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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
HEAD OF VIETNAMESE COUNTERFEIT BANKNOTE OPERATION TO BE EXECUTED
Howard A. Daniel III submitted the following based on a Dow
Jones article of October 3, 2008. -Editor
The State Bank of Viet Nam
introduced "polymer" bank notes in 2003 to replace the "paper" bank notes
because of their lower overall cost and the anti-counterfeiting devices in
them. And the "paper" would circulate and be withdrawn after they are worn
or damaged so much to be no longer useful. But an operation headed by a Chinese woman, who was arrested in June 2007 and sentenced on October 2, 2008, had pushed so many counterfeit "paper" 50,000 and 100,000 Dong bank notes in circulation, the State Bank of Viet Nam had to finally demonetize all of them as of August 31, 2007. This was a complete shock to the people of Viet Nam but they were given a chance to change their authentic "paper" into "polymer" bank notes. This conversion process gave much prestige to the Vietnamese government.
The top bank note illustrated is authentic, and the bottom is counterfeit and counterstamped by the State Bank of Viet Nam in Hanoi. All "paper" counterfeits shown to date in the numismatic and financial industry news outlets are not counterstamped so it is shown here for the record. Tien (Money) Gia (Fake) is in the counterstamp.
The counterfeit "paper" was expertly done at a large printing operation in Southeast China, which also now prints excellent "polymer" bank notes of Viet Nam, and of several other countries of East Asia. The Vietnamese had one or more of their agents get themselves into the printing operation to prove its existence, and then with the proof asked the Chinese to stop printing their money. The Chinese refused.
So the Vietnamese have kept one or more agents in place in China and 95+% of the suitcases and other containers bringing in counterfeit Vietnamese banknotes are caught as they crossing the northern border. Each catch involves tens of millions of dong! But the arrested Chinese lady had an operation in Tien Giang province in the Mekong Delta that somehow smuggled billions of dong into Southern Viet Nam.
When the people are caught before circulating the counterfeits, they are usually given long prison sentences, and sometimes life sentences. Those are very harsh sentences because prison in Viet Nam is not anything like in Western countries and is a VERY unpleasant time. But when they are caught circulating the counterfeits, they usually face execution by firing squad. All heroin smugglers and dealers having a certain quantity in their possession will also face a firing squad. I strongly believe this is an excellent way to rid communities of drug dealers!
The Chinese woman, Guo Jin Hua, might be the first Chinese national sentenced in modern Vietnamese history to execution by firing squad. They also publicly identified the source of the counterfeits as China. This is a very significant event and could cause some problems in relations with Beijing but the Chinese have caused major economic problems for the Vietnamese so this might be the Vietnamese way of paying them back.
To read the complete article, see: Chinese counterfeit dong trafficker sentenced to death (http://www.intellasia.net/news/articles/legal/
111249910.shtml)
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com
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