# Passing counterfeit money **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471 "2025-12-06T19:48:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/41 "2025-12-09T04:22:03Z")
Dollartree uses the pen on $10. Around here. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/42 "2025-12-09T08:07:31Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > The copier knows and will not play. I believe this is because of undetectable (to us humans) tiny spots of yellow which identify the “paper” as a bank note. Photoshop does something similar, making it quite tough to alter even the image of a bank note. I think it is named the Orion constellation, as something of a riff off the actual star constellation, but, not being too well versed in the art of forgery… I’m not certain. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/43 "2025-12-09T12:42:30Z")
On this slight tangent: I was in Shanghai when _36 people were killed_ when fake money was thrown into a crowd at new year’s eve. > **[Shanghai new year crush kills 36](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30646918)** > > A crush at New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai has killed 36 people and injured some 47 others, Chinese officials say. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/44 "2025-12-09T14:01:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve heard that some counterfeiters start with genuine $1 bills, bleach them somehow to erase them, and then print higher denominations on them. That’d fool any test that’s based only on the kind of paper That was a plot point of the first Jack Reacher novel.(Now on Amazon Prime!) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/45 "2025-12-10T19:17:09Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It is okay to refuse the bill. You are not a official. The Secret Service would really you send the bills to them, telling them how you got them, and where. Right, but if you confiscate the bill you are going to have to deal with an irate customer, and that will cause a scene and tie up management that has other things they need to do. Oh, we are there to handle problems, but we also have other run- of- the- mill duties to accomplish. If they are legitimately the one who got conned, they will be upset, but at least you aren’t the one that cheated them. If you confiscate the bill, then you are the one stealing their money in their mind. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/46 "2025-12-10T21:13:42Z")
I am reminded of Mister 880 who counterfeited one dollar bills. He only passed a single bill to any one person, all within a fairly small area. It took the FBI a decade to catch him. > **[Emerich Juettner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerich_Juettner)** > > Emerich Juettner (January 1876 – January 4, 1955), also known as Edward Mueller or Mister 880, was an Austrian-American immigrant known for counterfeiting United States $1 bills and eluding the United States Secret Service for a decade, from 1938 to 1948. When caught, he openly admitted his actions, adding that he had never given more than one bill to anyone, so no person had lost more than one dollar. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and a one-dollar fine, and he later so Em... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/47 "2025-12-11T01:49:36Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Right, but if you confiscate the bill you are going to have to deal with an irate customer, and that will cause a scene and tie up management that has other things they need to do. What the Secret Service wants, and what they demand are miles apart- they certainly dont want some clerk getting killed over a fake $20. But if the bills are found AFTERWARDS, they will appreciate getting them, with that info. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/48 "2025-12-11T02:34:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > they certainly dont want some clerk getting killed over a fake $20 It wasn’t the clerk… ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/49 "2025-12-11T02:46:51Z")
The most well known and weird counterfeit _ **coin** _ are the Henning nickels, made in the 1950s. He created nickels with several dates, including 1944. Nickels from that year had a special alloy including silver, since nickel was vital for the military in WWII. To mark the special alloy, a large mintmark was placed over Monticello’s dome. Henning had neglected to include the large mintmark, giving away the game. It didn’t help him that he actually lost money on each nickel (kind of like our country’s current nickel fiasco). You can find them on eBay! > **[A Collectible Counterfeit? The Story of Henning Nickels](https://coinweek.com/a-collectible-counterfeit-the-story-of-henning-nickels/)** > > By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ..... A few years ago, I decided to start coin roll hunting, and with $25 I opened an account at the nearest bank that had a ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/50 "2025-12-15T19:33:11Z")
> [@jjakucyk](#): > > I’m surprised at the movie money getting out into the wild. They used a bunch of it in Breaking Bad, and listening to the commentary/podcast about the show’s production, they said using real money would probably have been easier. The company that provides the fake money is so strict and controlling, because obviously they don’t want the money to escape, that they basically had to treat it as if it was real money. There’s a Harry Bosch novel where a movie director insists on a large volume of cash for a robbery scene, claiming realism requires real money. In spite of heavy security on the set, the money truck is knocked off by armed hoodlums. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/51 "2025-12-16T06:14:32Z")
