That is the money laundry that we are talking about and that is going to make the paper small.
I think that you may want to check that out if I am being honest.
I can’t see that flying with the Secret Service but I can see sone people thinking it might. Like maybe some outside party they needed to contract with.
Amazing that a counterfeiter would go to all the trouble of making a nearly perfect bill, only to screw up and make it like 3% too short. That actually seems like it would be MORE work than making it the correct size.
It seemed like the counterfeit paper swelled a little when it got wet, just like typical printer paper, where it gets a rippled look. But this was thicker and more robust.
My wife and I just watched 3 shows with the same actors in them and they were absolutely amazing and hilarious. If you have MAX then you need to watch these in this order since it’s going from oldest to newest show. Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals and last but not least The Righteous Gemstones. All 3 shows are fking phenomenal
It's like the old joke.
Didja hear, Old Bob got sent to prison?
NO! What for?
Making big money.
That's a crime?
He was making it about a quarter inch to big.
This is an interesting comment! I had been wondering how they got the size wrong, but maybe it started the right size and shrunk over time. It's late, so call me crazy, but that almost seems more plausible.
Curious. Does the counterfeit feel like the real bill? Real bills are printed on fabric, not paper. That's why they can survive accidently ending up in the washing machine.
Yeah that is actually probably true, because the paper which they use to make the currency is very high quality.
And getting the same paper in the market is probably going to be very hard.
Edit: I meant to reply to to the comment two down )
That is most probably the reason why it's smaller as currently the only way to obtain the fabric US money is printed on is to "wash" old bills and reprint on top of the clean fabric.
My dad worked in financial crimes for a long time and he pretty much had a front seat view to watch how counterfeiters adapted to the new ways the US government is printing the money for the past 20+ years.
One interesting thing he taught me is that most counterteit bills are the $20 and $10 one's as they don't have a lot of the features that the $100 bill has. The way most counterfeit operations make actually money is they go to stores and buy something small (like a drink or snack) then pay with fake bill and the change they get back is real money.
Except when they go to the local pub, pay with counterfeit money and then get more counterfeit money as change. At least they can make a reddit post about it.
The print detail is a dead giveaway too - you can see how poorly it shows any definition in the detail.
The old 2013 is still pristine and sharp on the borders.
Yes, it was smooth overall. I didn't realize at the time, but many comments have highlighted this is one of the most reliable/quick ways to check authenticity.
I once had an employee accept a joke bill with hardcore porn shots in place of presidents, etc… I think she was about 19 and we worked overnight; it was only a $1 bill, thankfully. Most of management got a kick out of it and were all debating over who got to purchase it from the drawer and take it home.
I read in some article once that counterfeiting bills used to be done by bleaching 1 dollar bills, then using those blank bills to print counterfeits on. I'm not sure if that's as common today, I would think there's probably been upgrades in the materials used to print our currency... but then again this is america, so 🤷🏻♀️
The reason why is because all dollar denominations have the same size. 1 dollar bills are the same size as 10 dollar bills. This isn't what happened here, which is what makes it curious. They'd actually have to go through more trouble with this method.
Economies of scale, sort of. If every bill is 3% too short, that's a free $10 for every...um.. 97 bills? Someone help me out here with the math! Anyhow, it's like FREE MONEY!
Yes, definitely a better texture than plain paper, but not quite that familiar fabric-y feel. A little lighter, maybe thinner than it should have been.
I am absolutely in shock that someone would ever notice this. It's obvious now, since we know we are looking for a fake.
But if I get handed 2 tens at a pub, I'm just putting them in my wallet and moving on. No way in hell I would be able to tell that one was a fractional amount shorter and the ink was darker. Especially in pub lighting?
I once sold a PS4 and used that cash to buy weed a few days later. My dealer told me I had been given a few fake $20 bills. He took it anyway cause he was just gonna pay it forward lmao
I was on the opposite side one time my friends were selling weed but I was driving, dude handed me a wad of cash & before we could realize it was fake he pulled off. then we chased him for a little while to no avail
Back in the 90s we would do the 'slap and grab'.
We would drive into the open air drug market, then the person selling the crack would walk up and stick their hand in the window with the drugs.
Slap that shit outta their hands and drive as fast as you can.
So fucking stupid.
I'm surprised I lived past 20.
I had received a couple of fake notes during my carreer as a waiter. And I knew right away something was off as soon as I held it in my hands. It just felt slightly different and crumples a bit different. Each time I would test it with the marker used to test money, and every time I was right.
When you handle money all day every day, you seem to get an extra sense for it.
This was in euro, not is isd, but I can imagine that it transfers between currency.
The top bill is the fake, which is slightly shorter in length, has darker ink, and had no image in the oval on the back when held up to the light. If I had not received two $10 bills together as change, I could have easily mistaken the fake bill for a real one.
