EP2681056A1

EP2681056A1 - Security element comprising information encoded in a holey grid, and method for the production thereof

Info

Publication number: EP2681056A1
Application number: EP12709548.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Duncan Faulkner; Matthias Koch
Original assignee: Bundesdruckerei GmbH
Current assignee: Bundesdruckerei GmbH
Priority date: 2011-03-02
Filing date: 2012-03-02
Publication date: 2014-01-08
Anticipated expiration: 2032-03-02
Also published as: EP2681056B1; CN103402785A; CY1116414T1; CN103402785B; WO2012117087A1; DE102011004996A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a security element (2) for a value document and/or a security document (1), comprising a substrate (3) that includes at least one information zone (4) in which a first piece of information (11) is encoded by means of holes (6) formed in the at least one first information zone (4). A geometrically regular two-dimensional grid (7) which has (dot-shaped) grid positions (10) and covers the entire surface of the at least one first information zone (4) is (imaginarily) associated with the first information zone (4), and the first piece of information (11) is binarily divided into information portions (14) and background portions (15) relative to said grid (7), the first piece of information (11) being encoded in such a way that a hole (6) is formed in all those grid positions (10) in the at least one first information zone (4) with which no information portion (14) is associated. The holes (6) all have the same geometrical shape. The invention also relates to a method for producing such a security element (2).

Description

Security element with coded in a breadboard information and method for its preparation

The invention relates to a security element for a value and / or security document, which comprises a substrate, wherein the substrate at least a first

Information area in which a first information is encoded by means formed in the at least one first information area holes, and a method for producing such a security element.

A security element is an entity which comprises at least one security feature which is an imitation, falsification, copy or manipulation of the security element itself or of an article in or on which

Security element is attached to protect. Documents which have at least one security feature and / or one security element are referred to as

Security documents called. Security documents include, for example, passports, identity cards, identity cards, driving licenses, but also secured against forgery labels, tickets or the like. A subset of the security documents, which additionally embody a value, is also called

Value documents. The group of value documents includes i.a. Banknotes, postage stamps, tax stamps, stocks, securities and the like, just to name a few.

From the prior art are a variety of security features and

Security elements known in which information is encoded, which should be protected against copying, duplicating, but especially against falsification. In particular, in such security documents that are assigned to a person, such as passports, identity cards or even

Driving licenses are often faked. To produce such counterfeits, similar security documents are often used, which are thus partly original

Have security features and security elements, but are distorted with respect to individual security elements and / or information stored therein.

A group of security elements in which information can be stored or encoded with information in a security element have holes formed in a substrate that together form a hole pattern. From FR 2 564 622 A1 a method for the production of identity documents is known, which have indications which make it possible to identify or recognize at least one owner. The method described therein comprises transmitting such indicia to a solid support in the form of at least a set of points distributed as pits or bumps at discrete intervals. For example, a first set of such points represents a passport photograph of the owner. For example, a second set of points may include various symbols, such as letters, numbers, or other graphical symbols, indicating the identity, an address, or other information about the user. The points can be controlled by a controlled penetration of a tool into the medium of the substrate or via a

Interaction can be formed with a laser. For example, the dots are arranged as pits at regular intervals. In order to obtain contrasts between lighter and darker sections, it is proposed to vary their cross-section with constant spacing of the points. Another embodiment provides that depressions of uniform depth are produced and the density of the dots is varied.

EP 0 936 975 B1 discloses a security feature containing a perforated pattern, in which a document is protected against counterfeiting by activating a document

Security feature in the form of a perforation pattern, wherein the

Perforation pattern includes holes of different sizes, with the

Perforationsmuster extends over a closed surface of the document and represents a passport photograph, wherein the perforation pattern is generated by means of laser light.

A disadvantage of these embodiments is that counterfeiters can change the information stored in such a hole pattern by changing the hole sizes or adding more holes and such a change is not or only very difficult to detect or detect.

The invention is therefore the technical object of an improved

To provide security element and a method for its production, which makes manipulation difficult and / or makes it easier to recognize. Basic idea of the invention

The invention is based on the idea of structurally assigning to an area of information formed a raster covering this area of information in an area which is of regular geometrical design and has raster points assumed to be punctiform. With respect to this grid, the information to be stored is binarily divided into informational portions and background portions. For example, if an alphanumeric character is encoded according to a basic splitting method, those raster points which are "covered" by the alphanumeric character will be given an information share to the remaining raster digits

Background portion.

