Everyone loves to see money rolling in but we all expect it to be real money! Counterfit money is a very real problem for ordinary citizens as well as for businesses. The newer money is designed to discourage counterfeiting, but the skills of the crooks have evolved as well. All of our money in the United States comes from the Treasury Department. They have various systems in place to assure that you can tell if someone has given you counterfit money. There have been devices made recently to assist in detecting counterfit money but if you know the facts and details from the Treasury Department you should be able to tell if currency being provided to you is counterfit.
According to the Treasury Department, you should take a known legitimate bill and compare it side by side with the suspect bill. Using a magnifying glass, look closely at the facial features and verify the picture is clear with well defined lines and sharp contrast. Typically, the ink in counterfeit money is often smeared, and its appearance is dull and flat.
Now examine the bills' Federal Reserve and Treasury seals. On genuine bills, the seal borders present a saw-toothed appearance, with clearly-defined points. However, on counterfeit currency, some of the points may be broken or missing while the colors of the bill may show less saturation. Check also for clear definition and a lack of blurring in other border areas and in the intricate scrollwork.
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.
A distinguishing characteristic of American currency is the kind of paper it is printed on, which is illegal to reproduce. The paper is interlaced with threads of red and blue throughout. Counterfeiters will use all kinds of tactics to get around this. They will remove the color of ink on lesser denominations and produce higher bills on regular paper.
Another even more daring trick involves cutting the corners off of bills of higher denominations and gluing them over the corners of lower ones. The Treasury displays a photo of a one dollar bill with its corners covered by the corners of a 10 dollar bill. Anyone paying attention will realize that the president in the center of the bill is wrong, but if they are in a rush they might accept the counterfeit money without looking. Sometimes, even some very rare coins are faked.
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.
The US Treasury has suggestions for avoiding counterfit money. Compare suspicious bills to good ones and check for differences in color, sharpness of printing, depth of images and contrast. A magnifier helps. Saw-edges and borders may be blurred for fake money and higher denomination numbers may be pasted over the ones in corners. Look for the special paper for currency and a strip with the dollar value on the newer multicolor bills. These also have color changing inks when tilted.
