Chelsea counterfeit case illustrates that funny money is anything but
A Westland man was recently arrested in Chelsea for passing counterfeit money. This guy had already been arrested in Garden City for similar offenses and was out on bond.
Do you think you could spot counterfeit U.S. currency?
Ann Arbor Police Detective Laura Burke holds up two of the many counterfeit bills the department confiscated earlier this year.
File photo
If you have any cash left after holiday shopping, take a few bills out of your wallet and look at them. First of all, do they feel real to you? U.S. currency is printed on high-quality paper, and you can feel quite a bit of cloth fibers in it. If you look at the bill with a magnifying glass, you will see tiny blue and red threads in the paper.
Next, take a look at all of the new bills. The easiest way to spot a phony bill is to hold it up to the light and look for the president’s holographic image on the right side of the bill.
That image is embedded in the bill and should look like a smaller version of the president who belongs on the bill. The hologram will have the president’s face oriented so both images are looking in the same direction.
A year ago, some counterfeit $50 bills were printed on currency stock. Those bills had started their service as legitimate $5 bills. These counterfeiters were rather sophisticated and had taken the $5 bills and chemically washed all of the ink off the bills, then printed them to resemble a $50 bill.
The easiest way to spot those counterfeit bills was to examine the holographic image. Where there should have been the image of Ulysses Grant, there was the image of Abraham Lincoln. If you were to quickly look at the bill, you would have seen a bearded president that looked like a rather emaciated US Grant facing his own larger image. Closer examination would have revealed the image of “Honest Abe” on these bogus bills.
Another safeguard built in U.S. currency is a strip that runs from the top of the bill to the bottom of the bill and will read “USA (the number that corresponds to the denomination of the bill).” Different denominations have this strip in different parts of the bill, but you should be able to see it when the bill is held up to a light.
If you believe you have a counterfeit bill, take it to the bank or a police station so it can be examined. When Washtenaw County - and other - police agencies find counterfeit or suspected counterfeit money, they contact the U.S. Secret Service, whose job it is to protect our presidents and our currency.
Keep your loot safe. Lock it up, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your neighbors.
Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now blogs about crime and safety for AnnArbor.com.
Comments
TFF3
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 5:12 p.m.
Yes David, I am aware of that. It is much easier to say "president" than list every person on every bill. Nobody corrects the slang term 'dead presidents' when referring to money. :) Either way, inspect the magnetic strip as well as the watermark image of the person who is on the bill.
David Martin
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 2:27 p.m.
The original article and some of the comments continually refer to the image on the bill as a president. Has everyone forgotten that the image on the 10 dollar bill is Alexander Hamilton and the image on the 100 dollar bill is Benjamin Franklin? Neither were presidents. Hamilton was a Founding Father and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. Franklin also was a Founding Father and noted author, printer, scientist, inventor and statesman. He started the first lending library in the United States and the first fire department in Pennsylvania.
Shark
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 12:50 p.m.
I work with money a great deal and see this more and more. There are several bad bills out there and I hear several stories. People saying they got from someone else. The bad news is if you get stuck with a bad bill and turn it in, you do not get refunded for the bad bill, your out the money. Always check the money when you are recieving it. I made change at a local bank and check the $20s at the window and found a bad one. I gave it right back there and got my money. Outside of this incident I have never heard anyone getting their money back. This leads to the person getting stuck with bill trying to pass it off so they dont lose the money. It is a bad case all around. Check your bills whenever you get them, even from a bank.
Sarcastic1
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 11:28 a.m.
Will your hands turn purple if you touch a counterfeit bill?
TFF3
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 11:07 a.m.
I work in banking, this is becoming more and more common. The new trend is bleaching 5's and reprinting them as 100's. Most retail outlets only use the 'pen test' to test the paper, so these pass. When accepting currency, be sure to verify the watermark image of the president on the right hand side, as well as the magnetic strip embedded in the bill. The magnetic strip will spell out the proper denomination for that bill, though you will need good eyes and good light to see it.
AlfaElan
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 10:32 a.m.
I think Mr. Kinsey needs to check his terminology. A Holographic image is a 3d image recorded on a type of film. The brightly colored reflective part of a bill is similar to a hologram in that like a hologram it uses the wave property of light to produce color changes when viewed from different angles. The image of a president seen looking through the bill is NOT a holographic image. It is a much older technology called a watermark that is formed by varied density of the paper. The US treasury web site details more at http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/money_features.shtml