The invention relates to a security element (20) for security documents, valuable documents and the like, said element comprising a substrate (22) and a metallisation (24, 26) arranged on the substrate. According to the invention, the metallisation (24, 26) of the security element comprises a first opaque metallic layer (24) and a second opaque metallic layer (26) arranged above the first metalliclayer, and the two metallic layers (24, 26) are essentially the same colour in the visible spectral region.