ABSTRACT
Counterfeiting is a significant problem for most major currencies and has high social and economic costs. Chemical and physical identifiers that are unique to counterfeit currency are critical to forensic analysis. The 100-yuan Chinese note is mostly red. Here, we analyzed the red ink used in 100-yuan Chinese notes and developed a method to extract and analyze these dyes via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and HPLC/mass spectrometry (MS). We used this approach to analyze the chemical structures of the adulterated colorants from 46 counterfeit 100-yuan notes seized from different locations. The results showed that a variety of inks were found among the seized counterfeit notes from different sources. The chromatographic data signature could be used to clearly discriminate authentic from counterfeit notes, but could also potentially be used to trace the notes to the counterfeiter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to use HPLC/MS to profile red dyes in Chinese currency with important implications for the forensics and law enforcement communities.
ABSTRACT
As it is a frequently encountered problem in the laboratory of forensic science nowadays to distinguish whether the questioned documents, such as deeds, contracts, and receipts, written in ballpoint pen inks are true or not, and identify the writing age of them, it is very essential to establish a simple, sensitive and accurate method to examine the similarities and differences of the ballpoint pen inks and identify the writing age. The present paper introduces a technique that allows identifying the kind and the writing age of the blue ballpoint pen inks. The technique is based on using a high performance liquid chromatographic method for distinguishing the similarities and differences in dyes of blue ballpoint pen inks and determining changes in dyes of blue ballpoint pen inks developed with age, and these changes can be evaluated by the ratio of peak areas.
