A banknote whose security thread sits a few millimetres from where it sits on the next note is not, by that fact alone, a fake. That was the message of a public notice from the Bank of Zambia on Thursday 29 October, reported by Zambia Monitor that day and by News Diggers on Saturday. The notice was issued by Besnat Mwanza, the bank's assistant director for communications, and its subject was a single feature that some people have been treating as a test of authenticity on its own.
The explanation is mechanical. During production the thread is permitted to shift within a designated area the bank calls the wandering zone. The point of allowing it to wander, Mwanza said, is to spread the thread's extra thickness across a stack: if every thread sat in exactly the same place, the notes would form a ridge when rolled or bundled. As a consequence, threads on genuine notes of the same denomination do not always align exactly, and the eagle image can also appear in slightly different positions. The bank described this variation as neither a defect nor, on its own, an indication that a banknote is counterfeit.
security threads on genuine banknotes of the same denomination do not always align exactly
— Besnat Mwanza, Assistant Director, Communications, Bank of Zambia, in a public notice issued on Thursday 29 October, as reported by Zambia Monitor
What to check instead
The bank's advice is to use several features rather than one, in what it calls a feel, look, feel and check approach. The features that need no equipment, which it calls level one, are the colour-shifting elements, the watermark, the see-through register, where parts of a design on either side of the note line up when held to the light, raised printing that can be felt with a fingertip, and the tactile marks for people with impaired sight. Diggers also reported that the bank promotes a free Zambian Banknotes app on Google Play and the Apple App Store, which it describes as an educational guide to the features and not a tool that automatically authenticates a note.
Diggers filed its report under the K500 note, the highest denomination in circulation, though the bank's notice as reported names no denomination and the principle applies to all of them. The practical effect is for anyone handed a note whose thread sits oddly: the bank's position is that the thread's position alone proves nothing either way, and that the other features settle the question.
Sources: News Diggers, “Genuine banknotes may have security threads in slightly different positions – BoZ” (31 Oct 2026); Zambia Monitor, “Security thread variations do not mean fake notes, says Bank of Zambia” (29 Oct 2026).