Test money (or test notes, test bills, funny money,

Monopoly money Monopoly money is a type of play money used in the board game ''Monopoly''. It is different from most currencies, including the American currency or British currency upon which it is based, in that it is smaller, one-sided, and does not have diff ...

) are a part of the test apparatus that are often used with currency handling equipment, such as

automatic teller machines An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

. While it is often desirable to use actual

banknotes A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes w ...

coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

in the process of testing

currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general def ...

handling equipment, the inherent value of the objects being used means that security procedures must be put in place during the testing period that they are used. If the testing includes

destructive testing In destructive testing (or destructive physical analysis, DPA) tests are carried out to the specimen's failure, in order to understand a specimen's performance or material behavior under different loads. These tests are generally much easier to car ...

, where the currency is purposefully damaged or destroyed to see how the machinery will react, further concern will be raised about the subsequent loss in value of the objects. To remove these concerns, test money is often used in place of real currency. Test money may share some or all of the characteristics of a given currency (size, paper type, paper thickness, colouring, printing characteristics, various denominations), but it also has some form of easily identifiable, non-removable, non-mutable characteristics that differentiate it from

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...

scrip A scrip (or ''chit'' in India) is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitive payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local comme ...

, or

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

currency. For certain types of bulk cash handling equipment, the test money units may represent bundled or rolled currency. Some members of the notaphiliatelic community collect test money.

Use in television and movies

Test money is often used in television and movie production in the same fashion.{{cite web , url=http://www.gallifreyone.com/picview.php?ret=news&sub=whophotos&id=photo072606n.jpg , title=Outpost Gallifrey , accessdate=2006-08-01 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021141154/http://www.gallifreyone.com/picview.php?ret=news&sub=whophotos&id=photo072606n.jpg , archivedate=2006-10-21 – Another example of test money used in Doctor Who

References

External links

A collection of test money from various currency handling device manufacturersNovčanice za testiranje bankarske opreme
(Croatian) Banking terms Currency production Numismatics Fictional currencies