OPTICALLY VARIABLE SECURITY ELEMENT HAVING A REFLECTIVE/TRANSMISSIVE FEATURE REGION

The invention relates to an optically variable security element (20) for protecting items of value, the surface area of which element defines a z axis perpendicular thereto, said element comprising a partially reflective and partially transmissive feature region (24). The feature region (24) contains a first sub-region (52) having a first reflection-enhancing coating (36), which first sub-region forms a first reflection motif (80) that is visible in reflection, and said feature region also contains a second sub-region (54) having a second reflection-enhancing coating (46), which second sub-region forms a second reflection motif (82) that is visible in reflection. The first and second sub-regions (50, 52) reflect incident light differently, the first and second reflection motifs (80, 82) having different visibility depending on a viewing direction (62, 64). The feature region (24) also contains a transmission region (56) in which the first and/or second reflection-enhancing coating (36, 46) is omitted and which forms a transmission motif (84) that is visible in transmission, multi-coloured, and appears with two or more chromatic colours in transmission.