Today, I just received a China altered serial number banknote from a China ebay seller. I have yet to ask him for a refund. The serial number have been skilfully scrape off individually and printed over with the number QA 55555555. Original number is HS82379561. Here is the pictures of the note taken to prove the alternation of the note.

The first picture was the note taken using a scanner.



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The second picture was taken using a digital camera at an angle using the sunlight as a reflective source to view the surface of the note for any alternation of the serial number.
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Unbelievable! If you can still make out the original numbers does it mean that they were not completely scraped off? Did you buy this note directly from China?

I won an ebay auction from a China ebay seller. They are scrape off each of the number and printed over the destinated number on each of the scrape off (original) number. If you just look at it, it looks pretty normal. One of the ways to checked for alternation of the note is to put them under the light at an angle and checked the surface of the note. You will be able to review more information of the note on alternation done, whether it is a washed note etc.

It is impossible to tell whether the note has been altered or even a fake note from a scanned picture. This is demonstrated with the given scanned note. It is only when you examine the actual note, more information can be reviewed.

Holy alteration Batman!

That is pretty impressive and scary. It is amazing that with the picture that you have taken, the overprinted numbers cannot be seen at all!

Messed up. I hope you didn't lose too much money.

Yes, it is indeed scary. I took about 10 to 15 shots before I got this right. The scraping of each individual letter and number was confine to it's outline and thus, this become obvious when light fall on it at an angle. The serial number QA55555555 which was printed over the scraped serial number can only be seen if it view at a a normal angle.

I am glad that the seller is willing to refund me the full amount plus an extra $5 for sending back the note by register mail . He said he was selling for his friend and did not know much about the note but he was also amazed by the picture that I send to him.

This is the second time that I was cheated by a China ebay seller. The first time, was not so lucky as I did not receive the items that paid for. It was a fraud case as many of my friends who bought from the same China seller, did not receive their notes. The seller ebay account id was later closed by ebay due to many of the fraud cases. I lost more than US$600. That more than a year ago. I asked for a partial refund from ebay and until today, no news from ebay.
Take care when buying from ebay. Check their ratings and make sure that the seller sell to many international customers. If the seller only receive ratings from his/her own country, you have to be more suspicious.

I hope this little information will help everyone here.

That is terrible and impressive. I have a feeling that the Nigerian email scammers and other well-organized rip-off artists will eventually move into eBay on a large scale. It's already started on a smaller scale. Once that happens, you will have to worry about every single transaction, even if the seller has a lot of positive feedback. eBay may cease to be a viable marketplace in the near future.

I wonder, did you ever think that this note was specifically made to attract you? Is your goal of collecting solid 5s and 8s very public? Perhaps it is just a coincidence that this note has been altered to 5s and not 3s or 7s. It was just a thought that popped into my head.

There is a possibility but in general solid numbers especially from China are hot items in ebay but due to the many cases of frauds among a handful of China ebay sellers, the take up rate have not been too good. Prices were never too high these days. But if it is from a reliable source, the prices of these genuine China solid numbers banknote would have been very impressive.

If you look closely at the note where the serial number is, you can see that it isnt printed straight. It raises up ever so slightly as it goes along, kind of like it wasnt inserted into the printer or typewriter correctly. The first 5 looks like it sits a little lower than the last 5, like a tiny incline......

Good Observation. It is possible that the printing may be not so straight. I did a further examination earlier on the note. I believe they did not use a printer or a typewriter to print the QA55555555 serial number as there were no embossed serial number on the reverse of the note. The original serial number have since been scraped off thus the original embossed disappear. The note does not seem to be pressed as the note is still quite thick in it's original paper. They might have used a black ink chop for this purpose as it is more accurate to chop the serial number on the exact location of the note. The ink chop can be make into the desired font similiar to the original font type.

I dont know why, but I can pick up on litle things like that...... Its still an interesting note though.....





KFC

That's a good thing. Great for detailed investigation on notes.

Good detective work. I had never seen this before. Your photos are well done and very helpful. Thanks for sharing.