A Lancashire company, Panoptic, reveals how counterfeiters fool the banknote
analysers used in devices such as railway ticket machines. These machines shine
ultraviolet light onto banknotes and look for fluorescence. Genuine notes do not
fluoresce. But crooks can dazzle the optics by shining a bright light through
the note slot. To counter this, Panoptic combines a miniature ultraviolet source
and detector in a sealed tube, which presses down on the note to exclude
extraneous light (GB 2 334 574).
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