Maybe a little with the 50 SEK but probably not with the 20 EUR (except for the red stars it's hard to see any fluorescence with the violet light from the near-UV spectrum). I can take some pictures later and post them if I see any detectable difference.
BTW, does your TK-566 have a plastic lens?
The TK-566. Maybe the 365nm Ultrafire at KD can put out the same light for half the price, but we don't really know if it does and the smaller AA form factor of the TK is nice.
Then a needle test. Glass sould not let the needle stuck by pushing it on the lens. Try on the edge (to avoid having some visible damage) if you're not concerned knowing you have a 0,3mm hole in the plastic lens somewhere.
First it looked like plastic because of some very small scratches, but maybe it is coated glass, I noticed that reflected light shimmers somewhat on the surface. It is specified as "Toughened ultra clear glass lens with AR coating" on the Tank007 site, but I don't trust these specifications very much. I wouldn't try with a needle...
I didn't try to open the head, but it took a lot of force to get the tailcap off the light when inserting the battery, so I would assume that the head is just tightened very hard. I don't see any glue from the inside either.
Thanks, mfm. That had to take a while to put all of that together, let alone the time it took for you to run around to all of those different countries. I didn't even realize the extent to which UV is being used in notes, but it was fun seeing all the different possibilities.
I wonder if the T5 light is a bit underpowered, I run it with 4 x Eneloop AA but the voltage for the T5 tube should be 6V (the manual says to not use rechargables but that's usually crap). May have to find some alkalines just to try, don't have four of them at home.
I tried with four alkalines today and no noticable improvement, as expected.
But it seems to me that that the T5 causes fluorescence in all the same places as the TK? Just weaker and it's not that easy to see on the pictures (and the green part of the euro is very hard to see because of the violet light).
Even though this 4W version is a little hard to use because of the visible light, generally there is no doubt that fluorescent tubes are way superior to LEDs for generating 365nm (or lower) UV. Even if you buy a Nichia drop-in for 160 EUR it will be easily outdone by a fluorescent lamp costing much less (but the LED is easier to bring with you).
I bought this one, it's even cheaper now than when I bought it: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280590817370&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
But you don't need it if you have the TK...
Shortwave UV is much more dangerous so I wouldn't bother with it. With high-powered shortwave UV you must have both eye and hand protection, maybe the 4W isn't that powerful but anyway. I already had enough trouble from the lights I own, briefly I looked into the 3W drop-in without thinking when I had the protection glasses on (not a great idea).
Here is how bright a banknote fluorescences under a high-powered tube light, I would guess it's a 16W or 20W tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNKkCmXBAg8&feature=related
Looks like the TK is the only one worth bothering with. The UK mint warns that no LEDs are likely to give short enough wavelength light to check the security features
It seems that some of the pictures with the TK-566 were taken when the battery was low (AA powered has it's drawbacks), I have uploaded new pictures of the 500 CZK and 1000 JPY notes.