quote:

We did check every bill with a pen

The pens are practically useless. They are only detecting one of the features that also happens to be one of the easiest to fake.

You have to inspect the bill for its real security features.

My wife is a Manager at a Lowe's store .She is in charge of the cash office , and counterfeit money IS still alive and well . Both 20's and hundred's .

Even the new style 100’s? There sure a lot of security features on those.

I must live in a backward and poor region. I've had store clerks use a pen on $10 bills.

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Originally posted by rburg:
I must live in a backward and poor region. I've had store clerks use a pen on $10 bills.

Short wheel base $100, better safe than sorry.

The meth heads in our small WV town try that shit at least once a month. Damn stupid ass trash.

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Originally posted by pedropcola:
Even the new style 100’s? There sure a lot of security features on those.

Since all $100 bills are legal tender, why would criminals counterfeit the newest ones?

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Originally posted by selogic:
My wife is a Manager at a Lowe's store .She is in charge of the cash office , and counterfeit money IS still alive and well . Both 20's and hundred's .

We've seen an uptick in counterfeit bills around here lately. They're mostly really obvious fakes, though.

Businesses will do what they believe they need to do, and I suppose it really is too much to expect that the average cashier will actually look at a note to determine whether it’s counterfeit.

When I was stationed in Germany long ago, the only counterfeiting cases I recall my office’s handling resulted from someone’s removing the corners of four $20 notes and taping them on a $1 bill. No one ever got caught in the act of doing that, and it was only after the fact that the merchants discovered what had been done. When people are so unobservant as to allow that sort of thing to be perpetrated, expecting them to look for microprinting is obviously out of the question.

Even longer ago when I was a kid I had a publication produced by the Secret Service that explained how to detect counterfeits of the day. Most counterfeits, however, were detected by people like bank tellers who handled large numbers of notes every day, and therefore often detected them by feel. I wonder who detects them today. If they’re so good, are they ever detected?

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Even longer ago when I was a kid I had a publication produced by the Secret Service that explained how to detect counterfeits of the day. Most counterfeits, however, were detected by people like bank tellers who handled large numbers of notes every day, and therefore often detected them by feel. I wonder who detects them today. If they’re so good, are they ever detected?

The paper (technically fabric) used for US currency is extremely difficult to replicate. And yes, people who handle large amounts of cash daily like tellers can tell something is off just by feel. One counterfeiting strategy is to bleach small bills and reprint them as 100s.

I have to wonder, if there are counterfeits these days that are so good that they can hardly be told apart from authentic, then how are the counterfeiters making money off their crime? Considering all the security features these days, it seems it would cost almost $100 to make a really good counterfeit $100 bill. It's way beyond some fake plates, presses and printers.

The US has always been reluctant to discontinue old currency, but that’s what needs to be done now. Set a date a year or two out when only current series high value notes will be valid and everything in circulation will then have the new features. Have the old stuff? Turn it in for new. No keeping track of who turns in what and no limits (within reason). Find grandpa’s stash 10 years from now? It must be converted at a Federal facility that is equipped to detect counterfeits properly.

Of course that won’t happen, and that’s fine with the government. Many countries are trying to discourage large cash transactions and are reducing the value of their top available notes to make it harder. Way back when a dollar was worth far more than it is now, notes from $500 to (IIRC) $100,000 were printed. I’m sure there are people who would be happy if $50 and $100 notes disappeared as well.

^^^
I recently received some old $100 bills that were printed over 30 years ago. I tried to deposit them in an ATM, but they were rejected, b/c they didn't have the modern security features. I had to deposit them w/ a human teller.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Hookers love them.

Unless you demand your change!

Years ago, a buddy of mine toured the US Mint. In the gift shop, you can buy sheets of uncut $1 bills. He bought a couple and took them home in a poster tube. Then, he went to Kinko's and had them perforated in the proper spots (for separation) and put them back in the tube.
He went to McDonald's and placed an order, took out the sheets of $1 bills from the poster tube, and proceeded to tear off enough to pay the kid at the register.

Yeah, that didn't go over well. I think his food was very cold before all the hubbub died down

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Even longer ago when I was a kid I had a publication produced by the Secret Service that explained how to detect counterfeits of the day. Most counterfeits, however, were detected by people like bank tellers who handled large numbers of notes every day, and therefore often detected them by feel. I wonder who detects them today. If they’re so good, are they ever detected?

The paper (technically fabric) used for US currency is extremely difficult to replicate. And yes, people who handle large amounts of cash daily like tellers can tell something is off just by feel. One counterfeiting strategy is to bleach small bills and reprint them as 100s.

I have to wonder, if there are counterfeits these days that are so good that they can hardly be told apart from authentic, then how are the counterfeiters making money off their crime? Considering all the security features these days, it seems it would cost almost $100 to make a really good counterfeit $100 bill. It's way beyond some fake plates, presses and printers.

This is probably why they do check smaller bills. I've heard that around here $5 dollar bills are what they counterfeit most. Not many security features, and who looks closely at a $5 bill? Might not get rich doing it, but it's solid beer and gas money.

I once went to a jeep parts swap meet with a "pad" of bills. I just took my spending money and neatly stacked it together, then smeared the one end with padding compound. The glue that they use to make note pads.

It was a stunt done for fun. It didn't work well because while its easy to peal off a $1 or a $100, the ones in the middle that you spend the most of are hard to get out.

As for the sheets of bills, I have a sheet of $1s and another of $2s. Now I've got to go find them. Lost in the move 10 years ago.

And then there's the gun show procedure. Taking 10 $100 bills and stapling them together. Easier to count and keep track of during the day. I know, some folks don't even bring along a bad nickel but want to handle all the high dollar pieces.

We don't bring along our treasures so folks with grubby hands eating salty popcorn can handle them. I know that will be a shock to some. You thought we wanted them to be "shop worn". When buying a nice gun, both the seller and buyer will end up counting the stack at least once, but it works for us.

A lot of the new security features are meant to stop some guy with a computer, scanner, and ink jet printer. If cashiers are at all paying attention, those should be obvious.

But there are much bigger, more sophisticated counterfeiting operations, a lot offshore. The Colombians were big in this, and then smuggle the fake money in like drugs. They have a lot of sophisticated equipment and can do a good job of it. And then there are state actors that do this. I hear the Iranians can make a really rocking Benjamin. When you have organizations that can throw a lot of money at well making (fake) money, it's hard to stop.

I while back I saw a show on CNBC. They did a profile of a counterfeiter. This was not a inkjet printer guy. He was a sophisticated printer who went to the dark side. They went into excruciating detail about how he made his bills, to the point where it would be useful to anyone who was thinking about doing so. They went point by point how he could beat each security feature.

I don’t know if it’s a cash versus card thing.

I think it’s more of an issue of the person getting up to the register and acting like a slug. Digging for change, counting out exact change in pennies, etc.

The best way to explain it I guess is the equivalent of that person that stands in line at a busy diner where they stand in line to order their food. There’s a 5x15 menu visible while they are standing in line for 10 minutes. Then they get to the head of the line and it goes something like “ummmm, let’s see...” and then they stand there and stare at the menu blankly.

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Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
Usually takes much longer than a card transactions.

I have seen this complaint many times, but I must live in a different universe than the complainers. I pay for most in-store purchases with cash, and my transactions go faster than 90% of CC transactions.

It depends on the store. At the Kroger stores around here I can put my card in the chip reader and pull it out before the cashier has finished scanning all of my items. Once she scans the last item it's only a matter of seconds before it is approved and my wallet is already back in my pocket.