Hey! You!
Yes, you!
Come over here and hop in my time
machine! Strap yourself in, we are
going on a journey through the
mists of time…back to a time
when UK banknotes were only
made from paper….August 2016!
Actually, we still have paper
banknotes. The £20 note is fairly common
and although the £50 note is a bit more
scarce, it is also still made from paper. The
Bank Of England plans to replace both
with polymer notes, starting with the £20
note in early 2020.
So we don’t really need a time
machine to see a paper banknote (which
is handy, because I don’t actually have
one). We just need to raid your piggy
bank, or find someone kind enough to
loan you one.
Hold your paper banknote up to the light.
Can you see a picture of Queen Elizabeth II
trapped in the paper? It’s not a ghost
(a haunted banknote though – that
would be cool!) – it’s a watermark.
Watermarks were introduced to
banknotes to improve security. A
watermark like this is incredibly difficult to
forge – it’s also very hard to show on a
printed page! Other countries use
them too.
How do you make a
watermark?
Paper was traditionally made by hand. It
was formed in a sieve-like tray from a
watery paper pulp; hence the name
watermark. A really simple watermark
can be made by arranging the wires in
the tray to make a pattern. More
complex images can be made by adding
more wire to make writing or a simple
image like a crest or line portrait. When
the paper is formed in the tray, it will be
thinner where the wire is, so the light
shows through in this area.
FUN FACT TRUMPET
Polymer notes were first developed in
Australia by their national science
agency CSIRO after concerns about the
number of counterfeiting enterprises
that existed in the country in the late
1960s. This boom in fakes coincided
with the release of colour
photocopiers!
Hand-making watermarked paper was a
very slow process, but in 1826, the
dandy-roll was invented. This was
a bit like a metal rolling pin with a
pattern of wires on the surface. It
was rolled over wet paper to leave a
mark. Where the wires were thicker,
the paper fibres were compacted,
creating areas of thinner paper.
These thin areas let the light pass
more easily and produced
the watermark.
More complex images were made
by carving a picture in wax. This
was then cast in metal, which could
be pressed onto wet paper to
create an image. Using this
technique, shaded drawings could
be made.
Making a detailed watermark
portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, like
you see in a modern UK paper
banknote, takes a precise, complex
and SECRET process. If you’d like to
make a watermark, we are going to
need to start with the basics….