Security Features
Tetla Gift Certificates have several security features that are designed to make it obvious if someone tries to make counterfeit copies.
If you regularly accept Tetla Gift Certificates, keep at least one certificate of each denomination handy that you know is genuine to compare others to.
How Do I Tell If The Tetlas I Have Recieved Are Counterfeit Or Not?
There are four main things to look for to determine if a Tetla gift certificate is genuine:
1) Hold a certificate up to the light and look for a faint image of a child's face. On a genuine certificate, the face will be visible in the white part of the large circle with a salmon in it which appears on the front of the certificate.
2) There are faint background images on the front of each certificate which cannot be easily duplicated. On the $1 certificate, the background image is of clouds. On the $10 certificate, the background image is of tree branches.
3) Image on back between the two salmon. These are photographic quality images. On counterfeits, they may look less distinct and some of the finer detail may be lost, particularly the more distant trees on the $10 certificate or the smaller branches on the $1 certificate.
4) A spiral design is stamped on the front of each genuine certificate in black ink. It may be faint or parts of it may not be there at all if there wasn't enough ink on the stamp when it was stamped, but it will be there. If there is no stamp at all or if the design looks printed rather than stamped, the certificate is probably not genuine.
5) All genuine certificates have a serial number just above the copyright notice. A few of these are handwritten for very low serial numbers, but most are printed in blue ink.
6) The colors are supposed to be exactly the same on all genuine certificates of the same denomination. If the colors are different than normal, the certificate is probably not genuine. Compare the colors to a certificate that is known to be genuine. Do not compare the colors to those of the images on this website. Computer monitors will not display the colors exactly the same as they appear on actual genuine Tetla Gift Certificates.
7) There are only two denominations of Tetla Gift Certificates. These are the $1 denomination and the $10 denomination. Any other denomination is fake, no matter what it looks like. However, other denominations may be introduced later so check this website if you see some other denomination to see if a new one has been introduced. This paragraph will be edited to mention new genuine denominations.
8) Thick paper. Genuine certificates are thicker than normal paper. If a certificate is not that thick then it is fake. If it feels different at all, it is probably fake.
No document can be completely impossible to counterfeit. We will do our best to prevent counterfeiting and to prevent people from being harmed by it.
Here are pictures of the different types of Tetla Gift Certificates currently in use:
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Older Tetlas with handwritten serial numbers:
Newer Tetlas with printed serial numbers
