We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
An image in the paper itself, visible only against the light.
Also known as: Image in a banknote held to the light, Faint picture in a banknote
Not printed. The image is formed by varying the thickness of the paper as it is made, so it appears when light passes through and cannot be photocopied — which is exactly why it is the first check an issuer tells the public to make.
An image formed in the substrate of a banknote by varying its thickness during manufacture, visible when the note is held up to the light.
Contexts: Public information
Cannot be reproduced by printing or copying, because it is a property of the material rather than of anything applied to it. A copied note shows a printed grey patch instead of an image that appears only in transmitted light.
Polymer notes carry a transparent window in place of a watermark, doing the same job by the same principle — a feature of the substrate rather than of the ink.
A faint image within the body of the paper — usually a portrait, sometimes a circle enclosing a numeral — appearing only when the note is held against a light.
Both are substrate features an issuer publishes for public checking.