What You Need To Know About Counterfeit Money
Posted on Nov 14 2007 | Tagged as: Finance
Counterfeiters have gotten better at their game of making cash and are not put off by the way the new money is designed. This has turned into a serious problem for businesses and the ordinary citizen. We all love to make money; however, it needs to be real.
The Treasury Department, who are responsible for all of our coin and paper money, have numerous ways to make sure your money is not fake. Facts and careful observation should be all that is needed, but there are now devices that can be used to confirm that the money being given or received is not counterfit money.
It is recommended by the Treasury Department that you compare two bills to check for authenticity. Use the bill you are unsure of, and use a bill you are sure of, such as one you received at a bank. Using a magnifying glass or other enlarging device, look for differing details. Pay particular attention to the facial details of the portraits. A genuine bill will have a much clearer and more realistic portrait. Fake bills may also appear dingier or have a less vibrant appearance.
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.
An even more amazingly brazen trick is cutting the corners from higher denominations and pasting them on lower ones hoping no one will notice. The Treasury shows a one dollar bill with a “10″ pasted over the one. We all know George Washington is not on $10 bills, but someone rushed might accept even obvious counterfit money. Occasionally, even coins are faked, but this mostly limited to very rare coins.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has recently modified U.S. currency as a deterrent to counterfeiting. It says that while the newly designed bills do have an increase in colors, their most important security features owe more to modern technology: on the $50 bill, for example, its new ink, which changes color when you hold it at different angles, as well as its watermark, microprinting, and the imbedding of a thread which reads “USA 50.” As a further criminal deterrent, U.S. currency will continue to be modified every seven to ten years.
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.
- lee dobbins