Glossary

Ink that rubs off when an attempt is made to erase information in the area that has been printed. The ink will also affect the paper in the same manner as solvent/chemical reactive inks, providing two security features in one. Often used to print the background of a cheque.

The name of a popular cryptocurrency operating on the Ethereum network.

The process by which the euro is de facto adopted as the currency of a country.

A 1D (linear) barcode developed as a superset of the UPC code, with an additional digit allowing a tenfold increase in the number of possible unique values. Like UPC codes, EANs encode global trade item numbers (GTINs) in line with GS1 international standards.

A 1D (linear) barcode of the EAN/UPC symbology, used to label small consumer products with limited space for a barcode.

A unit of account used by the European Economic Community composed of a basket of member country currencies. The value of the ECU was calculated as a weighted average of the value of the currencies comprising the basket. On 1 January 1999, the euro replaced the ECU at parity.

A body created within the European Union to support EU member states in the fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organised forms of crime, like currency counterfeiting.

The Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) is a directive of the European Union which places limits on the sale and merchandising of tobacco and related products in the EU. The TPD aims to improve the functioning of the internal market for tobacco and related products, while ensuring a high level of health protection for European citizens. Under the TPD, all member states were required to implement unit-level track and trace and security features by May 2019.

Also called electronic or online visa. It is simply a visa that can be applied for online but is no different to other types of travel visas.

Websites where people buy, trade and hold cryptocurrencies.

Central banks exchange legal tender banknotes that are mutilated or damaged, when a certain percentage (usually more than 50% of the banknote) is presented or, when 50% or less is presented, and the remainder is shown to be destroyed.

Taxation imposed by countries as a levy for specific items such as tobacco or alcohol. Also called sin tax due to its association with so-called ‘sinful’ products.

Part of the qualification process to receive a tender document. The buyer (eg. a government organisation) is requesting a provider to express an interest in providing goods and services for a project.

A black rectangle printed on the edge of labels and other printed materials, which is read by a machine to locate where one label starts and the next ends. 

Unit of exchange used in China’s DCEP system.

The figure or amount written on a banknote or coin indicating the amount of its economic value. Usually written in letters and numbers.

An EU-accredited system for exchanging classified information on false as well as genuine travel and identity documents between document experts. Intranet FADO (iFADO) is the access-restricted, second level of FADO, for governmental and law enforcement use.

Banknotes form a family when a series of banknotes are designed and issued as part of a coherent set of notes. They maintain traits that identify them as members of the same group (unity of design, uniformity of structure, etc.), while they may be of different size.

A term used in food traceability for describing end-to-end track and trace of food products, from the field where they were grown to the consumers who purchased them.

An open industry association for developing and promoting authentication standards that help reduce over-reliance on passwords. The alliance supports authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint and iris scanners, and voice and facial recognition.

A currency established as money, often by government regulation, without an intrinsic value, unlike a precious metal or a piece of merchandise. A development step from the use of commodity money, whose value comes from the commodity from which it is made (such as gold, silk, cigarettes).

Expression used by economists and monetary specialists to refer to the amount of money in circulation.

A new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G works at higher frequencies than its predecessors, resulting in greater bandwidth and faster data transfer. 5G therefore enables a new kind of network designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together, including machines, objects, and devices.

A process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services. While it is recognised that not all individuals need or want financial services, the goal of financial inclusion is to remove all barriers, both on the supply side and demand side. Supply side barriers stem from financial institutions themselves. They often indicate poor financial infrastructure, and include lack of nearby financial institutions, high costs to opening accounts, or documentation requirements. Demand side barriers refer to aspects of the individual seeking financial services and include lack of proof of identity, financial illiteracy, lack of financial capability, or cultural or religious beliefs that impact their financial decisions.There is growing scepticism from some experts about the effectiveness of financial inclusion as an economic and social development tool.

Refers to the combination of scanning and software programmes with unique physical characteristics intrinsic to a product or secure document. Fingerprinting is based on the fundamental premise that at the microscopic or molecular level the characteristics of every printed document or package are unique to that item.

