Rank certificate numbers

Question from a visitor

Where do instructors get those numbers they put on the rank certificates? I have been to three schools; two only assigned numbers to those testing and passing their black belt test. The other one gave everyone a registration number. 

Answer from TKDTutor

I presume you mean the serial/registration numbers most organizations put on their black belt certificates. Organizations use different numbering systems but all the systems serve the same purpose. 

Since each number is unique and is issued and stored by the organization, it helps identify the person and their official rank and it helps prevent forgeries. 

Since the numbers are consecutive, they indicate the person's seniority in the organization, and they indicate the number of certificates that rank that have been issued by the organization. Sometimes letters are used in the number to indicate the rank of the certificate. 

Registration numbers are not required, but they are used by all major organization to help prevent a phony black belt from making a copy of a real certificate and putting his or her name on it. When in doubt about a black belt's certification, if you check with the issuing organization it can use the registration number to verify if the person is a legitimate black belt.

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

In the United States, the term “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” is a legal doctrine used to describe evidence that, while obtained legally, the information used as the basis for obtaining the evidence was itself obtained illegally and thus can’t be used as evidence. The reasoning being, if the source of the information (the "tree") is tainted, then anything gained from it (the "fruit") is also tainted—you can’t use evidence legally that was obtained illegally.

We can apply this doctrine to bogus martial arts masters. If a grandmaster of a martial art is a fraud, then all ranks the master awarded to students are bogus, and all ranks awarded by the instructors that were certified by the master are also bogus, etc.

Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, and regardless of whether it is fair or not, any rank that stems from a bogus lineage is tainted and thus is also bogus. You may not have been aware of the fraud being perpetrated against you and you may have had the most honorable of intentions when obtaining the rank, but the rank is still bogus.

When you buy a bogus Rolex watch, it does not matter that you thought it was a real Rolex, how much you paid for it, or that you were the victim of fraud—the watch is still not a Rolex. The watch may operate like a Rolex, it may look like a Rolex, and other people may think it’s a real Rolex, but it’s still not a Rolex. Once you know the watch is not a real Rolex, if you tell others it’s a Rolex or sell the watch as a Rolex, you are yourself a perpetrator of fraud. If you bought a bogus Rolex and you still want a Rolex, you should toss the bogus Rolex in the trash and start the process of obtaining a real Rolex.

Rank certification

In the Certificate Mills topic, I stated:

A legitimate rank issuing organization issues rank to students who have been:

• Trained by a certified instructor of the organization.
• Tested in person by a certified instructor, or a group of certified instructors, of the organization.
• Recommended for rank by a certified instructor, or a group of instructors, of the organization as having met or exceeded the organization's requirements for the rank.

A karate 5th degree took offense with the part of the description that said that for rank to be legitimate, the person must have been tested in person. 

He said that I must be ignorant of the current way rank is awarded in the martial arts industry. He said that lower ranks are, and should be, tested in person but that high ranks (4th degree and above) are usually awarded rank by means of correspondence (previous rank certificates, a resume, letters of recommendation, thesis, a video of skills performance, tournament records, etc.). 

He said he had competed extensively around the country and that most of the high ranks he knew had received their rank this way. and that this was the way most organizations issue high rank. He said most ranks above 3rd degree were honorary anyway and were mostly awarded for time in rank and for work in the art and in the organization, not for physical performance. 

He said most of the high ranking taekwondo martial artists he knew had received their rank through correspondence and that my statement that rank should be awarded in person was disrespectful toward them. He thought that people who expect high ranks to test in person were ignorant of the way high rank is issued nowadays, must be envious of the rank, and are probably criticizing the rank in an effort to increase the status of their own rank.

This is why certificate mills still exist.