Furthermore, it is provided according to the basic idea that the information is formed quasi inversely. This means that all raster points that have no

Information share is assigned to be provided with a hole. Further is

provided that the holes all have the same geometric configuration.

If one compares this type of coding with an ordinary black-and-white print of an alphanumeric character, the grid locations of the

Security elements "in tact" to which black ink of the sign would be applied. All other raster points in the information area are provided with a hole.

The advantage of the invention is that the information is stored almost inverted in the document and additionally in such a way that only holes of a uniform shape can occur at predetermined by the regular grid locations.

Manipulation options are drastically limited. Should

For example, if an appearance of a passport picture coded in this way is changed, this is very difficult to do without additional holes outside the given grid or holes with a different geometric shape.

in particular to form a deviating, enlarged diameter. It is only possible to convert information shares into background shares without this being noticeable during a verification. A verification is even with hole diameter sizes of greater than or equal to 50 μηι

Diameter usually possible without technical aids. If holes are introduced with a different larger shape or outside the given geometric grid, this is perceptible to a human observer. Alternatively or additionally, a machine evaluation and verification is possible. Meaningful changes in the information content that can be generated by

Information shares are converted into background shares are very limited, so that counterfeiting possibilities due to a manipulation of an existing security element are drastically reduced or completely excluded.

definitions

As a hole, each recess of material is taken from a substrate. A hole may thus be a depression, for example a blind hole, but also a through hole which completely penetrates the substrate in which it is formed.

A raster is understood to be any regular geometric arrangement of points which have a regularity in at least two non-collinear directions. A preferred grid is formed by mutually equally spaced parallel first lines and at an angle thereto extending second lines, which are also mutually parallel and equally spaced. Preferably, the distances between the first lines are identical to the distances between the second lines. An angle between the first lines and the second lines is 90 ° in a preferred embodiment. The grids are given by the intersections of the first and second lines. In principle, however, other regular grids are also possible in which the graticules along each direction have an equidistant spacing along individual predefined directions.

As an information portion of information to be encoded, that portion of the

Information viewed after converting the information into binary

Display elements printed with a black ink, for example, printed on an infinitely extended white background together with the other pieces of information leads to an image by means of which the information to be coded is visible. In an information encoded by alphanumeric characters, the division is thus made so that the printing area (mentally) the grid is superimposed. Those raster points that coincide with places where there are

Printing ink is or will be assigned an information share, the remaining rasters a background share. In principle, it is advantageous to carry out the division so that the number of background shares outweighs the number of information shares. Thus, since the background portions are formed by holes in the substrate, only a few raster locations remain in the substrate

Security element embodying the information.

Preferred embodiments

A preferred embodiment of a security element for a value and / or security document comprises a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises at least one first information area in which a first information is coded by means of holes formed in the at least one first information area, it being provided that the first Information area a two-dimensional geometrically regular, the at least a first information area areal covering grid with (dot-shaped) grid points (mentally) is assigned and the first information regarding this grid is divided into binary information portions and background portions and the information is encoded in such a way that at all Raster locations in the

at least one first information area, to which no information component is assigned, one of the holes is formed, wherein the holes are all the same geometric

Design have.

Such a security element can be produced by a method comprising the steps of providing a substrate, receiving or acquiring at least a first information, introducing holes into at least a first one

Information area of the substrate, so that the first information is encoded in the substrate, wherein it is provided that the first information area a two-dimensional geometrically regular, the at least a first information area area-covering grid with (dot-shaped) raster points (mentally) is assigned, and the first Information relating to this raster is binarily divided into information portions and background portions and the information is encoded such that at each raster location in the at least one first information area to which no information portion is assigned, one of the holes is formed, the holes being formed that they all have the same geometric configuration. The substrate may be a paper substrate or even a plastic substrate or a metal foil or the like. The substrate can also be made out

be different laminate formed layers. All substrate materials occurring in the field of manufacturing security documents, which are well known to the person skilled in the art, are conceivable. The holes can be as wells or as

Through holes are formed by the substrate or be. For example, these can be punched by means of a mechanical tool. However, embodiments in which the holes are by means of

Laser radiation are introduced into the substrate. Preferably, these are formed as through holes. This offers the advantage that a verification when viewed in transmitted light in a simple manner is possible.

The substrate preferably has a certain opacity, at least in the area of the at least one first information area, so that the holes can be clearly seen when viewed in transmitted light.

