"Pop quiz hotshot". How many of these notes are authentic?

Since we covered the 50 Shahiv I thought I'd pull out some of my 40 Shahiv contemporary counterfeits and give them the same treatment. Plus, I'm boooored right now (rainy day here in Michigan) and why not spend some time looking at banknotes! Let's get to the hints. 

Front:

As always, we're looking for quality, in the artistry/production of the note and the three "S's" sharpness, separation, and spacing are key in differentiating between a contemporary counterfeit and authentic notes. I'll point out a few areas that I look at first. Similar to the 50 Shahiv, the 40 has anti-counterfeiting grids in the four corners surrounding the central design, these grids should be well defined with straight lines that are evenly spaced forming well defined boxes. The grids will be separated from the wreath by a gap which conforms to the design of the wreath, this gap should be of even thickness as it winds around the wreath.

The central design is of the Ukrainian National Emblem, the Tryzub, and within the two outer prongs is another grid, a diamond matrix with symbol in the upper tip of the diamonds. I believe the symbol to be a Ʌ symbol similar to the Ʌ's on the middle prong of the Tryzub but due to their size they more often than not look like a misshapen circle or blob. As with the anti-counterfeiting grids in the four corners, we are looking for straight lines, even spacing and well-defined diamonds/boxes here as well, along with the symbol being present at the top of each diamond. 

Also, within the Tryzub design is another fine detail, the shading of the Tryzub is broken with fine "feathering" apparent at the base. The feathering lines, unprinted areas within the shading, should be well defined with no ink breaking in and they should be no wider than .5mm. There are two types of these feathering lines, a longer/taller one that extends 3/4's into the shading and a shorter line that extends 1/4 into the shading, these feathering lines will alternate long, short, long short and so on. 

Finally, the wreath surrounding the Tryzub should be full, flowers, seeds, fruits, leaves should be sitting on top of one another, overlapping. The design elements should NOT be as individual components, standing alone. The wreath should form a nearly perfect circle around the Tryzub and should be shaded by the circle on the righthand side starting at 2 o'clock and continuing down to the 7 o'clock position. 

As is normal there are more design elements and things to look for when separating contemporary counterfeits and authentic notes such as the perforations, the type of paper used, the notes dimensions, looking at the rest of the design, etc. but counterfeits of this period are of poor quality and are easily identified using the above diagnostics. I would be very surprised if there was a contemporary counterfeit of a 40 Shahiv note that was of such excellent quality that the decision came down to those type of details. 

Back:

The back is identical to the 50 Shahiv, there is no back design variety that I've seen for this note, all are of the large Tryzub/small text design. So far. 

The boarder is the first thing to look at on the back as counterfeits are often lacking in this department and it is a quick identifier. The boarder should be clean, the line/s making up the boarder should be a consistent thickness, the vertical and horizontal lines parallel to one another, the corners should form right angles, it should be well aligned and parallel with the perforations/edge of the note, and any general sloppiness or varying of the boarder is a red flag. Centering on authentic notes is typically not great and as such should not be used as an identifier. 

The Tryzub should have a level of detail to it, if split in half the left and right should mirror each other perfectly, or very close to it.  Again, any general sloppiness or lack of detail here is a warning sign. 

The text should be level as if written on lined writing paper, the font should be consistent with no variation in sizing, the spacing between letters should not vary along with the vertical spacing between words. Counterfeits often have poorly spaced and sized text, on occasion the text will be illegible and/or at a slant

Soooo... Which of the notes from my collection, posted at the beginning of the Journal entry, are counterfeits?

The SCWPM does not list a counterfeit for this note currently, not that I know of at any rate, and if added I would expect it to be Pick # 10x. I don't believe that different counterfeits receive different Pick #'s but this note and the 50 Shahiv were absolutely counterfeited multiple times by different people/groups.  A list of the different types of contemporary counterfeits for these notes could be an interesting project for me or signature set here. 

If anyone is looking to dip their toe into Ukrainian banknote collecting, I can't recommend starting with these notes enough. They are fun, interesting, there is more to be discovered about them, don't take up a lot of room, and they are dirt cheap!