Pakistani currency notes have specific features to help the general public and visually impaired persons to identify the genuineness of currency notes and to distinguish between different denominations, State Bank of Pakistan claimed.
The statement comes after SBP noticed that visually impaired persons find it difficult to recognize and distinguish amongst different Pakistani currency notes.
However, a large segment of the general public is also unaware of the features that verify the authenticity of general currency notes, hence people become the victims of fake currency notes that cause losses to them.
All currency notes of Rs.20 and above contain braille features on its front side that help to determine the denomination of currency notes. For this purpose, raised dots and small horizontal lines are printed on the left bottom corner just above the banknote serial number.
This feature makes banknote denominations easily distinguishable by rubbing the thumb against these raised features. The braille features in each denomination appear in this manner:
Higher denomination notes have dots as braille feature.
All braille features on currency notes of all denominations of Rs. 20 & above are printed through Intaglio process, due to which they appear raised and on the front side of the note only. Thus, a visually impaired person can easily infer the denomination of the banknotes by feeling the raised printing as well as its genuineness.
All Pakistani currency notes have denomination-wise tiered sizing. Each currency note has the same width of 65 mm whereas lengthwise, each banknote is exactly 08 mm longer than the preceding denomination. Thus the highest denomination banknote of Rs.5000is 48mm longer than the lowest denomination currency note of Rs.10.
The incorporation of a number of strong security features including braille features in banknotes is aimed at facilitating the general public.
Illustration of Braille Feature in Pakistani Banknotes
SBP also urges general public to educate visually impaired persons about features of Pakistani currency notes wherever possible. However, the awareness regarding features of currency notes should be created among general public particularly women and kids in rural and urban areas too.
