The Facts About Counterfeit Money
Everyone loves to see money rolling in but we all expect it to be real money! Counterfit money is a very real problem for ordinary citizens as well as for businesses. The newer money is designed to discourage counterfeiting, but the skills of the crooks have evolved as well.
The Treasury Department is responsible for our money, coins and paper money, and they have many tips for checking your money to see if it is real or not. There are also now some interesting devices that can be used to confirm that we are not passing or receiving counterfit money instead of the real thing, but observation and facts should be all you need.
If you are not certain that a bill you have is genuine, it is suggested by the Treasury Department that you compare it against one that is. To make a detailed examination, it is extremely helpful to use a magnifier. Look carefully at facial features, since those on genuine bills will be more defined and have better contrast. Images on counterfeit currency may be blurred at the edges and have less dimension.
Next, look at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Seals on the bills. These have a pointed border that looks like the edge of a saw and will be crisp and clean points on real money. Counterfit money may have missing or broken points and the color may be dull as well. Check for the same clarity at the border areas and check for blurring of the elaborate scroll patterns.
Serial numbers are another good reference point. Sometimes fake bills will have a slightly different font style than real money or a subtle difference in ink color. Look for even spacing and regular alignment and the color should be the same as the color of the seals.
Most people know that the paper used for American currency has little red and blue threads woven into it to make it distinctive. Most may not know that it is a crime to duplicate this type of paper. One trick counterfeiters use is bleaching the ink from lower denominations and printing higher notes on real paper.
Another even more daring trick involves cutting the corners off of bills of higher denominations and gluing them over the corners of lower ones. The Treasury displays a photo of a one dollar bill with its corners covered by the corners of a 10 dollar bill. Anyone paying attention will realize that the president in the center of the bill is wrong, but if they are in a rush they might accept the counterfeit money without looking. Sometimes, even some very rare coins are faked.
The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has decided it needs to update and redesign American currency every seven to ten years in order to keep ahead of the counterfeiters. The newest bills are printed in using numerous colors and include many sophisticated security features. For example, the $50 uses a color shifting ink that changes when you tilt the bill, a watermark, microprinting, and a "USA 50" thread embedded in each bill.
One thing to remember is to not let happiness at receiving money blind you to the fact that it might be counterfeit. Ordinary consumers can be victims of this fraud as well as businesses. While advances at the Treasury have made it more difficult for money to be counterfeited, the criminals are always working hard to find ways around the Treasury's roadblocks. The Treasury Department has various systems in place to assure that you can tell if someone has given you counterfit money. To stay ahead of the counterfeiters out there, new designs will come out for the bills every seven to ten years.
Published November 6th, 2007
Filed in Finance