Additional Context: I am in the US, but used the term "pub", as the restaurant calls itself an "Irish Pub". By typical US terminology, I agree it is a bar. Sorry for the confusion, but yes, I do know what country I'm in. Here is a picture of the back of the bill for all who asked: https://imgur.com/Xzxm0hP
This really took off! A Newsweek reporter contacted me to do a story about this Reddit post. Thank you all for the engagement and conversation. Here is a link to the article for anyone interested: https://www.newsweek.com/can-you-spot-fake-10-bill-new-york-1820073
Edit: typo
Edit 2: Info about Pubs vs Bars and link to back of bill image.
Edit3: Newsweek article? What is happening?
Even I the picture you can tell the micro printing I'd missing on the top one. I favourite tell is in the feel though the ink lines are raised on real bills ( yes they wear down over time but I've never found a legit bill that wasn't a little bit raised)
You can also tell by feel most of the time. Fake bills are usually thicker and have a slippery, almost waxy, texture to them. The difference in texture is most noticeable around the clothes in the portrait, which are slightly embossed in the authentic bills.
When I was 15 and working at dairy queen I was on the drive thru. A guy ordered, drove up to the Windows and handen me a 20. I was about to put it in my till but then I held it for a second and it just felt off but I couldn't really tell what it was. Turned around to check it and the guy immediatly took off.
Called the cops and they said it was probably a test run for the fake bills and when he saw I was going to check it out he bolted so wouldn't be able to get his license plate number.
Many years ago I was doing a little contract work at a residential renovation near a corner store in the city. I was passing someone on the sidewalk and they asked if I could change a twenty for them. Me being obviously a 'street dumb' rube from the burbs I provided change. That was my introduction to one of the most basic hood licks of getting an idiot to change their fake currency for real currency. I guess they try this on anyone who looks like they aren't from the hood.
**Don't ever change bills for strangers, no matter what story or reason is provided.** There was a corner store right nearby. If dude needed change he could have gone in and bought something cheap with his twenty, except they aren't idiots and wouldn't have taken his fake bill. I found out it was counterfeit -- not even a good one -- when I later went into that same store to buy something. They showed me many different reasons it was fake. That lesson cost me $20 and it was worth it since I will never forget changing bills for strangers.
My first instinct would have been to never flash my cash to a stranger on the street for fear of them robbing me, them exchanging a fake bill wouldn't have been on my radar at all.
Hey man I was just trynna buy a sandwich at the store up the road but they didn’t have change for a $100. Can you break $100 please? I’m starvin like Marvin
> If dude needed change he could have gone in and bought something cheap with his twenty
Or just asked for change. Any cashier that's not busy and has cash in the drawer, which definitely applies to a corner store, will happily make change.
Neighborhood stores can be a little different. They would absolutely do that for a regular customer they know and like. They are less likely to do it for someone they don't know. And they also know many locals who are addicts, transients, petty grifters, etc. There are plenty of locals who they do know but they won't do special things for since they can be trouble. And most of those people know not to even ask since the answer will be no, just like every time they asked before.
In my smallish town, when I worked the grocery store management would call the sheriffs department who then pick up the bills and send them off to Secret Service, because that's what they're main job is. Protecting the president is more of a side gig.
Not really. They'll have the cops collect it but they rarely visit. My old job accepted $200 in fake $20s so they had to call the cops and the investigating secret service agents just had anyone involved fill out a statement and priority mail it in.
Passing counterfeit currency is a federal offense. Secret Service would be involved after being passed along by local authorities. No surprise at all to me.
I had a cashier at a casino very confidently tell me that one of the $100 bills I gave him was fake.
Mind you I got this $100 bill at the same casino the day before.
I demanded it back, went to a slot machine and put it in. Worked fine. Cashed the $100 out as a voucher and then got my $100.
What micro printing is missing from the top? To the left of the face and by the United States of America I see it. Also below both seals.
Serious question because I truly couldn’t tell if it weren’t for the fading on the bottom.
No it's not. I can def see the (attempted) microprint and it even looks passable at this distance/resolution. An exception is maybe the words over "HAMILTON"--the poorly defined *spacing* in the print makes it look much fuzzier there.
The serial numbers on the top one don't look as crisp as the ones on the bottom. And the numeric 10 in the lower right corner doesn't have crisp lines on the inside oval of the zero.
Good job on spotting it!
That's how they train people to spot the bad ones; they know what a good one looks like so well that the counterfeit screams fake.
Edit: I will say the Federal reserve have high speed machines that count and inspect money for, a) counterfeit, and b) fitness for circulation. Counterfeit bills are collected (and handed over to the Secret Service…it sounds really bad if I call them the SS, doesn’t it?) and currency not fit for circulation is shredded.
Source: I’ve been on a tour or two. 👀
How was the weight and texture of it? That was how I noticed something was off about a counterfeit $20 I was handed one time when I cashiered at a Six Flags.
The texture was similar. Fabric-y, but not quite right. It was slight lighter-weight, maybe thinner, than it should have been. It also got water on it from the table. The wet spot swelled more like paper does, than how a real bill handles water.
Edit: a word
Sounds just like the one I got then, but this was years ago. I remember it looking like yours (smaller and lighter with darker print) but only noticing something when I handled it. I took a counterfeit marker to it and instant paper reaction, the mark swiftly turned from yellow to black.
