Hong Kong Government 1 cent

N#202116

I bought a full set of this recently for a few dollars. Yesterday when I placed my UV light touch over it, it became very bright for all the notes. It's like light reflection from the notes, or like glow in the dark. Is this normal? I do not normally use my UV light to check my notes. Thanks

Maybe it's due to the type of paper used to print the notes? Unlike most cheap copy paper, banknote paper is designed not to glow under UV, but given the very low face value of these notes a different type of paper could have been used. I don't own any of these myself so this is purely conjecture.

Are you able to take a photo of one of your 1 cent notes under UV light next to a “normal” note?

I have one of these notes in my collection.

I placed mine next to a piece of paper from a note pad, and you can see the results. The paper from the pad is very bright while the note is not. I am not sure what yours look like or how they compare to standard paper, but hopefully my comparison is helpful.

All this being said, what DoubleEggbert56 stated regarding the paper quality could very well be true. These notes are pretty common, and so its definitely possible that multiple qualities of paper were used in their printing. 

One other thing I would considered is when your notes were issued, as the note was issued from 1961 1995 (34 years).

My note bears the signature of John James Cowperthwaite, which places it being issued somewhere between 1961 and 1971 when he was the financial secretary. If you note is from a later date per the signature, its also possible that the paper composition could have changed over time.

Hope this is helpful for you :)

Tony

Not sure if this is working or can you see the differences. Top note is the one that glow under UV light and bottom note is note. Top note is in UNC and bottom note is circulated with a fold in the middle. I am not too worry about this, but just curious and wonder if this has gone through a nuclear plant and is radio active 😅….beep…biip…beep…biip…

I had it here also on these 5 Jiao notes:

Not just the paper difference but one note has a yellow fluorescence also.

So, what's the story? Are they washed and ‘tumble dried’ or just different materials used for the notes? I have not measured my HK notes yet, and as they all looked UNC, and if the sizes are accurate, and the corners are sharp, then it is unlikely the note has been tampered with.

In my opinion its simply different qualities/compositions of paper used over the years. Especially if the are UNC. Unless they are fake which I doubt as they are so common they are not worth hardly anything.

Unless you can find a specimen that isn't luminescent I would say they simply were made with cheaper bleached paper/ -blends.