“…the concept of a passport dates back some 2500 years to one of the earliest recorded references to a “Letter of Safe Passage” issued by the Persian King Artaxerxes…”
Fast forwarding to more recent times, the League of Nations, the precursor to today’s United Nations, convened an international conference in 1920 at which an agreement was reached on international guidelines and a booklet design for passports. 60 years later, in 1980, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) took over the responsibility for developing passport standards – a responsibility it still holds to this day. In order to ensure that all countries’ travel documents are recognised around the world, ICAO established a global standard specifying the requirements for machine-readable passports, visas and ID cards.
The standard, often
simply referred to as Document 9303, has since been adopted by close to 200 governments worldwide. While clearly passports are one of the most important and widely- used travel and identity documents, it’s necessary to note the array of other documents that are in circulation – ID Cards, Residence Permits, Refugee Travel Documents, Stateless Documents, Certificates of Identity, Seamen’s Books, Air Crew Certificates, Forces ID Documents and Emergency (Temporary) Travel Documents – all of which are acceptable and valid forms of ID for use in international travel.
Document Security Features To protect travel documents – passports in particular – against counterfeiting and forgery, it is essential for them to incorporate a range of physical security features. On the one hand, these features introduce considerable complexity making it harder for them to be counterfeited or forged.
On
the other, it makes the process of document verification considerably easier for well-trained staff who know precisely which features to look for and how to detect them – either manually or with the help of specialist tools. Document security features come in many forms, both physical and logical, and form the basis on which document authenticity is confirmed and the holder’s identity verified.
» Paper
Paper is one of the most common materials used in passports and still remains of significant security value today.
The high quality paper used for travel and identity documents typically has a property of low base fluorescence and is designed not to fluoresce when exposed to ultra-violet (UV) light. Cheaper paper, as often used in document forgery, tends to fluoresce brightly under UV light due to the optical brighteners found in commercially available paper.
» Watermarks Watermarks are probably the longest established, yet single most important, anti-counterfeiting feature found in most paper-based security documents. A watermark is easy to check by simply holding the paper up to the light or shining a light through it. Watermarks are produced at the papermaking stage and consist of producing areas of varying thickness by displacing wet paper fibres using a mould or emboss and do not react (any differently from the rest of the document) when exposed to UV light. For watermarks created using a cylinder mould, intricate designs rich in tonal variation are exceptionally difficult to simulate.
» Threads
Chinese passport from the Qing Dynasty, during the Guangxu Reign (1898)
April 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
Often found woven through the centre of a passport, security threads are usually only 1-2 mm wide and easily visible in transmitted light. Threads can vary in type; including laser cut, machine-readable, solvent sensitive, heat sensitive, holographic, fluorescent,
Visas contained within passports are also travel documents which require in-built security features.
micro printed and coloured – and are noticeably different from threads used in clothing and embroidery.
» Planchettes & Fluorescent Highlights Planchettes are small discs made of paper or synthetic material placed within the fibres of the paper during the production process. They can be in a variety of colours and are often fluorescent. For their part, fluorescent highlights are small particles of scattered fluorescent pigment that fluoresce under UV light.
» Security Inks Arguably, security inks and printing processes deliver some of the most fascinating and intricate security features in modern travel documents.
An Icelandic passport has a UV overprint
www.asi-mag.com 29
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