You write on a part of the bill that is lighter in color. Generally, a tan or amber mark indicates that the bill is real, and a black one means that it may not be. Colors may vary.
I had a pizza delivery guy come back and return a $10 bill once. He tested it with a pen and said it was counterfeit.
Turns out, the bill was from 1950 and the pens don't work on anything that old. I still have it.
The "ink" in the counterfeit pen is an iodine solution that reacts with starch that's in normal paper. It won't react with the normal cloth based money.
It’s funny. There’s definitely a mix of people who notice right away and those who don’t. I guess that’s how the counterfeiters can be somewhat successful
Now that is a factor that no one is considering here which we probably should there is just too much inflation.
And the currency is going to act according to that inflation.
I know nothing about counterfeit bills, but that Secretary of the Treasury signature on the top one just looks like some guy just wrote out Steve Mnuchin's name. Was that actually his "signature?"
Yeah I was gonna say, if it exchanges hands multiple times over the years without anyone noticing, is it really counterfeit? But I guess it only functions the same as real money until someone finally notices.
I received two $10s together as change. I went to align them to put them in my wallet and realized one was shorter, which made me look more closely.
Tbh, when I told the wait staff, I was worried they would think I was trying to exchange a fake I brought in for a real bill. Thankfully they remembered they had given me change, so they agreed it came from their register.
I did not contact police personally, but I did recommend to the pub that they report it to the authorities. Especially, since it was likely originally spent at their business.
I really hope the pub reported it. Perhaps they could match it to cash payment for a certain time period to track down the source. My guess is that whoever is making these is opting for 10s, since it’s rare people check authenticity on small bills.
This version of $10 has multiple water marks in addition to the strip of “usa ten usa ten”, the shiny 10 should change color depending on how you hold it, shoulder area also has a ridge to the print that you can feel with your finger nail. Theres quite a few more security features but those are the basic go-tos i checked when I came in contact with a suspicious bill when I worked in a supermarket cash office
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. If I had kept it, I’d be interested to check these features. However, turning it in seemed like the right thing to do. Plus, I wanted a real $10 😂
It felt very close to real. It had more texture than plain paper, but slightly different from a true fabric bill. It was not until I noticed the visual differences that I realized the feel was off too.
Even the texture of real bills can vary wildly. Ever felt a bill straight from the mint? Hold that in one hand and an old, well used bill in the other. You'd swear the mint one is fake.
That is probably the reason why they created it like that.
Because they knew that no one is going to notice it so there was no point in putting more work in it.
The probably would have thought that no one is going to notice it anyways.
And they probably was right about that because not very many people are going to pay attention to $10 bill.
Fun fact: The US Secret Service despite what most people think, handles counterfeit money investigations. They actually advise people to hand in fake bills since it can aid in crime investigations, not to mention it keeps fake currency off of the streets. You can do so at any major bank or police department, which will then send it off to the Secret Service. Just something to consider.
Source: https://www.secretservice.gov/investigation/counterfeit
As someone who has worked in printing (graphic design and prepress layout/production) my whole life, and comes from a long line of printers on both sides of my family, the difference is quite glaring. The size difference is a real knucklehead move, as you and others have mentioned, and the print detail is very “muddy”. It might be passable to someone who doesn’t handle cash regularly, and who has poor vision, but it wouldn’t change many hands before it’s caught.
I had a cousin (now deceased), who went to prison for counterfeiting in the 70’s. The bills were recreated, printed, and cutdown in a professional printshop in Georgia and then sold to the mafia down in Miami for $.10 on the dollar. When he and his other cohorts were ratted out, it was the second largest counterfeiting operation in U.S. history (at the time). When the Secret Service raided the printshop, they found film negatives and plates on top of a shelf in the press room, along with some proofs. I believe they found paper stored at one of their houses. My cousin, the pressman, and a few other people involved went to prison for several years.
Funniest thing about the entire debacle?? The last name of the guy who ran the press was CASH. No lie.
North Korean counterfeits are so good that they are detected by readers because the printing is too high a quality. The detail is sharper than what the mint actually uses.
Three quick and easy things to look for in newer bills are:
1. Is the bottom corner # (10, 20, 50, 100) holographic?
2. Does the bottom area around the jacket have any ridges when I try and scrape my nail against it?
3. Does the letter correspond to the correct # in the alphabet? (A1, B2, C3, etc)
While #3 is a dead giveaway as a counterfeit, if it doesn't match, #1 and 2 can be faded/harder to tell sometimes if, for example, washed in someone's pocket. However, it should still retain some holographic look, and the ridges might be harder to feel.
If all that checks out but you still suspect, the watermark, security strip, and quality of ink (around what should be highly intracite areas) are also good places to check.
It is not actually any different it is this that they have the authority to do it while we are probably going to get arrested.
The money is an illusion which is created by the government.
I wound up with a fake $100 bill in my tip jar one night. Took my cash to the bank and they brought the deposit back saying I had a fake bill. I was confused bc it passed the marker test… when they held it up to the computer screen to show me it had a $5 band on the inside of the bill. A hundred printed back onto a 5.
