Counterfeit bills

[Rye Miles #13621]

I was at the Dollar General this morning picking up a couple things. I gave the cashier a 50 and joked that I just made it! He said “ You’d be surprised how many counterfeit bills we get, mostly 20’s. He said they just called the police last week on someone trying to pass off a couple 20’s.  I wouldn’t think a Dollar General would get many bad bills but where else you get rid of them? 
Have you ever had one or seen one for that matter? I haven’t!

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

20s because nobody uses one of those little pens on them?

[Stump Water]

No.

 

Always wondered what would happen if I tendered a bill that didn't pass the "marker" test.  Sound like "they call the police".  Ok, now what?  I didn't know I had a homemade bill.

2 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

20s because nobody uses one of those little pens on them?

 

They do around here.  Religiously.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 minute ago, Stump Water said:

 

They do around here.  Religiously.

Must be a hotbed of bad paper? I don’t see it here.  I did have a single that the auto machine would not take, but it was just old. “Nobody counterfeits ones”

[Stump Water]

23 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Must be a hotbed of bad paper?

 

It comes in waves.  Of course whenever it makes news it's because there's a rash of it around town.  Usually one perp.

[Blackwater 53393]

One of the swag guys at a concert where we played took three $20.00s on the last night of the event.  Just so happened, they were filming many facets of the production and the cops got a perfect picture of the culprit on tape!!

 

It was in Atlanta and there’d been a rash of bills spread over the area!!  They busted the ring.

 

 

[Yul Lose]

My wife used to manage a large avocado and citrus farm and sold large amounts of both products to farmers market dealers around Southern California. They all paid in cash and after getting paid a large amount of money for a lot of product sold to one dealer and the bank telling her that most of the $100.00 bills used were counterfeit they invested in a machine that she’d run every bill through right when she was paid to see if it was real or not. She never found a counterfeit bill after that and neither did the bank. 

[Rye Miles #13621]

4 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

20s because nobody uses one of those little pens on them?

Some do some don’t!

Edited May 25 by Rye Miles #13621

[MizPete]

The last time a clerk used the pen on mine I said "but I just got it at the bank." He said "that's what EVERYBODY says, even the last guy who passed me a bad bill with a police officer standing right beside me."

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

Living in Las Vegas (counterfeit passing capital of the US).

Casinos are cash eating machines and no one questions having and exchanging 20k in hundred dollar bills.

Combine that with a career based in retail and the pawn industry - I have seen and handled more fake bills than I care to remember.

 

I have seen everything from super bills from N.Korea that were nearly perfect and indistinguishable from real to color copies from the local Kinkos all the way to black and white printed off someones home printer.

 

Biggest thing is simply try not to take them - you don't get compensated when the Secret Service shows up to collect them.

 

Check all the anti counterfeiting traits on the bills themselves (and know what they SHOULD look like), plastic denomination strips, watermarks, color shifting ink, check serial numbers if you are receiving multiple bills of the same denomination (believe it or not - they often all sport the same serial), use the pens, the magnetic ink checkers and every tool you can afford to have at your disposal.

 

And like most retailers - push your customers toward plastic and electronic payment types to minimize your exposure.

[Trailrider #896]

So my $3 bills are probably not right? 

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

Try giving someone a two dollar bill.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

27 minutes ago, Trailrider #896 said:

So my $3 bills are probably not right? 

And $7s

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

1 hour ago, Trailrider #896 said:

So my $3 bills are probably not right? 

Actually...

[Blackwater 53393]

One legal issue of three dollar bills featured a picture of Santa Claus!

