In response to A Friend of the Devil: i take your point about the threads and engraving marks, but producing a perfect copy and producing a copy that will stand up to casual scrutiny in a store are two different things. The variety of colours, designs and even materials on the bills from many other countries means that reproducing even a fairly close approximation is difficult. I agree that making a perfect copy of a US bill would be quite a tall order, but making a copy that you can get away with at the local supermarket is still easier here than in many other countries.
Once I thought I had a counterfeit $20. It just looked strange. Then I looked at the date, it was from 1950.
But, I would have to agree with everyone else that said smaller bills are less likely to be checked for being counterfeit.
Wait, Handy, you get counterfeit Canadian coins the US?
:o
Thanks for catching my embarrassing error stuyguy. I was looking at so many web sites for a picture of the $100 bill I got Alexander Hamilton’s name stuck in my head and it just came out.
Everyone know that Benjamin Franklin is on the 100 dollar bill.
I wasn’t really making any point. It was merely a reference to Atlas Shrugged, the main(?) character of which is John Galt, so I figured the poster JohnGalt would get the joke. Incidentally, the book was written by a woman, and portrayed women involved in the production and exchange and all, so I think it was just using “men” in the old sense of “people”, that seems to have fallen out of favor these days.
Sorry for you trying to understand it as a coherent point. 
The only forged currency I’ve ever knowingly recieved was a couple of fake pound coins (no, really) - I was treasurer of a church at the time and they turned up in the offering - they were made of lead/tin/pewter/solder or something and painted gold.
I had to hand them in at the local police station and get a receipt.
I suppose they were made by some amateur using tin soldier making equipment, but I can’t understand why they bothered.
For once, Handy is on the right track. He’s not talking about counterfeit coins, he’s talking about confusing Candaian and US coins. Canadian coins are very similar in size to US coins. When I transact a sale, I identify the coins by size. I simply don’t have time to look at the markings. Also, Canadian coins are lighter than US coins. In a pile of change, Canadian coins can be hard to spot.
Um… back to the OP???
- Never personally received any (as far as I know). (Skip 2 & 3) 4. I suspect you overestimate the training given to cash register operators.
I ran a register, one of four, in a Manhattan deli/lunch shop. I never got one myself, but the shop got a couple of “modified” bills, maybe one every six months or so. Someone would take a $1 note and paste “$20” (which they had cut off other bills) over the “$1” in the corners. They were clearly, unmistakably bogus. However, in a quick transaction with a harried cashier they’d sometimes work.
(Mods – this method of counterfeiting is clearly explained, and illustrated, on the Treasury website, under the link “Know Your Money” which has already been posted in this thread. I know you don’t allow aiding or abetting the committing of illegal acts. I’m not.)
After seeing one and deciding I didn’t want it to happen to me, I started identifying bills by who’s picture was on them. I didn’t look at the numbers in the corners, I gave change based solely on the picture. I was also suspicious of bills that had tape on them. Was it repaired, or faked?
Also keep in mind that most cashiers handle much, much, much more currency on a daily basis than the general public. They know the “feel” of a real bill better than most people. I would only check the strips on $50’s or $100’s.
What did the deli do with the “modified” bills? We “de-modified” them and deposited them in the bank as their true denomination.
And since I can’t believe nobody’s made this point yet…. counterfeiting is not only illegal it’s a federal felony, even for the small time prankster. If you actually try to put to use any of the methods you’ve read about in this thread, then you are also probably stupid enough to get caught doing it. If you modify a $1 into a $20 and actually pass it in a transaction, you have netted $19 (effectively destroying the $1 bill you began with). You want to flirt with a federal felony for $19?
Who’s out there counterfeiting $5’s? The idiots.
Jimbrowski, since we’re adding sage warnings, I’d like to take this opportunity to provide a few more.
In addition to federal counterfeiting offenses, the federal government kindly allows state governments to prosecute currency counterfeiting. Counterfeiters should know that the Secret Service takes counterfeiting seriously (and given theor other, more dangerous job, they are a serious bunch). They go to great lengths to find the source of counterfeiting.
In my experience, local law enforcement informs the Secret Service of counterfeit currency.
So far, the “smallest” currency case I’ve seen the Secret Service bring was one single ten dollar counterfeit note. Let’s put this in perspective. If the suspect merely shoplifted the item he was trying to buy, he would face the least serious misdemeanor - a fine of $500; no jail time. But, he was clever. No, he faces two to ten years in a peniteniary and up to a $10,000 fine. So, you can see how crime pays.
Thanks for your stories; yes I was looking for personal experiences. The History Channel show essentially said if you have any doubt whether a note is counterfeit, any bank teller would be able to tell almost immediately, mostly just by touch.