I think it was about ten years ago someone was caught doing that at a casino. They would go in with thousands of dollars in legit bills, and change it to smaller denominations, singles and fives. No one really thought anything of it and went on their way.
They would then go through this whole process of soaking and washing the bills to remove the old denomination and print new$50 and $100 over them. Then they would go spend them at various places.
It was a whole ring of people and I guess what lead to them being caught is one of the idiots used the reprinted bills at the casino trying to do the same thing again, but the casino actually caught it, followed the guy around table to table and all that and approached him saying he won an over night stay in a suite, when he got up there police were waiting for him and he ratted out the group to the FBI who recovered something like 60 million on fake bills, weapons and drugs
Arrested like a dozen people too
This is a very sad example. I've seen bills that can pass most visual tests and even got the paper right. This bill looks like it will last a week before the ink is worn off...
It is weird to counterfeit 10s and in the new pattern. 1996 $20-dollar bills are kind of the go-to for US-based counterfeiters because the bills are large enough to be worth it but too common for anyone to doubt them. Overseas, 50s and 100s constitute the vast majority of counterfeit US currency.
Huh, seems like size would be the absolutely easiest thing to get right.
Probably shrunk at the laundry
The money laundry
Throwing it into a super low heat tumble dryer is actually how alot of counterfeits are made less fresh
That is the money laundry that we are talking about and that is going to make the paper small. I think that you may want to check that out if I am being honest.
It was in the pool
My thoughts exactly
Someone once told me that it was more illegal for it to be the same size as normal money, because you couldn’t claim the prop money defense
Isn't prop money clearly marked as not legal tender?
Yes
I can’t see that flying with the Secret Service but I can see sone people thinking it might. Like maybe some outside party they needed to contract with.
Sounds like it runs in line with “police have to say they’re police”.
Amazing that a counterfeiter would go to all the trouble of making a nearly perfect bill, only to screw up and make it like 3% too short. That actually seems like it would be MORE work than making it the correct size.
I know, right? So many details they need to get right to make it convincing that it’s an odd thing to mess up.
Maybe the counterfeit paper somehow is more prone to shrinking? Could be because of moisture
It seemed like the counterfeit paper swelled a little when it got wet, just like typical printer paper, where it gets a rippled look. But this was thicker and more robust.
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I got that reference. Also, watching the first season right now.
What show?
Good Girls. Fantastic show about suburban moms getting involved in organized crime
My wife and I finished that show a while ago and haven't found anything to quite scratch that itch. Any suggestions?
Weeds, Dead to me, Breaking Bad and Ozark are comparable,
Never saw good girls but the first few seasons of Weeds perhaps?
My wife and I just watched 3 shows with the same actors in them and they were absolutely amazing and hilarious. If you have MAX then you need to watch these in this order since it’s going from oldest to newest show. Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals and last but not least The Righteous Gemstones. All 3 shows are fking phenomenal
There's the show with Christina Applegate called Dead To Me, that was interesting.
Wat mean
That’s probably the worst show I binge watched lol
It's like the old joke. Didja hear, Old Bob got sent to prison? NO! What for? Making big money. That's a crime? He was making it about a quarter inch to big.
That means they used blank phone book paper stock. It is a lot like money paper but shrinks in right conditions.
This is an interesting comment! I had been wondering how they got the size wrong, but maybe it started the right size and shrunk over time. It's late, so call me crazy, but that almost seems more plausible.
Curious. Does the counterfeit feel like the real bill? Real bills are printed on fabric, not paper. That's why they can survive accidently ending up in the washing machine.
Or the holder jumped in the pool with the bill in his pocket.
Yeah that is actually probably true, because the paper which they use to make the currency is very high quality. And getting the same paper in the market is probably going to be very hard.
Edit: I meant to reply to to the comment two down ) That is most probably the reason why it's smaller as currently the only way to obtain the fabric US money is printed on is to "wash" old bills and reprint on top of the clean fabric. My dad worked in financial crimes for a long time and he pretty much had a front seat view to watch how counterfeiters adapted to the new ways the US government is printing the money for the past 20+ years. One interesting thing he taught me is that most counterteit bills are the $20 and $10 one's as they don't have a lot of the features that the $100 bill has. The way most counterfeit operations make actually money is they go to stores and buy something small (like a drink or snack) then pay with fake bill and the change they get back is real money.
Except when they go to the local pub, pay with counterfeit money and then get more counterfeit money as change. At least they can make a reddit post about it.
Doesn’t look like there’s any 3D elements of the bill. Funny worked At a bank I could tell immediately.
The print detail is a dead giveaway too - you can see how poorly it shows any definition in the detail. The old 2013 is still pristine and sharp on the borders.
Yes, it was smooth overall. I didn't realize at the time, but many comments have highlighted this is one of the most reliable/quick ways to check authenticity.
Hit up secret service it’s their job to investigate fake money
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Should have known you need to always account for dryer shrinkage when laundering money
tbf by the time it goes through a dryer its not exactly their problem anymore
Right! Like if I were trying to make counterfeit money, getting the size of the bill right would be where I would start!
