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This is somewhat of a re-post about knowing your money. Outside of a Walmart in Houston local Girl Scouts were selling cookies. Later when depositing the money collected discovered they had taken in two counterfeit dollar bills. In Virginia a similar thing happened when Girl Scouts took in two $50 bills and in Massachusetts Girl Scouts ended up with $80 in counterfeit $20 bills. Because og this the Secret Service targeted the Girl Scouts with education on how to spot counterfeit notes by inspecting things like watermarks, security strips, and color shifting ink.
The note below was sent to me by a fellow chipper (withholding name) which is indeed counterfeit. The tell-tail signs are first (noticed by him) that the paper was separating and had a ‘sticky’ feel between the layers. After receiving it I exposed it to a warm temperature where the glue began to relax and the laminations separated easily. In the scan you can look close and see the glue markings on the paper. ALSO, the Crane Paper Company has NEVER made a laminate paper for currency (Barring the lamination of the security thread which is technically a lamination). It is a single ply cotton/linen mix with red and blue silk fibers. It might be possible to split the paper with a razor a very small fraction of an inch, but impossible to separate the note as far as I have shown in my scan. Also, the watermark is very poor and barley visible, the security thread is poor, the printing is not sharp and the list goes on. However, bt a casual observer this note appears to be genuine. It is good enough to pass.
Why is the paper laminated? Because, it is easier to get the correct register, or alignment when printing a one sided sheet. Each side is printed, cut to size, pasted and trimmed. The paper must be a much lighter weight than standard printer paper or it would feel ‘thick’. Next it is crumpled many times to appear worn and soft.
Also, another technique that better counterfeiters use is to use chemicals to ‘bleach’ the ink off a $1 note, then print a $100 note onto the paper. It feels real, because the PAPER is real. Rather than get long winded on this subject I will stop here, Feel free to chime in! ENJOY!!!
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