Counterfeit Banknotes

Over the course of about a year, the restaurant I work for has received a few counterfeit bills. One $10, two $20's and this past weekend a $100. All the notes were in the cashouts from the delivery drivers. The lower denominations couldn't be tracked back to the customers but the $100 was because it was the only large bill received that night and the customer requested change for $100. I was called in to examine it and was able to determine that it was in fact a fake. It was turned over to the police with the information and now Commercial Crimes is handling the investigation.

The $10 and $20's were obvious photocopies but the the $100 was of decent enough quality that in low light it looked real. However, under magnification all the micro-printing was blurred and the colors were shifted.

The $10 and $20's now reside in the Canadian Paper Money museum and are used to train bank employees and police to identify the different types of methods used to counterfeit banknotes.

The $100 was confiscated by the police to be used in their investigation.

These are all losses to the business

Has anyone else come across counterfeit notes?

BTW, these were all Canadian bills. Canada has numerous security precautions incorporated in each of the banknotes and yet people are still able to produce them of reasonable quality to pass them off if the receiver doesn't check them.

Photocopy paper and bad color:



Glossy photocopy paper and the note was just a direct photocopy with no enhancement of the foil security strip:



Direct photocopy but the notice the addition of the partial teller's stamp for authenticity:



Soft paper and a decent photocopy but the colors had run and there is blurring and color shift:

 

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As with coins, your best protection against counterfeits is knowing the characteristics of a genuine note (or coin).

 

Wow , those twenties look quite convincing, especially the second one . You can even see that the tiny maple leafs within the large "20" digit are raised ink.

 

It's just an illusion. The maple leafs aren't actually raised on this note. The paper was just regular bond paper.

 

I agree!!! In low light conditions combined with lacking the knowledge of characteristics of the real notes, fakes - often really bad fakes - are easily passed during commerce.

Collectors can often easily spot the fakes because we study these very items. Your every day Joe only looks at them as their next meal, tank of gas, smokes ect. For th emost part, few look very closely at the notes, which is why so many fakes plaque the market!

 

That's exactly right! Hardly anyone except collectors really examine bills. If you were to ask someone to draw a banknote for you, they may put the numbers in, the country of origin and a face.

The majority of the staff at work have no idea that serial numbers exist on the bills.

 

have to wonder if the strap stamp on the 2nd 20 was also fake or if it passed through a bank at some point???

 

Part of the stamp was nice and clear but the rest of it looked liked the printing had been scraped off the actual stamp(er).

 

Faked then just to add to the authentic look... Interesting

 

I guess they called you in too late?

 

The bill wasn't discovered until the bank deposit was being prepared by the bookkeeper which is always a day or two later. This time, we know where it came from and who passed it. We may not get reimbursed but there is gratification in the fact that the person who gave it to us will be caught.

 

I imagine that would be hard to prove, intentional or not aside. I don't know if I'd admit to passing a bad note without my knowledge! Worth a talk from the Canadian FBI though. What is your FBI? and yes, I've seen a counterfeit US $100, someone at my school got it in their renter's rent. The only thing wrong was the paper. It had the stripe, iridescence, the watermark. Good work.

 

In Canada, we have the RCMP and in the city there is the Commercial Crimes Unit who handle things like this but work in tandem with the RCMP on counterfeiting.

 

The person who gave it to you may be just as innocent?! Its a sad fact that fake notes just keep circulating ....

 

Ahhh, but there's more to this story. I'll post an update in a few days.

 

nice cliffhanger to keep us hooked

 

I work as an editor at a newspaper covering a medium size city, and we have a daily police blotter that I always edit. I'd say we get an item about counterfeit money every few weeks. Of course it's impossible to say what percentage of instances are reported.

 

"Just getting change" was the tell! Isn't it the Mounties that always get their man?

 

If you accept a counterfeit note you are the one stuck with the loss unless you can pin it on someone else. I'm sure a number of people who, after they realize they have accepted a counterfeit note, are willing to take a chance and pass it off to another unsuspecting person. Who wants to be stuck holding the bag? (Then again, who wants to have the Secret Service or the RCMP knocking on their door asking a lot of questions about passing a counterfeit note?)

 

Most of us wouldn't want that but there is a segment of society that would consider it a challenge.