So at work tonight my coworker asked me about an old $20 because he pen tested it and it said it was fake... I asked him what year it was, 1950... The pen isn't gonna work on that because pens work on 57 and later series yada yada long story short. I now have a 1950C Twenty Dollar bill with a mark on the front from a counterfeit pen detector and my question is: Is there a way to get it off, to clean it, but not harshly? It's in decent shape, not XF or higher but a fine-very fine note, and one without the in god we trust motto on the back which I don't have for an old 20 FRN so it's simply to make it relatively displayable in my collection, not to fix value lost or anything... Can I remove the detector pen, or is it ruined?
Removing an ink stamp or counterfeit pen mark from older currency can be tricky. If you attempt to remove just the affected area, it could end up looking cleaner than the rest of the note. Most note doctors wash the entire note when removing the ink. The chop mark was removed from the right side of this $100 note and the overall note suffered from being lightened a little. Before After
This note was hit with a pen but was negative, had a yellow line across the front. Over a few months the line faded away and I had it graded.
It will most likely fade over time. I sent a nice error $50 note to PCGS and it came back a 64. No mention of the pen.
I thought those pen marks would fade away over time, so I'd just leave it as is and wait and see. Any photos would be nice.
Simple solution, take it to the bank and change it out, I assure you they have the technology to check it out and exchange for another bill if so desired, or you can keep it as a novelty
This isn't necessarily the case. Banking personnel rely heavily on validation through counting machines. Counting machines vary in their programming when it comes to verifying older notes like this. It may pass or it may not. Second to this, they rely on the feel of a note followed by the pen. New or really ignorant tellers may expect to see a strip or watermark. Many a teller have falsely declared old notes to be counterfeit, seized them on a power trip, and sent them off to the Secret Service. Then the notes come back a week later designated as genuine and the teller/management is left stupefied. Being we haven't seen a picture of the note in question, I think the best thing to do at this point is to just set it aside for a while and see how well the mark fades over time. It could become completely transparent after a few days or weeks.
Over the past week I have noticed it about half as dark as it was before, it's fading out naturally... Phew...