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Funny side note: the State of Illinois spent a decent amount of public funds trying to decide whether to charge me with $100 trillion in currency fraud. The sta

Funny side note: the State of Illinois spent a decent amount of public funds trying to decide whether to charge me with $100 trillion in currency fraud. The state crime lab said the currency I owned was the "most sophisticated piece of currency forgery" they had ever encountered. It was a single (real) $100 trillion bill from Zimbabwe that I carried in my wallet for fun. I assume they thought for some reason it was US dollars? https://www.banknoteworld.com/zimbabwe-currency/100-trillion-zimbabwe-dollars/ https://www.banknoteworld.com/zimbabwe-currency/100-trillion...

chiph 5y ago
I bought a couple of those and got them framed as a gift. The owner of the frame shop was concerned about me leaving them with him, until I pointed out that I was going to pay him more for the frame than they were worth.
MerelyMortal 5y ago
Did they at least give it back to you? I don't know how much they sell for now, but I was lucky to get one for $20 when they were normally going for $40 on eBay. I forgot the exact result, but I once calculated the value of a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill when it was printed, and it came to something like 0.06 USD (6 cents).
- Jiro 5y ago
  I just checked ebay. Real ones sell for $100-200 US. There are also fakes, most of which admit in the description that they are fakes, and include extremely large numbers like 10^33. The highest number that you can get cheaply and that is not fake seems to be the 50 billion. They sell for about five dollars, which given the economics of ebay is probably as low as you can expect.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    The one trillion ones are more rare, as Germany if I recall correctly stopped printing them for Zimbabwe soon afterwards. At one point I had a hundred stack of them somewhere.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  They didn't give it back. I'll have to give them a call. This was 8 years ago, but I know they still have it. I didn't know they'd gone up so much in value. I don't think I'd want to sell it though. I remember paying about $10 + shipping for it.
jjeaff 5y ago
That sounds insane. Did no one just do a quick Google search and see that you can buy them all day long all over the internet? I think we need some more details on why they were going through your wallet and how and why they even considered a charge in this case.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  I was arrested for something totally unrelated. It was only later my lawyer showed me a piece of paper one day titled 'ILLINOIS STATE CRIME LAB' which detailed the analysis they had done. There were like 9 factors they analyze fake currency on (e.g. paper, ink, metal strip, holograms, hidden dots, etc) and my bill matched for 8 of the 9, which is what prompted the comment about it being such a sophisticated fake, I guess. I'll try and get a copy. This was 8 years ago, but the lab will probably still have a copy. I felt like Dr Evil... one hundred trillion! All I could think of was this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hTrnaa8aE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hTrnaa8aE

chiph 5y ago

I bought a couple of those and got them framed as a gift. The owner of the frame shop was concerned about me leaving them with him, until I pointed out that I was going to pay him more for the frame than they were worth.

MerelyMortal 5y ago

Did they at least give it back to you? I don't know how much they sell for now, but I was lucky to get one for $20 when they were normally going for $40 on eBay. I forgot the exact result, but I once calculated the value of a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill when it was printed, and it came to something like 0.06 USD (6 cents).

Jiro 5y ago
I just checked ebay. Real ones sell for $100-200 US. There are also fakes, most of which admit in the description that they are fakes, and include extremely large numbers like 10^33. The highest number that you can get cheaply and that is not fake seems to be the 50 billion. They sell for about five dollars, which given the economics of ebay is probably as low as you can expect.
- bombcar 5y ago
  The one trillion ones are more rare, as Germany if I recall correctly stopped printing them for Zimbabwe soon afterwards. At one point I had a hundred stack of them somewhere.
kingcharles 5y ago
They didn't give it back. I'll have to give them a call. This was 8 years ago, but I know they still have it. I didn't know they'd gone up so much in value. I don't think I'd want to sell it though. I remember paying about $10 + shipping for it.

jjeaff 5y ago

That sounds insane. Did no one just do a quick Google search and see that you can buy them all day long all over the internet? I think we need some more details on why they were going through your wallet and how and why they even considered a charge in this case.

kingcharles 5y ago
I was arrested for something totally unrelated. It was only later my lawyer showed me a piece of paper one day titled 'ILLINOIS STATE CRIME LAB' which detailed the analysis they had done. There were like 9 factors they analyze fake currency on (e.g. paper, ink, metal strip, holograms, hidden dots, etc) and my bill matched for 8 of the 9, which is what prompted the comment about it being such a sophisticated fake, I guess. I'll try and get a copy. This was 8 years ago, but the lab will probably still have a copy. I felt like Dr Evil... one hundred trillion! All I could think of was this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hTrnaa8aE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hTrnaa8aE