Technical success probability is a measure of the risk of incorporating a feature into a banknote. This category is also subdivided into four subcategories to identify the primary areas of consideration. The two categories, with their eight subcategories, form the cornerstone of the committee's evaluation by helping identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of each feature. The committee did not expect that any single feature would rank first in all categories, and none did. The committee believed that, in order to provide a multifaceted system of deterrents, consideration should be given to deploying multiple features that complement each other.
Some caution is required, however.
The use of too many features could overwhelm the public and thereby reduce the overall effectiveness of the deterrents. Features that defeat the casual counterfeiter do not necessarily work effectively against professional counterfeiters. Casual, opportunistic counterfeiters do not have the skills, resources, or determination to defeat sophisticated individual deterrents or combinations of them, whereas professional counterfeiters do have these skills and the resources to simulate or duplicate any single deterrent, and probably most combinations, given sufficient time. Certain combinations of features, rather than features acting alone, offer robust potential for defeating the casual counterfeiter and slowing down the professional. In the committee's opinion, the set of deterrent features need not be the same on all denominations of banknotes.