Also the percentage of counterfeit notes out there is very low, so I was trying to gauge their population. The only altered money I’ve received was a two-headed dime, probably from someone’s magic set. The show said the best color copiers and printers are able to create very convincing fakes, so beware.
I’m a long-time coin collector, and there are a number of “stupid” counterfeiter stories:
-
in 1950s, a man counterfeited nickels (he had a vending machine company as a cover), but he dated them 1944; in 1944 the real “nickels” were made of silver during WWII, so they had special mintmarks, but the counterfeiter forgot that and a coin collector noticed the error. The cost to make each nickel was estimated at about three cents.
-
an instance where someone carefully DREW a $100 bill, and although quite skilled, the ink bled when he put it on the wet bar. The opinion was that someone with his skill could have earned much more than $100 with the amount of time he spent drawing the bill.
-
never forget: Operation Bernard in Germany during WWII had imprisoned Jewish printers and engravers create quite good quality British pound notes (mostly 5 pounds); I have a book showing the differences, and it’s difficult to tell them apart. The plan’s downfall was distributing millions of notes during wartime.
I’ve never received any counterfeit bills…that I know of. But I’ve heard stories about some businesses freaking out over $2 bills, thinking they weren’t real, so I might try that just to mess with them.
Cnotechris, I’m ashamed for you. Surely someone with your SN would have discovered the counterfeit bill sooner, eh?
While in line for banks, I’ve seen signs showing all the “improvements” they’ve done for the new bills. “We’ve added a new strip and an off centered picture and a picture in a picture and a DNA sample is required to spend us blah blah blah blah blah…”
My philosophy is that the bill is only as good as the cashier you hand it to.
I received a counterfeit dollar coin once.
In 1990 or so, some guy in Alberta (or was it Ontario?) was caught counterfeiting dollar coins. They were obviously fake if you actually looked at the coin, but if you just got it in change you probably weren’t going to notice.
The guy’s m.o. was, he would strike the fake coins, roll them up in a paper coin-roller with one genuine coin on the visible end, and cash it in at the bank for 25 bucks. I think he made a few thou this way before they nabbed him. Anyway, some of his fakes made it into circulation, and I got one of them. I hung on to it because I collect coins and it was a neat piece, but unfortunately my house was broken into 2 years ago and some of my coins were swiped including this one.
Robb, points well taken.
IMHO, the US Treasury should be the most feared governmental body in the land. We are a captialist society (the U.S.), they are in charge of the capital (money). Those boys don’t mess around. I’d rather tangle with a squad of amphetamine-freaked mercenary Navy SEALs than the Treasury.
You know the unspoken rule while playing poker: “Never touch another person’s money”? (Sometimes with the caveat “…unless you want your fingers broken.”) Touch the US Treasury’s $$$ and they will gleefully stomp your silly butt. Go ahead, give it a try… and look real close at their grinning faces as they legally screw you into the ground.
CIA? KGB? NSC? MI5? Mossad? They might put the whammy on you in private, but the Treasury will burn you at the stake in public, and charge you for the wood. (Metaphorically, that is.)
I wandered into a Duane Reade drugstore at about 2 AM a couple months ago. The cashier and the manager were at the cash register and both staring at a $100 bill. I went to the counter about 10 minutes later with my intended purchases and they were both still staring at this $100 bill.
After I paid for my stuff, the manager asked me to take a look at the bill and asked me whether I would have accepted it if I were a cashier. It was one of the new-style bills, so I immediately looked for the color-shifting ink and the red and blue threads in the paper. Both were absent. “No way,” I said. “It’s counterfeit.”
I gave it back to the manager, who handed it back to the cashier. Evidently, she was having difficulty understanding why it was fake. The manager starts cracking up. “You’re making this a lot more difficult than it needs to be,” he said. The cashier still didn’t get it. I looked over at the bill again and realized that I didn’t even need to look for the special ink or the red and blue fibers. The portait on the $100 was of Andrew Jackson, and I totally missed it on my first glance. I started laughing my ass off, but then the cashier got upset and we had to clue her in.
Rememer Jimbrowski, we like Treasury. They’re our friends.
::smile, shuffle out quickly::
Well, the Secret Service and the ATF are both Treasury Department bureaus, and neither of them are staffed by wusses!
Should that be NSA?
And yes, Robb, I love Big Broth… I mean the Treasury too.
And yes, bughunter, that is EXACTLY what I mean! A little of the ol’ “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality. (uh-oh, hijack to Great Debates on the relative evil-ness of the ATF?)
ATF? Secret service? Small fry. Just remember, the IRS is part of the Treasury. Now, those guys are what I call frightening.
I know it’s not supposed to be, but did anyone else imagine Mojo Jojo saying this?