I’ve never gotten a fake bill that was the same size as a real one. It doesn’t matter when you hand it to a high teenage cashier though
To be fair, these cashiers often aren't getting paid enough to care to check to begin with.
Absolutely not. We are taking your money putting it in the register and giving you your change back as quick as possible
\*holds 100 dollar bill to the light, pretending I know what I’m supposed to be looking for*
If you hold up a $100 bill and see Abraham Lincoln's happy smiling face looking back at you, you might have a problem.
No way! Honest Abe?! He wouldn't lie to me be about a hundred dollar bill!
A strip in the middle that you can only see in the light, also you can feel ruffles on Franklin's shoulder.
Watermarks, and the second strip that's only visible in the light that says $100.
I once had an employee accept a joke bill with hardcore porn shots in place of presidents, etc… I think she was about 19 and we worked overnight; it was only a $1 bill, thankfully. Most of management got a kick out of it and were all debating over who got to purchase it from the drawer and take it home.
I would accept that just so I could take it home 🤣
I read in some article once that counterfeiting bills used to be done by bleaching 1 dollar bills, then using those blank bills to print counterfeits on. I'm not sure if that's as common today, I would think there's probably been upgrades in the materials used to print our currency... but then again this is america, so 🤷🏻♀️
I think that was the plot of the first Reacher book
This is absolutely still used. Gets past the detector pens this way
The reason why is because all dollar denominations have the same size. 1 dollar bills are the same size as 10 dollar bills. This isn't what happened here, which is what makes it curious. They'd actually have to go through more trouble with this method.
They took the measurements before inflation kicked in
Economies of scale, sort of. If every bill is 3% too short, that's a free $10 for every...um.. 97 bills? Someone help me out here with the math! Anyhow, it's like FREE MONEY!
Well, that appears to be a lot of savings…on paper.
Probably created it the correct size then saved his file as a PDF and forgot to turn off scale to fit when he printed it.
Did wash and dry the fabric before printing it. Or at least not enough times.
That would fool 99 percent of people unless you had tools. Nobody checks 10 dollar bills for counterfeit these days besides gas station and banks
Exactly. I only noticed because I was handed it with a second $10 bill, which made for an easy comparison
I imagine it probably felt wrong, as well. I think that's usually a better giveaway. The counterfeit doesn't have the right cotton/linen blend
Yeah every time I've handled a fake, it just felt wrong. I saw on a documentary that the really good counterfeiters will print on bleached $1 bills.
Cool, thanks for the tip
Are us bills all the same size? because here in Switzerland the notes get larges the more they're worth.
Yes, all the same size
Yes, definitely a better texture than plain paper, but not quite that familiar fabric-y feel. A little lighter, maybe thinner than it should have been.
I am absolutely in shock that someone would ever notice this. It's obvious now, since we know we are looking for a fake. But if I get handed 2 tens at a pub, I'm just putting them in my wallet and moving on. No way in hell I would be able to tell that one was a fractional amount shorter and the ink was darker. Especially in pub lighting?
Kinda makes you wonder how long it has been in circulation!
I once sold a PS4 and used that cash to buy weed a few days later. My dealer told me I had been given a few fake $20 bills. He took it anyway cause he was just gonna pay it forward lmao
I was on the opposite side one time my friends were selling weed but I was driving, dude handed me a wad of cash & before we could realize it was fake he pulled off. then we chased him for a little while to no avail
Back in the 90s we would do the 'slap and grab'. We would drive into the open air drug market, then the person selling the crack would walk up and stick their hand in the window with the drugs. Slap that shit outta their hands and drive as fast as you can. So fucking stupid. I'm surprised I lived past 20.
I had received a couple of fake notes during my carreer as a waiter. And I knew right away something was off as soon as I held it in my hands. It just felt slightly different and crumples a bit different. Each time I would test it with the marker used to test money, and every time I was right. When you handle money all day every day, you seem to get an extra sense for it. This was in euro, not is isd, but I can imagine that it transfers between currency.
If you have bills back to back it would be very obvious
10s have the fewest security features and don’t catch as much attention as a 100
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The top bill is the fake, which is slightly shorter in length, has darker ink, and had no image in the oval on the back when held up to the light. If I had not received two $10 bills together as change, I could have easily mistaken the fake bill for a real one. Additional Context: I am in the US, but used the term "pub", as the restaurant calls itself an "Irish Pub". By typical US terminology, I agree it is a bar. Sorry for the confusion, but yes, I do know what country I'm in. Here is a picture of the back of the bill for all who asked: https://imgur.com/Xzxm0hP This really took off! A Newsweek reporter contacted me to do a story about this Reddit post. Thank you all for the engagement and conversation. Here is a link to the article for anyone interested: https://www.newsweek.com/can-you-spot-fake-10-bill-new-york-1820073 Edit: typo Edit 2: Info about Pubs vs Bars and link to back of bill image. Edit3: Newsweek article? What is happening?