The information encoded in the at least one first information area is preferably an individualizing or personalizing information item. An individualizing information is an information that individualizes the security element compared to other similar security elements. A

individualizing information is for example a serial number of a

Security document or a security element. A personalizing one

Information is information associated with a particular person, who in turn is associated with the security element or security document in which the security element is or will be integrated. Examples of personalizing information represent, for example, biometric data, for example a passport photo, or even a name, an address, a place of birth, a residential address or the like.

In a preferred embodiment, for example, a passport picture is coded as information in the at least one first information area. The first

The information area is preferably selected to be so large that a background information portion is allocated along one edge in an edge strip of the information area to all the grid locations, ie all grid locations are formed with a hole. This means that the first information area preferably a Area which is larger than the area required for the graphical representation of the first information.

Preferably, the holes are formed circular. However, other embodiments may use other geometric shapes, such as square, triangular, star, or oval shapes, to name but a few. A focus of the geometric shape preferably coincides with the grid point. If the shape is not rotationally symmetrical, then all holes are oriented identically with respect to their geometric configuration.

In order to obtain the smallest possible number of grid points that a

Information share is assigned, it is preferred to divide the information so in information and background shares that for information components to be incorporated, their information content by a geometric figure, such as a

Letters or a number, embodied, that only the grid points that coincide with the outer contours or immediately adjacent thereto, a

Information portion is assigned and raster points, which would be due to the geometric shape of the alphanumeric character associated with an information share, yet a background portion is assigned, provided that all the nearest neighbors of the respective raster site due to the shape of the alphanumeric character also an information component is assigned or would. Such a division is

synonymous with the use of a font in which the characters are characterized by an outer circumferential outline and the characters inside transparent or have the background color of a substrate on which these alphanumeric characters are printed.

It is thus preferred to use alphanumeric characters in a font size (character size) to encode information in the at least one first information area whose typical line width is sized to be greater than twice the spacing of adjacent raster locations.

An embodiment of the invention thus provides that the at least one first piece of information is divided into the information and background portions in such a way that, in the case of pieces of information which are alphanumeric characters, those grid positions which are due to a shape of the alphanumeric character Information portion would be assigned, however, a background portion is assigned, if all the nearest neighbors of the grid location due to the shape of the alphanumeric character is also assigned an information share or would be assigned.

Around the information stored in the at least one first information area or at another place in the security element or a security document, on which or in which the security element is integrated, arranged

To secure information is at least a second in one embodiment

Information area provided in which at least a second information is coded by means of second holes, wherein the at least one second information area is assigned a further two-dimensional geometrically regular, the at least one second information area area-covering grid with (point-shaped) resting points (mentally), wherein the second holes all the same geometric

Have design and for each grid location of the second grid in the

at least one second information area of one of the second holes is formed, wherein the second holes all have the same geometric shape, the second holes each encode an information portion via a relative positioning with respect to the associated dot-shaped raster location. This means that in the

at least one second information area for each of the grid locations of the second grid a hole is formed, but the holes with respect to a predetermined point, for example, its geometric center of gravity, relative to the dot-shaped grid location can be arranged differently.

In a preferred embodiment, each of the second holes may occupy one of nine predetermined positions relative to the raster position so as to encode a value between 0 and 8. A possible positioning provides that the

Center of gravity of the second hole coincides with the grid location. Both

remaining eight further positions, the center of gravity of the second hole at a predetermined distance from the grid point, wherein the eight positions by the different angles 0, 45 °, 90 °, 135 °, 180 °, 225 °, 270 °, 315 ° with respect to a excellent direction. A position is thus by the distance and optionally additionally an angular orientation of a connecting line of the

Center of gravity with the raster location with respect to an excellent predetermined direction in the raster. With n wide holes in the at least one second Information area can thus be encoded, for example, 9 ⁿ numbers. For example, if two adjacent second holes are combined to encode symbols, then by such a pair of second holes 9 ² different symbols, ie 81 different symbols or characters, can be encoded. This is sufficient, for example, to encode all uppercase and lowercase letters of a Latin alphabet and additionally the nine Arabic numerals.

Of course, other codings are possible in which more or fewer possible relative positions, relative to the grid point, are predetermined for forming an information component in the second holes.

In a preferred embodiment, the grid locations of the at least one second grid coincide with the grid locations of the grid of the at least one

Information area, if it would be extended so that it also covers at least a second information area. In this case, it is assumed that the grid associated with the at least one first information area and the grid which is assigned to the at least one second information area have the same geometric shape.

