In this paper, we present a high-quality image authentication scheme based on absolute moment block truncation coding. In the proposed scheme, we use the parity of the bitmap (BM) to generate the authentication code for each compressed image block. Data hiding is used to authenticate whether the content has been altered or not. For image authentication, we embed the authentication code to quantization levels of each image block compressed by absolute moment block truncation coding (AMBTC) which will be altered when the host image is manipulated. The embedding position is generated by a pseudo-random number generator for security concerned. Besides, to improve the detection ability we use a hierarchical structure to ensure the accuracy of tamper localization. A watermarked image can be precisely inspected whether it has been tampered intentionally or incautiously by checking the extracted watermark. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed scheme achieved high-quality embedded images and good detection accuracy, with stable performance and high expansibility. Performance comparisons with other block-based data hiding schemes are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme.