You’re all packed and ready for your adventure. The plane ticket is confirmed. The hotel room is booked. The Pearl Market or Silk Market and clearly marked on the map. You’ve prepared one empty suitcase ready for all the goods and souvenirs you plan to buy. All arrangements have been made for your travel to China!! All set? Just wait. There’s something you must know first. There are many counterfeit bills flying around China. To be safe, make sure you exchange your money at the bank. The largest bill in China is 100yuan. If you get this from the bank, it’ll be fine. But you must still beware. If you receive change, in the form of 50s or 20s, even 10s, there is a slight chance they may be fake. On top of that, tourists have been tricked into taking 100RMB bills! How does it happen?
In some cases, sellers do not have the change needed to change your 100RMB bill. Imagine you're shopping at the Pearl Market and you hold out your 100RMB and they will tell you they can’t change it then ask if you have change. The bill is still in your hands. This is fine. No problem at all. But if they take your 100RMB bill, shuffle in their purse or walk away and then come back and say they don’t have change, don’t take it back. Ask them to find change from someone else, or find some other way to change it. The chances are they have switched your 100RMB for a fake one. Perhaps someone else used the 100RMB to buy something while shopping and they didn’t notice it at the time and just want to get rid of it. Or perhaps there’s some other explanation, but if you don’t want a counterfeit, don’t take it back. Alternatively, you could try you hand at identifying if it’s a real or a fake. While shopping in the Chinese markets, you will notice the salesladies holding the bill up to the light, ruffling the bill a little, what exactly are they looking for? They’re seeking out the fakes. So how exactly do you identify a fake bill?
There are 6 main things to look out for.
First there are two things to see in the light. If you hold the bill up you will see on the left side in the white space, there is a clear picture of Chairman Mao’s face. On the fake bills, the outline of his face is blurred.
Second, below the white space, below the serial number there is a red and blue symbol inside a red circle. In the real bills, the red and blue boundaries in the symbol are very distinct. They are perfectly aligned, or else they overlap just very very slightly. In the fake bills the symbol is distorted. The red and blue sections are not aligned, one is usually a little higher than the other and often there is either a white space between their boundaries or they overlap unevenly. This is the easiest identifying mark of these bills.
Third, just next to the red and blue symbol there is a green 100 (or 50 on the 50 bill, 20 on the 20 bill etc.) sign. When looking flat at this sign, it is green. When the bill is tilted upwards, and you are looking at the sign from the bottom up the 100 turns brown. This is a real bill. But if when you tilt the bill upwards the symbol is only dark green, then this is a fake bill. This difference is slight and is easily seen if you have a real bill next to the fake bill.
Fourth, hold the bill in your hand and rub your thumb gently against the collar on the big picture of Chairman Mao. You will notice a difference in texture on his collar. You will only feel it if you rub gently. If the paper is completely smooth, without any texture, you are holding a counterfeit!
Next, on the top right hand corner, there is a 100 sign, just overlapping a little below the 100, there is a oval design. If you turn this design up, so you are looking up from the bottom, then place it so that light shines on it, you will see a very faint “100” on the oval. It is just slightly raised, this is a real bill. In the fakes, the 100 is either not there, or is very very difficult to see.
Finally, take the bill, the long way up, in your hands and kind of ruffle it in your hands. The sound should be clear and distinct. In the fake ones, the sound is muffled. You will see the salesladies do it. Though this is the most difficult to identifying, since many of the bills are very old and worn and that will affect the sound it produces.
So there you have it! The 5 ways to identify a fake bill. Though it takes experience to identify a fake bill quickly, these tips can help you keep on the watch and you won’t be fooled.
Larissa Cherry - Larissa is a freelance writer presently based in China. Born and raised in Toronto her family moved to Asia 9 years ago. After spending 6 ...