The British Museum has a couple [Doctor Who prop bank notes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma3wB0hGHaY). They’re from a Christmas episode with Catherine Tate. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/52 "2025-12-16T17:25:07Z")
I noticed some gold bars in the shopping cart of a another customer at an Asian grocery a couple weeks ago, gold is flashy! Luckily, I held off swiping them because I later saw a display of joss gold and banknotes. The US $100s (there were other currencies & types) were certainly funny looking but marginally passable at a distance or, say, raining inside a moneybooth. I’d have had fun with them as a kid, hiding them in annoying places. > **[Joss paper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_paper)** > > Joss paper, also known as incense papers, are papercrafts or sheets of paper made into burnt offerings common in Chinese ancestral worship (such as the veneration of the deceased family members and relatives on holidays and special occasions). Worship of deities in Chinese folk religion and the Vietnamese Lên đồng ritual also uses a similar type of joss paper. Joss paper, as well as other papier-mâché items, are also burned or buried in various Asian funerals, "to ensure that the spirit of the ... ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/53 "2025-12-26T17:15:20Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Counterfeit bills are common enough that if you’re an adult you have almost certainly accepted or spent one at some point unaware that you did so. Are they really? [This Fed study](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/ifdp/estimating-the-volume-of-counterfeit-us-currency-in-circulation.htm) estimates the share of counterfeit bills to be on the order of 1 counterfeit one for every 80,000 genuine ones. If we assume an adult life of 60 years, you’d have to handle about four banknotes every day, including weekends, to go through 80,000 of them over a lifetime. I don’t think most people would manage to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/54 "2025-12-26T19:01:05Z")
Well, maybe not as common as it used to be, but in the past people used cash far, far more often and that does not strike me as an unreasonable average. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/55 "2025-12-26T20:28:32Z")
Back in the day, you had to get in line at the bank on Friday to get cash. For significant purchases, people wrote checks. If you walked into a store with a checkbook in your pocket, the salesmen would swoop. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/56 "2025-12-26T20:53:23Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Well, maybe not as common as it used to be, but in the past people used cash far, far more often and that does not strike me as an unreasonable average Indeed– the cited study itself suggests the frequency may have gone down by an order of magnitude in the last 20 years. Anyone old enough to have had a job handling cash 20 years ago has likely encountered counterfeits. …then the probability is going to sharply drop off for the young uns. Nowadays a lot of the time we’re not even handling cash, period. (In fact I never have cash any more, but I’m based in the UK. From my understanding, the US is not quite as cashless yet) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/57 "2025-12-26T21:00:17Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > Are they really? [This Fed study](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/ifdp/estimating-the-volume-of-counterfeit-us-currency-in-circulation.htm) estimates the share of counterfeit bills to be on the order of 1 counterfeit one for every 80,000 genuine ones. In some nations, many of the 100s are counterfeit. But here in the USA, this seems correct. Mind you every big store has seen a few, mostly the really bad ones. > [@Mijin](#): > > Anyone old enough to have had a job handling cash 20 years ago has likely encountered counterfeits. Well, yeah, but even a grocery store clerk likely handles many hundred bills a day. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/58 "2025-12-26T21:03:05Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But here in the USA, this seems correct. Mind you every big store has seen a few, mostly the really bad ones. It’s impossible to say how many of the outstanding ones they have seen. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/59 "2025-12-27T15:26:41Z")
Well, it might be possible to determine statistically. The mint knows how many genuine $100 bills are in circulation, and there are ways to estimate how many are actually circulating, and the difference of those two numbers would tell you how many counterfeits there are (though that method would probably only work if the counterfeits are a significant fraction of the total). Alternately, for a counterfeit bill to look genuine, it’d have to have a serial number on it, so if you check serial numbers (I think banks do, and communicate with each other), you can estimate how many duplicated numbers there are. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471/60 "2025-12-27T16:30:40Z")
Many American hundred dollar bills circulate entirely overseas so the government may not be able to know how many there are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-counterfeit-money/1025471.md?page=4)