Counterfeit notes caught by three Tongan banks [1]
Friday, September 2, 2005 - 17:15. Updated on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 21:59.
Tonga's National Reserve Bank warned the Tongan public today to be on alert for counterfeit notes of all denominations, after counterfeit $10 notes were found by all three commercial banks this week.
It is understood that all the counterfeit notes were found in the banks respective Vava'u branches, one by MBf, one by ANZ, and others by Westpac Bank of Tonga.
The counterfeits feel like the real notes but do not have the watermark or embedded security thread.
Paul Peltzer, General Manager of the ANZ Bank, in Nuku'alofa, said that the counterfeit $10 note he received from their Vava'u branch today was slightly smaller and had been "aged" by folding and crumpling, while the blue ink had run through the white areas giving the counterfeit a dull overall appearance. The edges were not as sharp as the real thing. The note was picked up by his staff in a bundle of worn out notes that were being gathered for return to the Reserve Bank.
Lata Tangimana of the Currency Department of the Reserve Bank, who issued the public notice today, said that the matter had been forwarded to the police for investigation.
"The Reserve Bank has prepared a free brochure to help the public identify counterfeit notes," he said.
Email defaced pa'anga
In a separate incident, Lata also said that it had also come to the notice of the Reserve Bank that an electronic copy of a defaced one pa'anga note, substituting the image of HM Taufa'ahau Tupou IV with the image of Prince Tu'ipelehake, had been widely distributed by email.
"The public is urged to refrain from defacing our currency and from distributing defaced currency," he said in a statement.
The Reserve Bank warned that defacement and counterfeiting of currency notes of Tonga is a criminal offence, and anyone convicted of making, or circulating such is liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.