Testing the authenticity of a valuable document, whereby at least one intensity distribution of electromagnetic radiation passing through the valuable document in the dark field is detected in a spatially resolved manner and a spatially resolved dark field characteristic is determined therefrom. The actual authenticity test is then performed by a procedure in which selected test partial regions of the valuable document are assigned respectively to one of a plurality of suspicion classes, an interconnection region is formed from substantially interconnected test partial regions that were assigned to at least one specific suspicion class, and the valuable document, depending on the form and/or position of the interconnection region, is assigned to one of at least two authenticity categories which is linked to the at least one specific suspicion class.