 

*from the internet:

 

The Saint Nicholas Bank in New York City also issued paper money with Santa Claus images, including three-dollar bills. These bills were issued in the mid-1800s and were highly sought after by collectors. Santa Claus has also appeared on other forms of currency, such as checks, stock certificates, and tokens

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

I was in line at a large grocery store, Winco in my area. I could tell watching ahead of me that the cashier was having a hard time. When it was my turn she manually entered the number for a couple of vegetables that I had. Both times I had to correct her. She'd re-enter incorrectly again. She called someone over. I handed her a couple of 20s and she was looking them over very carefully, holding them up to the light. Checking, rechecking. Never used the pen. After another person came over to help her get the correct items and prices entered they were finally successful. She then started over examining the bills again. I can't imagine how long she'd take if I'd handed her several hundred dollar bills

Edited May 26 by Smokin Gator SASS #29736
Name of store, not the state

[Rip Snorter]

Once you call out a mistake, you will be delayed and messed with.  I had a clerk post the number for a cheap veg for an expensive one I bought, didn't notice till I got home.  Brought the slip, told them, ready to pay the difference they did not care!  Ah, what a brave new world!

[Pat Riot]

I got two $20 bills from my ATM at a Wells Fargo bank in Huntington Beach, CA back in the mid 90’s.

I took my wife and daughter out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. When I paid for dinner with cash one of the bills didn’t pass the pen test. The cashier handed it back to me and I gave her a different bill. Luckily not the other counterfeit that I had in my wallet. The staff at this restaurant knew us. We went there every week for years. 
I knew I had a 2nd counterfeit bill because their serial numbers were the same. 
I went to the bank the next day. The manager verified they were counterfeit and thanked me for turning them in. She then proceeded to interrogate me as to why the cashier at the restaurant didn’t confiscate the bill. Then she told me that by law that she didn’t have to give me two replacement $20 bills. This pizzed me off. 
I told her the bills came from “her” ATM and that if she didn’t give me $40 to replace those bad bills that I would call the Secret Service and inform them that I suspect her for distributing counterfeit money through “her” ATMs.

She gave me two $20 bills and I left. 
On Monday I called the Secret Service anyway and told them about my experience. 
I never heard any more about it. 

[Rip Snorter]

The "Secret" part

[Rye Miles #13621]

29 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

I got two $20 bills from my ATM at a Wells Fargo bank in Huntington Beach, CA back in the mid 90’s.

I took my wife and daughter out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. When I paid for dinner with cash one of the bills didn’t pass the pen test. The cashier handed it back to me and I gave her a different bill. Luckily not the other counterfeit that I had in my wallet. The staff at this restaurant knew us. We went there every week for years. 
I knew I had a 2nd counterfeit bill because their serial numbers were the same. 
I went to the bank the next day. The manager verified they were counterfeit and thanked me for turning them in. She then proceeded to interrogate me as to why the cashier at the restaurant didn’t confiscate the bill. Then she told me that by law that she didn’t have to give me two replacement $20 bills. This pizzed me off. 
I told her the bills came from “her” ATM and that if she didn’t give me $40 to replace those bad bills that I would call the Secret Service and inform them that I suspect her for distributing counterfeit money through “her” ATMs.

She gave me two $20 bills and I left. 
On Monday I called the Secret Service anyway and told them about my experience. 
I never heard any more about it. 

Good job!👏 

[Pat Riot]

20 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Good job!👏 

Thank you. 

Edit: I don’t think I have had a counterfeit bill since. 

Edited May 25 by Pat Riot

[watab kid]

my wife worked during covid at a local hotel , they had a lot of thgat going on in the units - police there all the time , 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Banks (some?,most?, all?) have machines that look at bills and record and check everything now.

[Yazoo City Gal]

If it feels like paper, beware! If you handle a lot of cash it's not hard to detect when properly trained.  Look for the threads.  Suspect bill in one hand, good bill in other.  Close your eyes.  Slide fingertips and feel the bills.  Does your finger slide like on paper? Lot's of resources when in doubt.

Edited May 26 by Yazoo City Gal

[Dapper Dave]

I did armored trucking for almost 9 years, and in all that time I only saw one fake, a $20 one of the grocery stores was holding for Secret Service. It was beautiful work, but with no serial numbers. Waste of effort. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Without saying how much…..  I have carried lots of cash and never had a problem.

