Anti-fraud apparatus and method for protecting valuables
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Abstract
An arrangement for certifying and checking gem stones (12) and other valuables comprises an electron microscope (11) controlled by a computer (1) and arranged to acquire digitised electron micrographs of characteristic regions of the gem stone or other valuable, particularly the culet (13) or girdle (14) which are typically highly irregular and therefore highly characteristic of individual stones. The digitised electron micrographs are encrypted and written to an RFID (7) which can be embedded in a plastics certificate (10) of in some cases a concealed on the valuable itself. Any tampering with the gem stone (12) or other valuable can be detected by reading the stored micrographs in the tag (7) and comparing them with micrographs newly acquired from the gem stone (12) or valuable as presented for verification. For extra security, the digitised encrypted micrographs are also stored in a remote database which can also include transaction data and can be linked to a credit card database of a financial institution.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1-34. -34. (canceled)
- 35. A method of characterising a cut or uncut precious or semi-precious stone comprising the steps of acquiring a high resolution image of at least one characteristic feature of the stone, digitising said image and storing the digitised image in association with an identifier of the stone in an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag.
- 45. An identification certificate for a cut or uncut precious or semi-precious stone, the certificate including an RFID tag in which a digitised image of at least one characteristic feature of the individual stone is stored.
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50. Apparatus for certifying a valuable, the apparatus comprising means for acquiring a high resolution digitised image of at least one characterising region of the valuable, means for encrypting said digitised image and writing means arranged to write said encrypted digitised image to an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag associated with said valuable.
- 53. A method of checking for fraudulent transactions involving or operations on a valuable, the method comprising the steps of acquiring a high resolution image of at least one characterising region of the valuable, reading a similar image from an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag associated with the valuable, and comparing the images.
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58. A valuable having secured thereto a hidden RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag, the electronic identifier tag having a stored image of at least one characterising region of the valuable and an identifier of the valuable.
Specification