Public Education by Central Banks on the Internet

摘要

The Internet is the most powerful information providing medium today and it has great potential in conveying pictorial information in the form of still images, video clips and applets. Obviously, central banks can make use of the Internet to efficiently provide information for the public on the anti-counterfeiting features of their currency. An investigation was carried out of the information provided by 133 Central Banks on the public security features of their currency. Many central banks appear to provide no information at all, many only provide written information and many indeed provide illustrations. An overview is presented of the various errors that central banks make when presenting illustrated information and illustrated examples are given. It appears that even illustrated information often lacks the most elementary requirements: obviousness, clarity and adequate visual representation of the relevant optical effects. As a result, the information made available on the internet by many banknote issuing authorities remains largely ineffective and - on occasion - even assumes silly proportions.