At one time, all registration numbers were tattooed in the rabbits' ears, but with so many popular small breeds, it can be hard to get a number that long in a little ear. The symbol was introduced to offset that problem (since nobody really uses that number anyway), and to make it easier on the registrar (since they don't have to try to keep track of so many die). The die itself has had some issues, but most registrars use it anyway (I haven't seen a rabbit with the number in its ear in over a decade).
But oh, yes, pedigrees can be falsified. I have received pedigrees with things on them that I knew couldn't be true, though whether they were errors or attempts at deception I was in no place to say.
The red, white and blue registration is an admirable goal, though with some breeds, it may not mean that much. If you are breeding, say, Florida Whites; you have one color, a two-pound size range, and nearly nothing in the way of DQ's (well, you could have an animal that was over- or under-sized, or with a missing body part). Unless the animal was so far off in type that it was almost unrecognizable (and therefore "unworthy of registration"), it could be registered, but that wouldn't mean it had any business even getting close to a show table. At the other end of the spectrum are the "marked" breeds, where such a registration would be nearly impossible. For many years, I have bred Harlequins, and other breeders have told me that my rate of one showable baby out of every 10 or 15 born was actually unusually good. If I only bred registered rabbits, I would very rapidly run out of rabbits to breed, because the registered ones could very well "age out" without ever producing a replacement that could be registered.