Because of expert modern day digital copying machines and home PC printers, the rise of counterfeiting seems to be getting worse here in the U.S.A. over the years. Simple everyday people can photograph U.S. currency at home using their printer via use of the internet or even walk into a “Kinko’s” and do expert counterfeiting.
Please don’t get any ideas from this article if your even thinking about counterfeiting U.S. bills. Because most of the counterfeiting with color copiers is done with a computer process, recorded and also translated to cash registers in customer service. The U.S. Treasury Dept. can track down unlawful reproductions by computer methods and possible in-store hidden cameras and even office copiers.
Your home PC is even worse, anytime you log on to the U.S. currency at any place or anytime over the internet, the U.S. government is watching you from your IP address. The reason why is because of terrorist all over the world. “Believe it or not?” A lot of these worldwide terrorist are funded from counterfeit U.S. currency, which is sold to the U.S. black market at a rate of 40-60% on the U.S. dollar.
Here are the TOP TEN ways to detect counterfeit U.S. currency:
1.Hold the bill up to any light and carefully look for what is called a “Security Thread” or a thin plastic strip that is embedded in the currency paper originally manufactured in the paper mill. (1) One dollar bills will NOT have this strip.
2. Remove from the light and examine closely. “Can you still see the strip?” If NOT, the bill is most likely genuine. The “Strip” automatically becomes INVISIBLE to the naked eye or to any reproductive camera process.
3. Look for the year the bill was printed. If printed before 1992 and also before the U.S.Treasury department started using these security “strips” or threads, the bill could possibly be old, but still in circulation and also legal tender, which banks are responsible for removing.
4. Look closely at the serial numbers. Are these letters and numbers printed in standard green ink which the government has used for decades for currency or they printed in black ink? This is a common mistake for counterfeit printers.
5. The treasury seal to the right of the bill may also look “vague” or somewhat distorted, or even blurred in counterfeiting. Legal U.S. currency printed seals are always “crystal clear” to the naked eye in this standard green ink, old or even new currency.
6. Feel of the paper. Does it have a “Rough or Smooth” texture? U.S. currency is printed on 100% cotton fiber which presents a “rough” surface or “feel” to the touch of your fingertips similar to a T-Shirt feel especially after it has been washed and dried. Modern day digital color papers with copying machines will have a smooth finish.
7. Slowly rub your thumb across the bill and try to notice any raised printing which began in 1996 and thereafter as previously noted by the printed date of this U.S.currency. Amateur printers do NOT have access to this heated printing process called “themography” simply because of the expense and time that it takes for each color process for counterfeiting.
8. Modern day U.S. currency also has what the Treasury department calls “Holograms” which means the bill can be turned sideways or “color” shifting back and forth from black to green or even more recently copper to green since 1996, fortunately modern color copiers can NOT reproduce this process.
9.”Micro-printing” is also a common mistake for counterfeiters, which means the small lettering of bills can NOT be reproduced if carefully examined with the use of a magnifying glass. These tiny letters or numbers are shown “blurred” with counterfeiters because they do NOT have the original printing plates if you look closely enough.
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10. Tiny red and blue lines of U.S.currency are also manufactured in the paper mill from the beginning of each note or paper bill. An expert counterfeiter will print using what they call a “screen” process for each color. Unfortunately, under a magnifying glass, these threads are obvious because they seem to “stand up” on the legal paper, versus “lying down” on the counterfeiters papers.