Don't Be Fooled by Counterfeit Money
(Grand Cayman, Monday, 24, May 2010) Following on the Royal Cayman Islands Police’s recovery of a few forged $25 Cayman Islands currency notes since the start of May, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) is issuing a comparison list, shown below, to help the public identify the forged notes.
The list highlights the most obvious features of the notes. CIMA advises people to get familiar with these pointers so as to protect themselves from unintentionally accepting these counterfeit CI$25 notes.
| Genuine CI$25 Note | Counterfeit |
| Queen’s Head – Every Cayman Islands currency note has a picture of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, shown from the shoulder up. This is printed only on the front of the note, to the right of the Cayman Islands coat of arms. | Queen’s head printed on both sides of note |
| Serial Number – Every CI currency note has a serial number printed in black in the top left and bottom right on the front of the note. The serial number starts with the letter “A”, “B”, “C”, or “Q”, which indicates the series to which the note belongs. | No serial numbers on the front of the notes |
|
Watermark – Every CI currency note has a watermark, in the shape of a turtle, visible when the note is held up to the light. The watermark is located to the left of the front of the note. Notes in the “C” series, also have the word “CIMA” as part of the watermark above the turtle. |
No watermark |
| Silver Window Thread –On the front all notes in the “C” series, there is a reflective silver thread running in a straight line, in and out of the note from top to bottom. This is located to the right of the Cayman Islands coat of arms. The silver thread is closer to the coat of arms than to the picture of the Queen. |
Silver thread is present but it is closer to Queen’s head than to the Cayman Islands coat of arms |
| Gold Turtle – $25 notes in the “C” series have a reflective gold foil in the shape of a turtle printed on the front of the note, to the right side of the Queen, just above her shoulder. | No turtle-shaped gold foil to the right of the Queen’s head is present, despite the fact that a silver window thread is present as in “C” series notes |
| Embedded Thread – In most CI bank notes, a thin black vertical line is visible when the note is held up to the light. It is located to the immediate left of the coat of arms | No embedded thread |
Information on the features of all Cayman Islands currency is available in the Currency section of CIMA’s website, www.cimoney.com.ky.
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