistic and technical skills of both currency designers and forgers, as each tries to outsmart the other.

The long history of counterfeit currency goes hand in hand with that of ingenious design and cutting-edge science. This banknote is currently the best attempt at ‘un-fakeable’ money. It combines the most advanced security elements currently available - Security ink, diffractive strip, SPARK screen printing, transparent polymer substrate -  with Roger Pfund’s elaborate graphics.