Embodiments in which the at least one second information includes protection information indicating a number of the holes in the non-manipulated first information area and / or a number of non-perforated grid locations in the non-manipulated first information area are particularly preferred. In this way it is possible to reliably detect also manipulations which are made by adding further holes in the first information area in order to change the information perceivable there. The information formed in the second information area can almost not be manipulated, since each grid location is already assigned a second hole and these holes all have the same geometric shape. Adding holes or increasing hole diameters can be easily detected.

The second information area is usually provided only for a machine verification in which, for example, an image of the security element or

Security document is detected under transmitted light conditions and the positions of the individual second holes relative to the grid points by means of a Computer-implemented algorithm determined and the information is evaluated on this. In addition, at the same time or with a time lag also preferably under

Transmitted light conditions detected an image of the at least one first information area, it can be determined, for example, by counting the existing holes in the first information area or correspondingly counting the grid locations where no hole is located, together with a hedging information, whether the perceptible in the first information area Information is manipulated or not.

It goes without saying that more complex security information and additional information, for example biometric data, a name, a place of birth or the like, can alternatively or additionally be coded in the at least one second information area and thus made available for a machine reading.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments. Hereby show:

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a security document

trained security element;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of first information to be stored, via which a grid assigned to the first information area is laid; FIG.

Fig. 3a is a schematic representation of the information portions of the first

Information according to Figure 2 according to a first division into information and background portions.

Fig. 3b shows the corresponding background portions of the first information of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4a shows the information portions of the information of Fig. 2 according to another

Division into information and background shares;

Fig. 4b, the corresponding background portions, which with the

Share information according to Fig. 4a; 5 shows a further illustration of another security element designed as a security document;

Fig. 6 is a schematic representation for explaining the coding of

Information in a second information area; and

Fig. 7 is a schematic enlarged view of the second in the

Information area of Fig. 5 encoded information.

In Fig. 1 is a schematically designed as a security document 1 security element

2 shown. The security element 2 comprises a card-shaped, formed substrate 3. This may be, for example, a document body produced by lamination from a plurality of films. Likewise, in other embodiments of a security element, the substrate may consist of a single film of plastic, metal or also of a pulp-based sheet or sheet. The substrate

3 comprises a first information area 4, the area of which is shown in FIG

Embodiment is opaque, for example, black is printed. If the substrate is a lamination body, then the printing ink is preferably applied to one of the films lying inside after lamination. In addition to the first information area 4, an information 5 is shown in the illustrated security document 1, which information is for example imprinted, loose or formed by laser blackening. The information 5 can be any information, preferably personalizing information. Preferably, this information 5 will represent, for example, a passport photograph of the person who is the

Security document 1 is assigned, which is to identify this person. For the sake of simplicity, the Arabic numeral 1 is chosen as the information content.

In the illustrated embodiment, this stored in the security document 1 information 5 is to be secured by an additional security feature. For this purpose, the same information is additionally coded as so-called first information 1 1 in the first information area 4. This is done via holes 6, which are formed in the first information area 4. The first information area 4 is associated with a grid 7, which is formed by horizontal lines 8 and vertical lines 9. The horizontal lines 8 are parallel to each other and each have to adjacent lines 8 an equidistant distance. The same applies to the vertical lines 9, which are oriented parallel to one another and in each case have the same distance from the nearest neighbors. The intersections of the horizontal lines 8 and the vertical lines 9 form the grid 7, wherein the intersections are referred to as raster points 10. The first information 1 1 encoded in the first information area, which in this embodiment is identical to that already described in the US Pat

Security document 1 stored information 5 is stored by the first information area 4 associated with the grid 7 of the first information to be stored 1 1 is superimposed. This is shown by way of example in FIG. 2. Those raster positions which lie in the region of the contour 12 of the number "1" representing the first information item 1 1 to be displayed are assigned an information component 14. The remaining grid locations 10 are assigned a background portion 15 of the first information 11.

Schematically, the division is shown in Fig. 3a and 3b, wherein in Fig. 3a to the

Raster locations to which an information portion 14 is assigned, a filled circle is shown. Fig. 3b shows at those raster points, which is assigned a background portion 15 of the information, each an open circle. The first information item 1 1 is stored in the at least one first information area 4 in that a hole 6 is formed at all grid locations 10 of the grid 7, to which no information component 14 is assigned. The hole may be a blind hole in the substrate 3 or, preferably, a through hole through the substrate 3. Preferably, the holes 6 are introduced by means of laser radiation into the substrate 3 of the security element 2, which in this case is the security document 1.

