No wonder counterfeit currency keeps surfacing in different parts of the country like never before. In Gujarat alone, seizures have been made in Bhavanagar, Palitana and Surat in the last one month. Rs 500 notes, in particular, have become suspect and many shopkeepers refuse to accept these.

The state police claims that the number of criminal cases registered for making fake currency has declined from a peak of 168 in 1995 to 73 in 1998. Nor do they think it is an inter-state racket. For, except one man, none of those caught in recent years had links in other states. The exception was a man caught in Surat in 1996, who had links in Mumbai.

A. Ganapathy, deputy general manager of the currency cell of Reserve Bank of India, said that while the bank, too, was getting fake currency notes the proportion was very small. For example, on April 13, the bank's Ahmedabad office found 31 fakes among the 2,25,000 Rs 500 notes it verified. There are also days when they do not get a single fake note, says Ganapathy.

But even police figures show a new trend: counterfeiters are prefering to make notes of higher denomination. For example in 1997, 215 notes of Rs 100 and 79 notes of Rs 500 were seized. Last year, the numbers went up to 13,595 notes of Rs 100 and 3,491 notes of Rs 500. By contrast, seizures of fake Rs 10 notes declined from 107 to 25. Seizures of fake Rs 50 notes did increase from nine to 29, but the proportion was much higher in notes of higher denominations.

A police officer said that the seizures made by the Bhavnagar, Gondal and Rajkot police in a joint operation last month were ``the biggest in recent years'' in the state. All seized fake notes were of Rs 100. The police also seized from the gang 104 negatives, an offset machine, a computer, and a scanner.

Gangs are also using colour photocopiers. On April 15, the Surat police caught Shailesh Pathak, Jagdish alias Katre Bhura Patel, Ramnik Dobariya alias Ramesh, Velji Patel, Govind Jajaliya, and Parshottam Desai alias Das with 37 fake Rs 100 denomination notes -- all photocopies of genuine currency notes of the series OML 224102 to 224115.

Police sources said that while the use of computers and photocopiers has simplified the operations of counterfeiters, it has made their own job difficult. ``The equipment can be easily shifted from one place to another, and takes very little space,'' an officer remarked.

Further, the quality of fakes has improved, making detection difficult. ``So while we try to catch the culprits, we also have to ensure that innocent people, who accept these notes in good faith, do not suffer,'' the officer said, and suggested that RBI should evolve some simple methods of detection.

Ganapathy says that fake notes are copies of the old series, which are being replaced. The new series of Rs 100 and Rs 500 notes had several features which could not be replicated, he said. For example, the silver strip on these notes has ``RBI'' and ``Bharat'' printed on it, visible when seen in bright light. The numbers of these notes glow in fluorescent light, while the silver strip glows and turns blue. Moreover, certain other silver marks, which are not visible otherwise, glow and show up in fluorescent light. On the left side of the Rs 100 note, one can feel an embossed triangle, and the Rs 500 note has an embossed circle.