Have you ever gotten change only to find later on that it was counterfeit? Was it slightly wrong-looking or was it something striking, like Bozo the Clown instead of Lincoln?
Long ago when I was a kid I got a counterfeir half dollar. It was evidently cast from a mold (almost certainly made using a real half dollar) using cheap metal – it didn’t sound right when you dropped it, and it was easy to scrape. They tried to hide its deficiencies by dirtying it up, but even through the blackish finish it didn’t look quite right.
I’ve still got it.
When I was a kid, I read an article in Highlights or one of those other kid magazines about the security measures they use in money. So I checked my five dollar bill for the inscribed security thread that you can see when you hold it up to the light and it didn’t have it. So I told my dad it was a fake and he took it off my hands. I think he thought I was a sucker for giving it up. But hey, I was a very rule-abiding kid (and a rule-abiding adult).
My mother was working as a store clerk when somebody paid her with one of those novelty dollar bills that are genuine U.S. currency but clearly intended to be keepsakes. The one she received featured a photo of Kenny Rogers. When Mom pointed this out, the embarrassed (but grateful) customer quickly took “Kenny” back and replaced him with a more conventional Federal Reserve Note.
In the mid-nineties I lived in Queens, New York City, and used to get fake $1 bills there all the time. The dead giveaway is that on the back of real bills, there is a tiny number below the “E” in the word “ONE” in the center of the bill, which was never duplicated on the fakes.
One morning when I was opening a store I was working at, I took the previous night’s drop to the bank to deposit it. The bank teller was quickly counting the money, stopped, looked at one of the $20 bills, and declared it a fake. I hadn’t noticed, but she ran one of those little pens over it and proved it to me. So I had to take it back to the store, and we just had to suck up the loss.
After that, every time a customer paid with a twenty or higher, we had to pull out one of those pens and check to see if it was real. We never found another forgery, and frankly I think we wasted more time than it was worth looking for them.
I get a lot of foreign coins in my change.
Once, while working in a movie theatre a guy gave one of my cashiers a photocopy of a $20. It wasn’t even in color. I took the bill and went on confronted the guy, who was with a date. He gave me a new twenty and he wanted the old one back. I told him no. If he wants it back we could call the FBI to see what they would say.
The first generation of the current series of $10s were really easy to fake; the $5s and $10s didn’t have the security features that the higher denomination notes have. (They’ve since added them.)
I got two of those fake $10s. The first was in change from a nightclub, where I was dancing with my ex – who worked in a bank! So we gave it back to the club and they replaced it. The second time, I didn’t notice until it was too late 
I work at a gas station / convenience store. Over the years, I’ve recieved or seen a good amount of fake money. The first was a twenty, about 12 years ago - I completed the transaction so quickly, I didn’t notice until I had given the change. I looked at the bill, and it was laughable - a simple photo copy, with ink that came off on my fingers, done on standard copy paper. I said something like, “Hey, man, this is fake!” Believe it or not, he gave me back the change and cigarettes he bought, and took off.
In the last few years, I’ve become, while not an expert, a very knowledgeable person regarding money - see my username? So I spot fakes instantly. I was recenly working with my BOSS, and her SON-IN-LAW tried to pass me a fake hundred! It wasn’t bad - a five, bleached and re-printed as a hundred. The printing was decent, but the watermark was Abe, not Ben. He stammered something about getting it at the bank, and left. My boss was a leeeetle pissed.
Usually, the giveaway is feel - the fakes are usually done on too-smooth paper.
Joe
You DO realize that old-style bills don’t have that strip, right?
Joe
Not that I’m aware of. The polymer notes are supposedly harder to counterfeit anyway.
I was a bank teller and got them all the time. Mostly, the ink color and paper texture was off.
Gotten and taken. I was working retail some years back and got handed what was a pretty good looking bill that I think was photoshoped. At that particular moment I had other things to do and I hated my employer anyway so I couldn’t be arsed. I just took it and went on with my day. I am a terrible person 
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When I was treasurer for a church, there were several occasions on which we received a fake one pound coin (cast in lead and sprayed gold) in the offering. I don’t think they were knowingly put in there.
A few years ago, when my son was at Uni, he won £10 on the lottery. He cashed in his win and was given a £10 note at the shop where he had bought the ticket. He then went round the corner to a post-office to buy some stamps with this note. The post office discovered the note was fake, confiscated it and took his name and address.
A couple of weeks later the police turned up at the college and hauled out of a lecture. He was then taken to the police station for questioning. He told them how he had come by the note and was released . Of course he lost the £10.
I don’t know if it was a counterfeit, but I noticed an odd $1 bill while out at a bar. The bar was heavy with blacklight, so a lot of things would glow, including one particular $1 bill. It shone like a beacon while all the other bills were dull as dishwater. Maybe it had been a real bill laundered or otherwise altered so that the paper would glow, but I think it was a fake.
Was given a fake Hone hundred dollar bill in Khazkstan by a client in a bar who wanted to change some dollars to tegiz. Should have noticed he didnt seam fussed that I only had 90 dollars worth of Tengiz on me.
It is pretty real but the paper texture is slightly smoother than a real one, and under the federal reserve system badge it says;
‘this tissue is super tender for all dogs, public and private’
cheers
nbc
When I was a kid working for Taco Bell, some joker tried to pay for his food with two-dollar bill! Of course it had to be counterfeit, since they don’t make 2 dollar bills.
(just kidding)
Are you sure? Because I remember seeing them before they restyled the bills. How old is old-style?
See, I was under the understanding that when the bank received a counterfeit bill, they actually confiscated it, and you basically lost out from there. They let you take it back?