5 ms·

Unfortunately this doesn't work with banknotes ... unless you can find lots of people who are willing to accept a banknote that appears to have been torn into t

by bloak 5y ago

Unfortunately this doesn't work with banknotes ... unless you can find lots of people who are willing to accept a banknote that appears to have been torn into two pieces and then stuck together again with sticky tape, with the line of the tear being a weird curve that just happens to cross both serial numbers in roughly the same place.

dane-pgp 5y ago
It does work with chocolate, though... http://mathandmultimedia.com/2014/07/22/explanation-infinite-chocolate-bars/ http://mathandmultimedia.com/2014/07/22/explanation-infinite...
Someone 5y ago
‘Nobody’ looks at banknotes. Also, historically, banknotes were torn and repaired more often. Because of that, you can just cut a 1/10th width strip out of 9 banknotes and glue them together to make a 9/10 width tenth banknote. Examples: https://books.google.com/books?id=e7QzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA318&lpg=PA318&dq=fraud+cutting+of+piece+of+banknote&source=bl&ots=uyC6827Y59&sig=ACfU3U0J0707LQmgRRlNp2TwWFzdtcpw1A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy2bneiZjzAhXQ_aQKHWXKDtEQ6AF6BAhFEAI https://books.google.com/books?id=e7QzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA318&lpg=... (1804) https://books.google.com/books?id=osjhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=fraud+cutting+of+piece+of+banknote&source=bl&ots=zHs2ppbcPh&sig=ACfU3U1XHk1eWurrbH4fI4Uei28Q8MexpA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy2bneiZjzAhXQ_aQKHWXKDtEQ6AF6BAhDEAI#v=onepage&q=fraud%20cutting%20of%20piece%20of%20banknote&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=osjhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=... (1850s) A more tricky recent variant replaces the cut-out part with a fake part: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/can-you-spot-the-fake-splice-and-tape-money-scam-in-b-c-1.3415262 https://bc.ctvnews.ca/can-you-spot-the-fake-splice-and-tape-... (why do these criminals take the effort and risk of creating a fake fiver? I would discard the remains of the fiver, and spend all effort on improving the technique for transplanting the hologram to the fake 100) Of course, this works better with small denominations, if only because people expect larger denominations to look newer. The risk of getting caught also is fairly large, I think, but a good criminal can feign innocence, claiming to have gotten the note elsewhere.
- pc86 5y ago
  If I had to guess they were using the five ask a test to a) see if it would pass a cursory inspection, which it appears it didn't, and b) refine the technique. People are generally more skeptical of larger denominations (especially 100 in the US which you can sometimes get a bit of grief over when trying to use), but if someone were to notice the 5 is counterfeit somehow it's not quite as suspicious just to pay with a different (legitimate) note.
- spiderice 5y ago
  Regarding that story about the Canadian notes, it seems like an unnecessary risk to me to go spend the altered $5 bill with the foil. It sounds like you can turn $5 in to $100, and only have to risk getting the $100 in to circulation. Or you can turn $5 in to $105, but then you have to risk getting 2 bills in to circulation. It's significantly more risk for a very tiny increase, no?
Grustaf 5y ago
That sounds like something from Martin Gardener, I definitely heard of this trick!
- schoen 5y ago
  Yes, I believe he has a Dr. Matrix story in which Dr. Matrix attempts to do this and gets arrested. Edit: "Sing Sing" in The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix. > In desperation he did a foolish thing. He tried to make some twenty-dollar bills. His method was bizarre and surprising. With a paper cutter he sliced each of fourteen bills into two parts, cutting them neatly along the broken vertical lines on each of the schematic bills shown on the left side of Figure 4. [...] > Unfortunately—or rather, fortunately—the United States government places duplicate serial numbers at opposite comers of every bill, and most of the numerologist's new bills therefore bore pairs of serial numbers that did not match. True, Dr. Matrix's method of making new bills was not exactly counterfeiting—he merely "rearranged" the parts of genuine bills. Nevertheless, the Treasury Department took a dim view of his work and it was not long until he found himself firmly confined within the matrix of cells at Sing Sing. (note that although Gardner is best known as a nonfiction writer, the Dr. Matrix stories are fictional)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

by bloak 5y ago

dane-pgp 5y ago

It does work with chocolate, though... http://mathandmultimedia.com/2014/07/22/explanation-infinite-chocolate-bars/ http://mathandmultimedia.com/2014/07/22/explanation-infinite...