[Badlands Bob #61228]

There are lots of security features on U.S. Currency.  The quickest way to tell if it's fake is feeling the paper.  Usually, the fake bill will be slick and feel flimsy.  They will often make the fake bill look like it's been heavily circulated and wadded up in somebody's pocket for years.  They rough up the bill to explain why some of the details are not sharp.  

 

Once the paper feel test alerts you, then it's time to home in on the security features.  The Secret Service hands out security feature cheat sheets to verify counterfeit currency.

 

This link will take you to a page that talks all about the security features on U.S. currency:

Dollars in Detail: Your guide to U.S. currency

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

Got a bad $20 a few years back from the ATM at my local bank, walked across the street to buy a soda and the teller swiped the bill with the pen and handed it back to me and said it was counterfeit, took it immediately back to the bank and they agreed and replaced it with a fresh 20. I think I got lucky the bank dident just take it

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

This from today’s news… 

 

A judge has denied bail for a woman accused of driving a getaway car after a Salem robbery related to a Facebook Marketplace sale. According to court records, Trisha Senter and Eric St. Pierre met a person to buy a pair of gold chains, but one of them allegedly tried to pay with counterfeit money. When the victim confronted them, Senter allegedly drove off, dragging the victim a short distance. The victim was not hurt. Both suspects face robbery charges

[bgavin]

I tried to make change for an $18 bill.
The young clerk grinned and said, "You want three sixes or two nines?"

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Just now, bgavin said:

I tried to make change for an $18 bill.
The young clerk grinned and said, "You want three sixes or two nines?"

 

Four $4.50s

[bgavin]

I had a huge collection of legit $2 bills, and was surprised at how many places refused them.

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

In high school, I worked at  place called Two Dollar Bills.  It was a dollar store type of place.  Anyway, their gimmick was we ordered $2 bills from the bank and gave them in change, kind of free advertising.  Anyway, all the cashiers were pretty familiar with $2 bills.  Anyway, one really dumb girl accepted and gave change for a $100 bill, for a purchase of about $5.  She would have been reprimanded anyway because anything over a $20 was supposed to get manager approval (this was in the 1980's).  But, some genius had cut the 4 corners off of a $100 bill and taped them onto the front corners of a $2 bill, with scotch tape.  Didn't do anything to the back at all.  This dumb girl looked at the front of the bill, saw 100 in the corners but not Ben Franklin and didn't turn it over and accepted it.  She was fired about 5 minutes later.

[McCandless]

A big thing in counterfeiting right now is older coins.   A huge percentage of the Morgan Dollars and Trade Dollars for sale through eBay are fakes.  It takes some education to spot them.  Specific die markers are "tells".  Too many trusting souls are getting parted from their money.   Ebay has a reporting mechanism, but they are no longer responsive to it.  Machines have replaced humans there, and they've been programmed to maximize eBay's profit and let the buyer beware. 

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, bgavin said:

I had a huge collection of legit $2 bills, and was surprised at how many places refused them.

When she was 6 or 7 I sent my granddaughter a birthday card with ten $2 bills in it.

 

She shows them to her father and asks if they are real money. He looked, and told her, "no baby, Grandpa sent you play money".

 

My daughter looked over and said, "no, those are real. Grandpa collects $2 bills".

 

How do you get to be 35 years old and not know that a two-dollar bill is a real thing?

 

 

Back in the late 80s or very early 90s, Target was running a promotion to get people to sign up for their credit card. If you applied for a Target card you would get either a brand new factory fresh $2 bill, or $5 in store credit. I'm one of the ones that took the $2 bill. I'm sure they laughed up their sleeve at the stupid people that took the cash, but I never shopped at Target. I had been in there a few times and everything they had cost too much. It was the same stuff at Walmart and Kmart but it was cheaper at Walmart and Kmart. And Target didn't sell guns. So I was happy to take the $2 bill.