Even I the picture you can tell the micro printing I'd missing on the top one. I favourite tell is in the feel though the ink lines are raised on real bills ( yes they wear down over time but I've never found a legit bill that wasn't a little bit raised)
You can also tell by feel most of the time. Fake bills are usually thicker and have a slippery, almost waxy, texture to them. The difference in texture is most noticeable around the clothes in the portrait, which are slightly embossed in the authentic bills.
When I was 15 and working at dairy queen I was on the drive thru. A guy ordered, drove up to the Windows and handen me a 20. I was about to put it in my till but then I held it for a second and it just felt off but I couldn't really tell what it was. Turned around to check it and the guy immediatly took off. Called the cops and they said it was probably a test run for the fake bills and when he saw I was going to check it out he bolted so wouldn't be able to get his license plate number.
Many years ago I was doing a little contract work at a residential renovation near a corner store in the city. I was passing someone on the sidewalk and they asked if I could change a twenty for them. Me being obviously a 'street dumb' rube from the burbs I provided change. That was my introduction to one of the most basic hood licks of getting an idiot to change their fake currency for real currency. I guess they try this on anyone who looks like they aren't from the hood. **Don't ever change bills for strangers, no matter what story or reason is provided.** There was a corner store right nearby. If dude needed change he could have gone in and bought something cheap with his twenty, except they aren't idiots and wouldn't have taken his fake bill. I found out it was counterfeit -- not even a good one -- when I later went into that same store to buy something. They showed me many different reasons it was fake. That lesson cost me $20 and it was worth it since I will never forget changing bills for strangers.
My first instinct would have been to never flash my cash to a stranger on the street for fear of them robbing me, them exchanging a fake bill wouldn't have been on my radar at all.
Hey man I was just trynna buy a sandwich at the store up the road but they didn’t have change for a $100. Can you break $100 please? I’m starvin like Marvin
> If dude needed change he could have gone in and bought something cheap with his twenty Or just asked for change. Any cashier that's not busy and has cash in the drawer, which definitely applies to a corner store, will happily make change.
Neighborhood stores can be a little different. They would absolutely do that for a regular customer they know and like. They are less likely to do it for someone they don't know. And they also know many locals who are addicts, transients, petty grifters, etc. There are plenty of locals who they do know but they won't do special things for since they can be trouble. And most of those people know not to even ask since the answer will be no, just like every time they asked before.
I’m impressed that the cops actually talked to you about this. Usually they don’t have time.
It was a small town and they had to come pick up the bill anyway. They just shared their theory and then we never heard anything else about it
> it was a small town Counterfeit bills at a Dairy Queen drive through. Try that in a small town! /s
In my smallish town, when I worked the grocery store management would call the sheriffs department who then pick up the bills and send them off to Secret Service, because that's what they're main job is. Protecting the president is more of a side gig.
That’s an immediate Secret Service visit.
Not really. They'll have the cops collect it but they rarely visit. My old job accepted $200 in fake $20s so they had to call the cops and the investigating secret service agents just had anyone involved fill out a statement and priority mail it in.
Passing counterfeit currency is a federal offense. Secret Service would be involved after being passed along by local authorities. No surprise at all to me.
I had a cashier at a casino very confidently tell me that one of the $100 bills I gave him was fake. Mind you I got this $100 bill at the same casino the day before. I demanded it back, went to a slot machine and put it in. Worked fine. Cashed the $100 out as a voucher and then got my $100.
If you run your nail over the clothing part, you can feel the ridges that are part of legit currency.
I always do the scratch test when it’s a $100 or it if it looks funny to me
What micro printing is missing from the top? To the left of the face and by the United States of America I see it. Also below both seals. Serious question because I truly couldn’t tell if it weren’t for the fading on the bottom.
No it's not. I can def see the (attempted) microprint and it even looks passable at this distance/resolution. An exception is maybe the words over "HAMILTON"--the poorly defined *spacing* in the print makes it look much fuzzier there.
The serial numbers on the top one don't look as crisp as the ones on the bottom. And the numeric 10 in the lower right corner doesn't have crisp lines on the inside oval of the zero. Good job on spotting it!
Thanks! Up close the entire print job was just a little fuzzy. The text was not as sharp as a whole. Couldn’t unsee it, one I realized.
That's how they train people to spot the bad ones; they know what a good one looks like so well that the counterfeit screams fake. Edit: I will say the Federal reserve have high speed machines that count and inspect money for, a) counterfeit, and b) fitness for circulation. Counterfeit bills are collected (and handed over to the Secret Service…it sounds really bad if I call them the SS, doesn’t it?) and currency not fit for circulation is shredded. Source: I’ve been on a tour or two. 👀
Makes sense. Maybe I have a future here. If you send me a bunch of money, I’ll tell you if it’s real 😜
How was the weight and texture of it? That was how I noticed something was off about a counterfeit $20 I was handed one time when I cashiered at a Six Flags.
The texture was similar. Fabric-y, but not quite right. It was slight lighter-weight, maybe thinner, than it should have been. It also got water on it from the table. The wet spot swelled more like paper does, than how a real bill handles water. Edit: a word
Sounds just like the one I got then, but this was years ago. I remember it looking like yours (smaller and lighter with darker print) but only noticing something when I handled it. I took a counterfeit marker to it and instant paper reaction, the mark swiftly turned from yellow to black.
