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Chart released to help spot the real notes

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The People's Bank of China, the mainland's central bank, has released a chart in a rare move to help the public spot fake banknotes amid growing disquiet over an influx of counterfeits.

The chart identifies some 13 features that distinguish a real banknote from a counterfeit.

Sophisticated fake 100-yuan banknotes, most of them with serial numbers beginning with HD90, first turned up in Guangdong this month.

Others have been spotted in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Hunan , Guangxi , Sichuan and other parts of the country in the past few days, triggering widespread concern on the mainland.

The bank's Shanghai branch, which oversees issuing notes, said it was investigating and promised to make its findings public in the coming week.

In a statement dated Friday, the central bank denied that the fakes were a new type developed with sophisticated technology, saying a trained eye could still spot them. It said mainland commercial banks began to notice the counterfeits as early as 2007 and, by the end of October, the central bank had issued an internal directive ordering the banks to upgrade infrared machines to detect the counterfeits.

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