Not even a red cent.
I once saw a counterfeit $1 - yes one dallar bill, and it was bad. I told the clerk that it was counterfeit and that he should not take it, and he said he did not believe me. I’m sure he gave it out as change ASAP (and broke a federal law). (Knowingly passing a counterfeit bill is just as illegal as printing it in the first place)
It was a photocopy on white paper - the worst counterfeit I ever saw.
Have I ever mentioned that my super hero power is that I can spot counterfeit bills from further away than I can tell what denomination it is? (not really, But I once did it from over 10 feet away, and I did not touch the $1 bill at all and saw it from a few feet away. In both cases the receiver was looking closely at the bill already so I only confirmed their suspicions)
I have never seen a counterfeit coin.
(former) superteller Dag (dollar sign on chest, big $3 bill for a cape, faster than a currency counting machine, can roll coins in a single hand, yadda yadda yadda)
…that you know of
Does Bubba then give you a pound when you’re in jail?
After all the ignorance I’ve seen lately, someone is finally making cents.
Yes, my pennies always get lighter when I drop them in cyanide.
Counterfeit a penny? What a loonie idea!
</Canadian>
Not entirely relevant, but about thirty years ago the cops in San Antonio, Tx apprehended a gang of teens who were meticulously filing and sanding pennies down to the size of dimes and using them in vending machines…one of the perps told officers that it took about six hours or so to get one right. not the brightest counterfeit syndicate…
It isn’t exactly counterfeiting, but I used to know a guy who made and sold slugs. I’m not to clear, after all these years, on what alloy the sheet metal he used was or where he got it. As I recall, it was a gold or bronze color. He used a die he’d made himself and a press to punch out quarter sized discs. The vending machines, video games, and payphones of the era ( mid-80’s) would accept them without problems. He’d sell you a big sack of them for a few bucks. He never did get caught, but the people who owned the vending machines and payphones locally really took an economic asskicking til he was finally unable to score any more of the sheet metal he used.
I found out a while back that the zinc cents will easily snap in half. I tried to bend one, but it broke instead.
My husband and I went to a funeral last summer in a very rural area where we felt like big-city sophisticates. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe where they were all agog because somebody had just passed them a bogus $20. They really didn’t know what to do; we advised them of whom to call, but when we told them the bill would be confiscated, they decided not to report it because they wanted to keep it as a reference in case it ever happened again, they’d have something to compare it to.
I know – you’re thinking they were just going to pass it along to the next person. But they were talking about where they could take it to have it *laminated *so as to preserve it.
I’m still trying to figure exactly what purpose a “spy coin” might serve.
Better yet what exactly is a “spy coin”?
Like this.
The thing you have to remember is that it costs the US government somewhere around three cents to make one penny (and we wonder where this national debt came from). So if the gov’t spends three cents making a single penny using a fine tuned, mass-production process I doubt the best counterfeiters in the world could turn a profit from making pennies.
More on the merits of the penny (the second article on this page): Why doesn’t wood melt? Plus: Does it still cost less than one cent to mint a penny? - The Straight Dope
I have a penny with a VERY pronounced flare around the rim / edge, BUT, it is exactly the same diameter of other pennies? and under close examination under a microscope, it does not have any kind of “band” crimped to it, it is a single unit.
Any ideas?
What the deuce?
YES!
my penny doesnt have rounded edges, but the “penny color” (copper?) hes seemed to rub off in patches… not gradually, like normal, but from “shiny penny” to “old penny” colors like the outside layer pealed off. what do you think?
I think you need to link to a clear picture.