An umbrella term describing technology-enabled innovation in financial services, regardless of the nature or size of the entity providing the services, which could result in new business models, applications, processes and products.

State treasury.

A used banknote, which has not suffered any cuts, scrapes, tears, punctures, or marks and which presents a degree of soiling or wear considered acceptable by the central bank to be returned into circulation.

A rotary relief printing method whereby a mirrored 3D relief of the required image is created in a rubber or polymer material. A measured amount of ink is deposited upon the surface of the printing plate, which then rotates, making contact with the substrate and transferring the ink.

An optically variable element visually perceived as an image hovering or floating in space above or below a document’s surface.

A type of luminescence, describing the ability of some molecules or materials to absorb ultraviolet (UV) energy and immediately re-emit this energy within the visible spectrum, as a glowing light. The emitted light disappears as soon as the excitation light is extinguished. There is no persistence of emitted light as in the case of phosphorescence.

UV-activated fibres that are randomly distributed across the surface and through the volume of security paper during the papermaking process.

Small coloured or colourless particles of a different size randomly embedded in paper pulp during the manufacturing process. The particles glow when exposed to UV light.

UV-activated ink that ceases to glow immediately after the illuminating light source has been turned off.

Small, coloured discs with fluorescent properties usually mixed into the paper pulp during the papermaking process.

A material comprising a polyester carrier with one or more coatings, a release layer and an adhesive layer. The foil is transferred – generally by heat – onto paper, and the carrier is stripped away, leaving the coating bonded to the substrate by the adhesive. This coating can be plain or imaged, monochrome or coloured, colour-shifting, iridescent, metallised, holographic, etc. Also known as hot stamping or transfer foil. Foils are generally applied to banknotes as a continuous stripe (typically measuring 6-10mm wide) or a patch (typically square, circular or elliptical).

Security feature reserved for special departments or officials. Special tools or laboratories are required to reveal their presence and characteristics. The presence and nature of these features are generally kept a closely guarded secret and they are typically used after an enforcement raid to provide definitive proof of the authenticity of a product or document. Such proof can be used, if necessary, as evidence in a court of law.

Where a second version of a database is created.

A hardware design aspect that defines and prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications of components. A form factor may represent a broad class of similarly sized components, or it may prescribe a specific standard.

A general or multipurpose identification system primarily created to manage identity information for the general population and provide credentials that serve as proof of identity for applications such as national ID, civil registry and population registration.

Also known as process colour printing – a conventional printing method based on four colours: the so-called CMYK colours of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Together, these colours can reproduce on paper almost 70% of the colours visible to the human eye.

A papermaking machine consisting of a moving endless belt of wire or plastic screen that receives a mixture of pulp and water and allows excess water to drain off, forming a continuous. Fourdrinier was first machine to produce a continuous web (roll). It is more suited than cylinder mould for producing lightweight paper for documents such as tax stamps. See also Dandy roll.

Capable of being broken. Refers to security labels or tax stamps which break up when removed or tampered with.

A type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for use in lighthouses. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a conventional optical lens. Instead of the curved surface of a conventional lens the Fresnel lens consists of a series of concentric grooves that act as individual refracting surfaces, bending parallel light rays to a common focal length.

An effect in which parts of a coin are slightly dulled (using sandblasting techniques) to provide a contrast to the shinier parts of the metal.

Solvent- or water-based ink printed onto a security document. When solvent or ink eradicators are applied to the document the fugitive ink spreads out creating a smudge, which denotes the attempt to tamper with the print.

A sectoral or single-purpose identification system primarily created to manage identity information and provide credentials that serve as proof of identity for applications such as voter registration, tax ID, social security numbers and driving licences.

An item is fungible if one unit of the item is equivalent to another unit of the same item of the same quality at the same time, place, etc. Fungibility allows an item or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Fungible assets simplify exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between assets.

The recipe used to manufacture paper that comprises various pulps, dyes, additives and other chemicals blended together in the stock preparation area of the paper mill and fed to the wet end of paper machines to make paper or paperboard.

A biometric subject’s manner of walking.