In order to further complicate a manipulation, it is possible to reduce the information share in the division of the information into the information component and the background component so that information components that are redundant for a perception of the information are removed as far as possible. In the example shown in FIG. 1, for example, it is sufficient if the digit "1" which stores the data to be stored

Information or stored information 1 1 in the first information area 4 indicates only the contour remains as a negative image. This means that such raster points, for example the raster position 10-1 (cf. FIG. 2), can likewise be assigned a background component since all the next neighbors 10-2 to 10-9 are likewise assigned an information component or due to the geometric shape of the digit 1 without consideration of the elimination of redundant information shares also an information share would be assigned.

The resulting split is shown in Figures 4a and 4b, with the remaining information portions 14 in Figure 4a again shown as solid circles and Figure 4b showing the background portions 15 as open circles.

FIG. 5 shows a security document which is similar to that according to FIG. 1, wherein the first information item 1 1 stored in the first information area 4 is now stored according to the division into information and background portions shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b , Same technical features are provided with identical reference numerals. In addition, the embodiment according to FIG. 5 has a second one for securing the first information 1 1 stored in the first information area 4

Information area 24 on. The second information area 24 is assigned a further grid 27, which consists of horizontal grid lines 28 and vertical grid lines

29 is formed. Again, the intersections of the horizontal grid lines 28 and the vertical grid lines 29 represent grid locations 30. Second information 21 in the second information area 24 is stored by means of second holes 26. In the second information area, a second hole 26 is formed for each of the grid locations 30. The information storage takes place here about the fact that the second holes can be introduced differently in relation to their associated grid position in the second information area 24 or are introduced and are.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary encoding option in which each raster location

30 of the second information area nine different information contents, which are assigned, for example, the digits 0 to 9, can store. In terms of thought, one can imagine a square 33 around the raster point 30, in the center of which the raster point 30 is located. Possible center point positions for the arrangement or

Formation of the grid point 30 associated second hole are through the

Intersection point 40 of the horizontal grid line 28 and the vertical grid line 29 with each other and the intersections 41 to 44 with the square 33 and the corner points 45 to 48 of the square 33 given. The indicated intersections 40 to 44 and vertices 45 to 48 are assigned the numbers 0 to 9, as shown in Fig. 6. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 5, the second holes 6 are formed for reasons of simplification in terms of their hole diameter smaller than the holes 6, which are formed in the first information area 4. However, embodiments are also conceivable in which the second holes 6 and the holes 6 formed in the first information area 4 have an identical diameter and an identical geometric shape. In the second information area 24 of FIG. 5, a backup information is stored, which is a finding of

Manipulations in the first information area easier. In an upper row 51 of the further grid 27, the grid locations 30 and the second holes 26 associated with these grid locations 30 each represent the number of grid locations 10 of an upper half 52 of the grid 7, which represent an information component in the overlying column of grid locations. Accordingly, in the second line 53 of the second information area 27 by the second holes 26 in each case the number of grid locations 10 are coded, which in a lower half 54 of the grid 7 in the first

Information area in the corresponding vertical column above it one

Code information portion 14.

In Fig. 7, the second information area 24 is shown enlarged accordingly. The numbers encoded by the individual raster points 30 and second holes 26 are indicated above the line 51 and below the line 53, respectively. These numbers give the second

Information content of the second information again.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that a large amount of information may be stored in the second information area. In these additional information, such as biometric data, such as a fingerprint or a name, a serial number or the like can be encoded. Reading out for a human observer is difficult here. However, machine reading is easy and reliable.

Manipulation possibilities are very severely limited, since one of the second holes 26 is formed for each raster point 30 in the second information area, so that it is not possible to add holes 26. Changes in the hole diameter of the second holes, however, are easy to find, so that manipulations can be easily detected. In the illustrated embodiment, the grid 7 and the further grid 27 are similar in terms of their geometric shape. In addition, the further grid 27 is aligned relative to the grid 7, that the grid locations 30 coincide with grid locations 10, if one would extend the grid 7, that it is the second

Information area 24 would also cover. However, this is not absolutely necessary and the grid 7 and the further grid 27 may be at others

Embodiments be designed differently.

