Hong Kong hit by fake 1,000-dollar notes
Posted: 19 March 2007 1631 hrs


HONG KONG : Hong Kong authorities are struggling to replace 1,000-dollar notes issued by banking giant HSBC in 2000 and 2002 after finding more than 700,000 dollars (900,000 US) in high-quality fakes.

More than 700 1,000-dollar notes purportedly issued by HSBC were found in the banking system last week, and 12 people from Hong Kong, China and Vietnam have been arrested in connection with the case.

Joseph Yam, the head of Hong Kong Monetary Authority, called on people to return all notes of that denomination issued by HSBC for those two years.

It was not clear exactly how many of them have circulated in the city, but Yam said he believed the number was limited.

The discovery has caused panic in the southern Chinese territory, and many shops are now rejecting such notes.

Police chief Tang King-shing said the bogus notes originated from outside Hong Kong and that police were working with law enforcement agencies overseas to smash the syndicate.

- AFP /ls

Here is the link from Channel News Asia :

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../264954/1/.html

Just curious, how many banks are issuing currency in Hong Kong now? Northern Ireland and Scotland are the only other countries with banks issuing currency.

four, i think

HSBC:


Standard Chartered:


Bank of China:


and the government of Hong Kong:

The three big banks issue all denominations.

* HSBC
* Standard Chartered Bank
* Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited.

The Government issued only the new ten dollar bill in 2002.

Right !- 3 Banks and Hong Kong Government.
Among the 3 banks, HSBC issued the most currency for circulation. This is followed by Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of China.

I saw the news tonight ( Singapore time ), as reported on TV, the fake HSBC note can be detected by tilting the note at an angle to view the 1000 numbering printed on the note. The fake one will not have a colour change while the real one has a colour change when it is tilted.

That's quite a big mistake on a fake You would have thought they would have at least got that right.

I'm interested in Hong Kong notes now, my new collection to start

Good for you. We will look forward to see your Hong Kong collection in coinpeople. Sometimes I wonder whether it is confusing for users if a country have many different banks issuing currency for circulation. I pitied those elderly folks using the various currencies. There will always be new series of banknotes from the various bank being issued. Elderly ones will have to get use to the new banknotes with new design and maybe slight changes in colour layout.

Update from Xinhua:

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Tuesday assured the public that sufficient stocks of the new series 1,000-HK dollar banknote are available to meet demand, in the light of the recent appearance of counterfeits of the old series issued by HSBC.

A spokesperson for HKMA said the arrangements for replacing these old series 1,000-HK dollars banknote issued by HSBC in 2000 and 2002 have been working smoothly.

"The recent problem of counterfeits is restricted to the old series HSBC 1,000-HK dollar banknote," the spokesperson said," Other banknote are unaffected."

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/20/eng...320_359431.html

I returned from a trip to southern China, including Hong Kong and Macau, for some weeks ago. It is interesting with the variation of banknotes circulating over there. In Macau they use the pataca as denomination. There are two banks that issues banknotes Banco Nacional Ultramarino BNU and Bank of China (BOC). They have each a new and an old design sets that are in circulation. In addition Macau also uses all of the Hong Kong banknotes. The HK dollar is accepted at 1 to 1 to the Pataca (there is actually a small difference of about 3% to the HK dollars advantage). You get about 50% of your change in HKD in the shops and resturants.
There are therefore 6 different emissors of banknotes with a lot of different designs, which is fun for a banknote collector
As Macau is one of my most interesting "countries" for banknote collecting, I made some visits to the BNU and BOC HQs to pick up some missing pieces. To bad that they have stopped making 50 patacas banknotes.
Uncirculated banknotes are more easier to get there than from my country Sweden. The new 50 SEK is allmost impossible to get in UNC.