A security thread is a security feature of many bank notes to protect against counterfeiting, consisting of a thin ribbon that is threaded through the note's paper.
Usually, the ribbon runs vertically, and is "woven" into the paper, so that it at some places emerges on the front side and at the remaining places at the rear side of the paper. Usually, it is made of metal foil, but sometimes of plastic. Often, it has some text or numbers (e.g., the denomination) engraved.
Threads are embedded within the paper fiber and can be completely invisible or have a star burst effect, where the thread appears to weave in and out of the paper when viewed from one side. However when held up to the light the thread will always appear as a solid line. Features can be built into the thread material e.g., microprinting on a transparent plastic thread or adding materials so they fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The thread is a difficult feature to counterfeit but some counterfeiters have been known to print a thin grey line or a thin line of varnish in the area of the thread.
Security threads can also be used as an anti-counterfeiting device in passports. They are generally made of plastic and contain microprinting.
Famous quotes containing the words security and/or thread:
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it ... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied ... and it is all one.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (b. 1908)
“Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual: Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)