legends · 3 min read ·
Series AB
Counterfeit twenty-pound notes appear in a district with consecutive serial numbers, printed on bone.
**Treasury Currency Division — Counterfeit Analysis Report 26/041**
**Denomination:** £20 · **Series:** AB (polymer, 2021 issue) · **Reported by:** retail cash offices, Fenmere district
**Examiner:** C. Dunmore
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**Summary**
Seven notes of an unrecorded series were submitted by Fenmere retailers between 8 and 19 October. All seven carry the prefix AB, followed by a six-digit serial number. All seven pass the standard checks for polymer notes: the window, the foil, the intaglio print, the ultraviolet pattern. None of them is a good counterfeit. They are better than that. They are indistinguishable from genuine notes, except for the serial numbers.
- **Note · Date submitted · Serial**
- 1 · 8 Oct · AB 000 001
- 2 · 9 Oct · AB 000 002
- 3 · 11 Oct · AB 000 003
- 4 · 13 Oct · AB 000 004
- 5 · 15 Oct · AB 000 005
- 6 · 17 Oct · AB 000 006
- 7 · 19 Oct · AB 000 007
The serials are consecutive. The Bank printed series AB from AB 100 000 upward. AB 000 001 was never printed. No note with a serial below AB 100 000 exists in any inventory.
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**Examination notes**
The notes are a very small fraction thicker than the genuine article, by 0.4 microns. Under the microscope the substrate has a fine fibrous grain, running in one direction only, as paper does, which polymer should not.
A sample of the substrate was taken from the margin of note 4 and sent for analysis. The result is that the base material is not a polymer. It is composed of collagen, calcium phosphate, and a very small amount of keratin. The laboratory describes it as "bone, worked into a thin film." The film is translucent, and the window has been cut from it with a tool of great precision.
I asked the retailers where the notes had come from. Each reported that the notes were received in change, from different customers, on different days. Each customer was described as "a regular." None could be traced.
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**Circulation notes (Fenmere district cash office)**
*10 Oct.* Pub landlord says he took note 1 from a man in a long coat who bought a single half-pint and paid with a twenty. When the landlord counted out his change the man put every coin in his pocket without looking at it.
*14 Oct.* Pharmacist took note 3 from a woman who asked for nothing, but wanted to pay. She insisted. She said she owed it.
*18 Oct.* Newsagent took note 6 from a man in a hurry. He says the man called him by his first name, which is not on any sign in the shop.
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**Examiner's addendum (C. Dunmore, 21 Oct)**
I have analysed the pattern of the serials. The series runs at one note per two days. At that rate AB 000 001 to AB 999 999 is a very long series, and no single counterfeiter could have printed it, or has a reason to.
But it has occurred to me that the series is not a series of notes. It is a count. The notes are being issued as receipts. Each one acknowledges a payment made to someone, in the district, on the day it surfaces.
I asked the Bank whether any deaths have been recorded in Fenmere since 8 October. There have been seven.
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**Treasury note (internal, 26 Oct)**
Series AB, serials below 100 000, are to be withdrawn from circulation and destroyed on receipt. Retailers are to be notified.
Examiner's comment appended: The Bank has withdrawn the series. The notes have not withdrawn from circulation. As of this morning, note 8 has been submitted. A man in a long coat bought a half-pint, paid with a twenty, and put the change in his pocket without counting it. The landlord has asked who the eighth is for, and whether he should expect to see the ninth.