
This trend has changed who produces bad bills. Digital counterfeiting is outpacing traditional printing because today’s high-performance, low-cost printers offer high resolution and improved color matching of copied currency. Of the counterfeit currency seized in the United States last year, 61% was manufactured using digital printing, with the remaining counterfeit currency manufactured with traditional, or “offset”, printing. Not a bad business, if you can get away with it. At a “manufacturing” cost of five dollars per bill, that’s a 300% markup. Including labor, the total cost comes to between $3 and $5 that’s a profit of at least $15 per fake $100 bill. The glue needed per bill is 50 cents, the paper can be bought in bulk for $10 to $15 per stack.

To digress for a moment, what profit do you think forgers make on a fake hundred? In Peru, the average selling price for a fake $100 in bulk, i.e. Understandably, the $100 dollar bill has the most security, as it is the highest value bill and brings in the biggest profit when forged. There are seven smart security features built into US bills. We then have to use one of the more sophisticated anti-forging features built into US paper currency. Often you will have only one suspect bill in the batch.
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The ease with which people can buy photo-editing software or search how to make bad bills has added teenagers to the demographic of advanced criminals.
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This will at least filter out amateur forgers and kids using color photocopiers. The other bills are very seldom counterfeited, and agonizing over checking for one or two fake $1, $2, or $5 bills is not worth the time and effort, unless you have reason to believe that you have been given a significant quantity of them.Īssuming that you have found a bill/bills that don’t “feel right” what should you do next? If you have more than one of these suspect bills and they are of the same denomination, check for identical serial numbers. So you would want to examine $100 and $20 bills more carefully. The Jackson is popular with domestic criminals because it’s a common bill dispensed by ATMs and is not usually examined with the degree of scrutiny of larger bills, Secret Service officials say. According to Fraud Fighter’s How to Detect a Counterfeit $20 Bill, the $20 bill is the popular choice of forgers inside the continental USA. Surprisingly, fake 100 dollar bills are not the most common counterfeit notes found here inside the US. It tends to be targeted by overseas syndicates and “money factories” in certain countries. The $100 note is the most frequently counterfeited. To make it even faster, there are only two worth checking: the $100 dollar bill and the $20 bill. There are some notes can you pretty much ignore, and others that should you should check carefully. Here is a tip that can speed up the whole process. Take a close look, especially at the borders, to see if there are any blurred parts in the bill. Laser and inkjet printers are rarely capable of the same level of detail. Authentic bills are extremely detailed, made using die-cut printing plates that are capable of creating impressively fine lines. If you notice significantly blurry borders, printing, or text, this should be an automatic red flag. However, this tends to take too much time and is not very effective. You can also place each bill next to a real bill of the same dollar amount and see if something doesn’t match.

Nine times out of ten, your fingers will be accurate fake detectors. If it doesn’t feel right, set it aside for further checking. Give each bill a quick rub between your fingers. Your fingers are extremely sensitive to thickness and texture. This material has a distinctive feel, according to Independent Banker. The “paper” (it’s not really paper) from which the bill is made is a special blend of 75% cotton and 25% linen. Stack all the bills you have and see if any are the wrong size, even if only slightly. All seven US bills are 2.61 inches wide by 6.14 inches in length and 0.0042 inches thick, and each weighs 1 gram. The size and weight of US paper currency are tightly controlled. So, let’s start with the simplest tests and work upwards.
