A high-precision counterfeit U.S. banknote with a face value of $100 has been found in South Korea. On Thursday, KEB Hana Bank said it found a superfine counterfeit $100 dollar bill and it was confirmed by American and Korean intelligence agencies that it is a new type of supernote that has never been found elsewhere in the world.

The counterfeit Benjamin is so good that it is virtually indistinguishable from real money to all but the most sophisticated of counterfeit detection equipment. Supernotes are known to be made by a national manufacturing facility under the protection of certain countries such as North Korea. Experts suspect the new supernote had been made by a different crime ring because it is quite different from previous ones in printing and paper quality.

Experts warn it is difficult to trace the counterfeit money if they are already in circulation en masse, although such cases have not been reported to legal enforcement agencies such as Interpol.

Until now, supernotes found in the past copied $100 bills that were issued in 2001 and 2003. The new supernote copied $100 bills issued in 2006, according to the bank.

KEB Hana Bank is equipped with a cutting-edge imagery interpretation system to distinguish counterfeit money and about 60 percent of fake banknotes found in Korea are analyzed here.

By Kim Jong-hoon and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]