It goes without saying for the person skilled in the art that the security element 2 embodied here as a security document can in other embodiments also be embodied as a component which is integrated into a security document. Further, it should be understood that the security document 1 may include other additional security elements and security features that are not shown for the sake of simplicity.

In the described embodiments, only exemplary embodiments are described. To implement the invention, the individual features of the different embodiments can be combined with each other.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 security document

2 security element

3 substrate

4 first information area

5 information

6 holes

7 grid

8 horizontal lines

9 vertical lines

10 grid position

1 1 to be encoded information

12 contour

14 information share

15 background share

21 second information

24 second information area

26 second holes

27 more rasters

28 horizontal grid lines

29 vertical grid lines 33 square

40-44 intersections

45-48 corners

51 line

52 upper half

53 second line

54 lower half

Claims

claims

1 . Security element (2) for a value and / or security document (1) comprising a substrate (3), wherein the substrate (3) at least one first

Information area (4), in which a first information (1 1) is encoded by means formed in the at least one first information area (4) holes (6),

characterized in that

the first information area (4) a two-dimensional geometric

regular, at least a first information area (4) area overlapping grid (7) with (dot-shaped) raster points (10) (mentally) is assigned and the first information (1 1) with respect to this grid (7) in binary information parts (14) and Background parts (15) is divided and the first information (1 1) is coded in such a way that at all grid locations (10) in the at least one first information area (4) to which no information portion (14) is assigned, one of the holes ( 6) is formed, wherein the holes (6) all have the same geometric configuration.

2. Security element (2) according to claim 1, characterized in that the

at least a first information (1 1) in the manner in information and

It is divided into background components such that with information components which are alphanumeric characters, those grid positions (10-1) to which an information component (14) would be allocated due to a shape of the alphanumeric character are nevertheless assigned a background component (15), provided that all the nearest neighbors (10 -2 to 10-9) of the raster position (10-1) due to the shape of the alphanumeric character even if an information share is assigned or assigned.

3. Security element (2) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that at least one second information area (24) is provided, in which at least one second information is coded by means of second holes (26), wherein the at least one second information area (24). a further two-dimensional geometrically regular grid (27) covering the at least one second information area (24) with (dot-shaped) grid points (30)

(mentally), the second holes (26) all being the same have geometrical configuration and each of the second holes (26) encodes an information component via a relative positioning with respect to the associated (dot-shaped) grid point (30).

4. Security element (2) according to claim 3, characterized in that the

Information portion of each second hole (26) can assume n different values, wherein a value via a centric arrangement of

Hole center at the grid point (30) and n-1 values by a distance of the hole center of the grid point (30) and an angle of a

Connecting line, which connects the grid point with the hole center of gravity, with respect to a predetermined direction, are fixed.

5. Security element (2) according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the grid locations (30) of the at least one further grid (27) coincide with the grid locations (10) of the grid (7) of the at least one first information area (4), if it were extended so that it also covers the at least one second information area (24).

6. Security element (2) according to any one of claims 3 to 5, characterized in that the at least one second information comprises a hedging information, a number of holes (6) in the first information area (4) and / or a number of not indicates a hole provided raster points (10) in the first information area (4) or represents.

7. Security element (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized

characterized in that the holes are formed as through holes.

8. A method for producing a security element (2) in which information is coded by means of holes (6), comprising the steps:

Providing a substrate (3),

Receiving or detecting at least a first information (1 1),

Introducing holes (6) into at least one first information area (4) of the substrate (3) so that the first information (11) is coded in the substrate (3), characterized in that

the first information area (4) a two-dimensional geometric regular, the at least one first information area (4) area overlapping grid (7) is associated with grid locations (10) and the first information (1 1) with respect to this grid (7) is divided into binary information parts (14) and background portions (15) and the first information item (11) is encoded in such a way that one of the holes (6) is formed at all raster locations (10) in the at least one first information area (4) to which no information component (14) is assigned the holes (6) are formed so that they all have the same geometric configuration.

9. A method for producing a security element (2) according to claim 8, characterized in that the holes (6) are introduced by means of laser radiation.

10. A method for producing a security element (2) according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the first information is divided into information portions (14) and background portions (15) that an information content of the first information (1 1) for a viewer is perceivable on an infinitely extended white background, provided that the grid (7) would be superimposed on the white background and on the information portions (14)

assigned to each raster sites (10) in each case a black mark (18) would be set, all markers (18) are made the same and wherein on the infinite background by the information portions (14) is not additionally encoded a dimension of the first information area (14).