The fight against forgery
Bank of England Museum
Visit the museum to find out how the banks apply technology to outwit forgers. You can also lift a genuine gold bar.
Printing money
The museum features the type of rolling press used to print bank notes before steam-driven presses were introduced in 1836.
Today the printers use three types of printing process to produce banknotes. Offset litho prints most of the design on both sides of each note. The intaglio process adds the protrait of the Queen and the lettering. Finally letterpress adds the cypher and serial number.
The fight against forgery
The museum features a complex geometric chuck lathe which was devised to produce very complex patterns built into the security devices on bank notes from 1928 onwards.
Today banknotes include a wider range of security features including metallic thread, microlettering, fluorescent dyes and a foil hologram
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 21 January 2007