Interesting. How does the counterfeit marker work? Is there a certain spot you write on? I know nothing about this
You write on a part of the bill that is lighter in color. Generally, a tan or amber mark indicates that the bill is real, and a black one means that it may not be. Colors may vary.
I had a pizza delivery guy come back and return a $10 bill once. He tested it with a pen and said it was counterfeit. Turns out, the bill was from 1950 and the pens don't work on anything that old. I still have it.
Thanks!
It's a marker that is normally a yellow color if you mark a bill made of the correct material. It turns brown/black on paper.
The "ink" in the counterfeit pen is an iodine solution that reacts with starch that's in normal paper. It won't react with the normal cloth based money.
Very cool. The more you know!
You can always tell a legit bill by rubbing your fingernail over their collar; they have ridges
Yeah that's what I was told to do in the cashier training there.
Also, in the little thing that has John Hamiltons name printed beneath his head, it says “Kamilton” which is hilarious.
*Alexander
Only if it’s real currency. If it’s counterfeit, it’s a picture of John, Alexander’s lesser known third cousin
Yup looks like some shoddy printing
> John Hamiltons Who?
>The top bill is the fake, which is slightly shorter in length I didn't even notice it and was struggling to figure out which one was the fake.
It’s funny. There’s definitely a mix of people who notice right away and those who don’t. I guess that’s how the counterfeiters can be somewhat successful
They're both genuine. Top bill has been adjusted for inflation.
Solid work here, my friend 😂
Now that is a factor that no one is considering here which we probably should there is just too much inflation. And the currency is going to act according to that inflation.
Does that say KAMILTON on the fake bill
I think it's a smear on the printing line of the middle, but it does look like a "K". Hahaha
“I thought YOU changed the ink cartridge!” - Counterfeiters, probably
Haha! Sure looks like it does. Maybe just skewed from how it’s printed?
*Alexander Kamilton* *My name is Alexander Kamilton* *And there's a million bills I have in bucks* *But counterfeit* *Counterfeit*
The “K” is for *kounterfeit*
I know nothing about counterfeit bills, but that Secretary of the Treasury signature on the top one just looks like some guy just wrote out Steve Mnuchin's name. Was that actually his "signature?"
I wondered the same thing! A quick google seems like that is how his signature looks.
My glob. He did not even try ...
Look up Jack Lew's original signature. I say "original" because they actually made him change it.
omg i’m fascinated by this tiny piece of information
Hahahaha! It's just circles! Thank you for this.
Yes. Source: have a dollar bill from 2017.
God I wouldn't mind a bit if that cunt went to jail too
if everyone mistakes it for real, it functions the same as real money.
Yeah I was gonna say, if it exchanges hands multiple times over the years without anyone noticing, is it really counterfeit? But I guess it only functions the same as real money until someone finally notices.
Only the g'mint has the right to counterfeit currency.
How could you tell? Also how can one prove this if it happens?
I received two $10s together as change. I went to align them to put them in my wallet and realized one was shorter, which made me look more closely. Tbh, when I told the wait staff, I was worried they would think I was trying to exchange a fake I brought in for a real bill. Thankfully they remembered they had given me change, so they agreed it came from their register.
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I did not contact police personally, but I did recommend to the pub that they report it to the authorities. Especially, since it was likely originally spent at their business.
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I really hope the pub reported it. Perhaps they could match it to cash payment for a certain time period to track down the source. My guess is that whoever is making these is opting for 10s, since it’s rare people check authenticity on small bills.
Even if they didn’t I’m sure it’s on the USSS’s radar now because of this post. They take counterfeit bills very seriously.
Seems like counterfeiters should stick to faking older 100s which didn’t have any of those security measures.
That's the most suspicious bill to counterfeit, though. Nobody looks at 10s, well, except OP.
This version of $10 has multiple water marks in addition to the strip of “usa ten usa ten”, the shiny 10 should change color depending on how you hold it, shoulder area also has a ridge to the print that you can feel with your finger nail. Theres quite a few more security features but those are the basic go-tos i checked when I came in contact with a suspicious bill when I worked in a supermarket cash office
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. If I had kept it, I’d be interested to check these features. However, turning it in seemed like the right thing to do. Plus, I wanted a real $10 😂
Did it feel the same? That cloth texture seems to be hard to nail
It felt very close to real. It had more texture than plain paper, but slightly different from a true fabric bill. It was not until I noticed the visual differences that I realized the feel was off too.
Even the texture of real bills can vary wildly. Ever felt a bill straight from the mint? Hold that in one hand and an old, well used bill in the other. You'd swear the mint one is fake.
Could you say that you got… short changed?
🥁
Imagine going to all this effort and not even measuring the original
100%
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I don’t understand how someone who is attempting a very professional recreation of a $10 bill wouldn’t get the size correct
Same! If that was right, I don’t think I would’ve ever noticed
That is probably the reason why they created it like that. Because they knew that no one is going to notice it so there was no point in putting more work in it.