Someone 5y ago

‘Nobody’ looks at banknotes. Also, historically, banknotes were torn and repaired more often. Because of that, you can just cut a 1/10th width strip out of 9 banknotes and glue them together to make a 9/10 width tenth banknote. Examples: https://books.google.com/books?id=e7QzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA318&lpg=PA318&dq=fraud+cutting+of+piece+of+banknote&source=bl&ots=uyC6827Y59&sig=ACfU3U0J0707LQmgRRlNp2TwWFzdtcpw1A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy2bneiZjzAhXQ_aQKHWXKDtEQ6AF6BAhFEAI https://books.google.com/books?id=e7QzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA318&lpg=... (1804) https://books.google.com/books?id=osjhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=fraud+cutting+of+piece+of+banknote&source=bl&ots=zHs2ppbcPh&sig=ACfU3U1XHk1eWurrbH4fI4Uei28Q8MexpA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy2bneiZjzAhXQ_aQKHWXKDtEQ6AF6BAhDEAI#v=onepage&q=fraud%20cutting%20of%20piece%20of%20banknote&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=osjhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=... (1850s) A more tricky recent variant replaces the cut-out part with a fake part: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/can-you-spot-the-fake-splice-and-tape-money-scam-in-b-c-1.3415262 https://bc.ctvnews.ca/can-you-spot-the-fake-splice-and-tape-... (why do these criminals take the effort and risk of creating a fake fiver? I would discard the remains of the fiver, and spend all effort on improving the technique for transplanting the hologram to the fake 100) Of course, this works better with small denominations, if only because people expect larger denominations to look newer. The risk of getting caught also is fairly large, I think, but a good criminal can feign innocence, claiming to have gotten the note elsewhere.

pc86 5y ago
If I had to guess they were using the five ask a test to a) see if it would pass a cursory inspection, which it appears it didn't, and b) refine the technique. People are generally more skeptical of larger denominations (especially 100 in the US which you can sometimes get a bit of grief over when trying to use), but if someone were to notice the 5 is counterfeit somehow it's not quite as suspicious just to pay with a different (legitimate) note.
spiderice 5y ago
Regarding that story about the Canadian notes, it seems like an unnecessary risk to me to go spend the altered $5 bill with the foil. It sounds like you can turn $5 in to $100, and only have to risk getting the $100 in to circulation. Or you can turn $5 in to $105, but then you have to risk getting 2 bills in to circulation. It's significantly more risk for a very tiny increase, no?

Grustaf 5y ago

That sounds like something from Martin Gardener, I definitely heard of this trick!

schoen 5y ago
Yes, I believe he has a Dr. Matrix story in which Dr. Matrix attempts to do this and gets arrested. Edit: "Sing Sing" in The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix. > In desperation he did a foolish thing. He tried to make some twenty-dollar bills. His method was bizarre and surprising. With a paper cutter he sliced each of fourteen bills into two parts, cutting them neatly along the broken vertical lines on each of the schematic bills shown on the left side of Figure 4. [...] > Unfortunately—or rather, fortunately—the United States government places duplicate serial numbers at opposite comers of every bill, and most of the numerologist's new bills therefore bore pairs of serial numbers that did not match. True, Dr. Matrix's method of making new bills was not exactly counterfeiting—he merely "rearranged" the parts of genuine bills. Nevertheless, the Treasury Department took a dim view of his work and it was not long until he found himself firmly confined within the matrix of cells at Sing Sing. (note that although Gardner is best known as a nonfiction writer, the Dr. Matrix stories are fictional)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]