Design
Security thread
Hilo de seguridad
A security thread is a metallic or synthetic strip inserted in the paper or windowing at intervals — a window thread — to hinder counterfeiting. It may carry microprint, a magnetic effect, or issuer text. It is not a watermark, which is formed in the pulp, nor a printed OVD. On Banco de la República paper the 1990s–2010s families combine thread, watermark, and, on some types, iridescent ink. González White and the Bank Note Museum note it when the type carries it; a thread is not asserted here on a Pick if the record does not cite it.
The Imprenta’s blue 1-peso, Pick 404e, is catalogued with threaded and unthreaded dates: this collection’s 7 August 1973 record is the unthreaded variety, serial 26530968. Confusing that row with a later threaded one is a misidentification, not a minor detail. On polymer the functional analogue is often the window or a foil, not a cotton-paper thread. Vietnam military payment certificates, offset on paper with planchettes, do not carry a Federal Reserve Note thread.
For the collector the thread is checked by transmitted light and by touch, without opening a slab. A missing thread on a type that should have one may be an error, a trim, or a fake; the record does not settle that dispute without a source. This collection does not publish a thread census or a printage. The term links paper pieces already described and the substrate article, so the thread is not treated as design ornament.
A thread is not a serial or a signature either. It is described in the record when the catalogue or the photograph makes it visible. The 1945 1 peso oro and the 1994 Emberá illustrate BanRep paper of two periods; both are not asserted to carry the same thread. Anyone who needs the threaded Pick 404e variety must wait for a record of that date, not reuse serial 26530968.
Examples in the collection
See also: Substrate