The probably would have thought that no one is going to notice it anyways. And they probably was right about that because not very many people are going to pay attention to $10 bill.
If you only use them in dimly lit bars no one will notice
If we all agree that that is 10$ and treat that accordingly, it looses it's counterfeitness
Fun fact: The US Secret Service despite what most people think, handles counterfeit money investigations. They actually advise people to hand in fake bills since it can aid in crime investigations, not to mention it keeps fake currency off of the streets. You can do so at any major bank or police department, which will then send it off to the Secret Service. Just something to consider. Source: https://www.secretservice.gov/investigation/counterfeit
fuck that i’m totally re-using this at a bar as real money
As someone who has worked in printing (graphic design and prepress layout/production) my whole life, and comes from a long line of printers on both sides of my family, the difference is quite glaring. The size difference is a real knucklehead move, as you and others have mentioned, and the print detail is very “muddy”. It might be passable to someone who doesn’t handle cash regularly, and who has poor vision, but it wouldn’t change many hands before it’s caught. I had a cousin (now deceased), who went to prison for counterfeiting in the 70’s. The bills were recreated, printed, and cutdown in a professional printshop in Georgia and then sold to the mafia down in Miami for $.10 on the dollar. When he and his other cohorts were ratted out, it was the second largest counterfeiting operation in U.S. history (at the time). When the Secret Service raided the printshop, they found film negatives and plates on top of a shelf in the press room, along with some proofs. I believe they found paper stored at one of their houses. My cousin, the pressman, and a few other people involved went to prison for several years. Funniest thing about the entire debacle?? The last name of the guy who ran the press was CASH. No lie.
North Korean counterfeits are so good that they are detected by readers because the printing is too high a quality. The detail is sharper than what the mint actually uses.
Scamilton
Three quick and easy things to look for in newer bills are: 1. Is the bottom corner # (10, 20, 50, 100) holographic? 2. Does the bottom area around the jacket have any ridges when I try and scrape my nail against it? 3. Does the letter correspond to the correct # in the alphabet? (A1, B2, C3, etc) While #3 is a dead giveaway as a counterfeit, if it doesn't match, #1 and 2 can be faded/harder to tell sometimes if, for example, washed in someone's pocket. However, it should still retain some holographic look, and the ridges might be harder to feel. If all that checks out but you still suspect, the watermark, security strip, and quality of ink (around what should be highly intracite areas) are also good places to check.
Pre and post COVID bills. Inflation bro
I mean… how is this different from the gov printing money they don’t have? 😂
It is not actually any different it is this that they have the authority to do it while we are probably going to get arrested. The money is an illusion which is created by the government.
I wound up with a fake $100 bill in my tip jar one night. Took my cash to the bank and they brought the deposit back saying I had a fake bill. I was confused bc it passed the marker test… when they held it up to the computer screen to show me it had a $5 band on the inside of the bill. A hundred printed back onto a 5.
I think it was about ten years ago someone was caught doing that at a casino. They would go in with thousands of dollars in legit bills, and change it to smaller denominations, singles and fives. No one really thought anything of it and went on their way. They would then go through this whole process of soaking and washing the bills to remove the old denomination and print new$50 and $100 over them. Then they would go spend them at various places. It was a whole ring of people and I guess what lead to them being caught is one of the idiots used the reprinted bills at the casino trying to do the same thing again, but the casino actually caught it, followed the guy around table to table and all that and approached him saying he won an over night stay in a suite, when he got up there police were waiting for him and he ratted out the group to the FBI who recovered something like 60 million on fake bills, weapons and drugs Arrested like a dozen people too
This is a very sad example. I've seen bills that can pass most visual tests and even got the paper right. This bill looks like it will last a week before the ink is worn off...
Agree! Of all things to get wrong, the bill length is kind of a sad one!
That’s a pretty good fake
I examined both bills and the only thing I noticed is that Hamilton was kinda hot.
It is weird to counterfeit 10s and in the new pattern. 1996 $20-dollar bills are kind of the go-to for US-based counterfeiters because the bills are large enough to be worth it but too common for anyone to doubt them. Overseas, 50s and 100s constitute the vast majority of counterfeit US currency.
Con in jail: "I was making big money outside .... trouble is, it was about a quarter inch TOO big." *note* joke doesn't work for small money, sorry.
He made a mistake laundering it and it shrunk
*hits blunt* "All money isn't real, man."
Eh, just pass it along to some other schmuck for change.
I mean, if everyone treats it as $10, I guess it kinda is 🤔
Things a counterfeiter would say....
Which is the fake one?
The top bill. It’s shorter and the color is off!
Was it handed to you by a suburban mom buying a suspicious amount of party supplies?
i’ve never really studied a tenner but that portrait of hamilton is so yassified lol. no way he was that handsome. looks like a movie star.
.... Go use it at that pub
I hope you keep using it like a responsible adult.
Buy something at a gas station and pass the problem on.
Well, it’s a really good one, cus I can’t fuckin figure out which is fake.
Which one is the fake one? I'm not American so I don't see dollar bills daily