5 ms·

>he had this high end printer and would copy and print $1 bills and take 20 at a time over to the vending machines I'm embarassed to admit that in middle schoo

>he had this high end printer and would copy and print $1 bills and take 20 at a time over to the vending machines I'm embarassed to admit that in middle school my friend and I did something similar as his dad ran a printing business out of his garage. It surprised us then that this worked so easily. Luckily we only used them on vending machines and we quit doing it before we got caught. It makes me wonder what more sophisticated criminals can get away with.

erichurkman 13y ago
> It makes me wonder what more sophisticated criminals can get away with. A lot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar
- MrBuddyCasino 13y ago
  That was a fascinating read, thanks! Tl;dr: 100$ bills produced in all likelihood by a foreign government (suspects are North Korea, Syria, Iran) or maybe criminal gangs are so well done that they are practically indistinguishable from the original. The numbers printed seem to be pretty low though, and not nearly enough to endanger the economy in any way. Probably its hard to launder the money?
  - erichurkman 13y ago
    Rates for the US are around 0.01% of circulating notes. As far as counterfeit currency being a danger to economies, check out Operation Bernhard [1] where Nazi Germany forged British bank notes to flood the economy, with the goal of causing rapid inflation that would be damaging to the government. There's a good movie as well, from 2007, about the operation: Die Fälsche (The Counterfeiters) [2]. Definitely worth a watch. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/
  - midas007 13y ago
    Some how this comment reminded me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs This guy made beautifully artistic bills that didn't look official currency and then made purchases with them at their face value: $100, $500, etc.
- grecy 13y ago
  When I was in Ecuador (which uses the US dollar) it was extremely common to find fake $20s in your change. I could never spot them, but the locals could. They were exceptionally good, right down to the watermark, security strip, etc. etc. Even when I had a known real one and a known fake one, I couldn't tell them apart.
  - GigabyteCoin 13y ago
    Well which part about the note made it a "known fake" to the locals?
    - grecy 13y ago
      They could feel the texture with their fingers (I couldn't tell any difference) and the security strip was a tiny, tiny bit longer than it should have been on the fakes. Even after they told me what to look for, I couldn't tell.
      - nate_meurer 13y ago
        This is precisely the reason the U.S. Treasury still insists on using natural fiber in paper notes. There's more detail in this delightful Esquire article about the making of paper currency: http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill.. http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill....
        cskau 13y ago
        I can't seem to make your link work, but I managed to track down the original article so allow me to repost: http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill-0913-6 http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill...
Theodores 13y ago
If you have the criminal connections you can buy forged currency in a similar way to how you can buy drugs, the idea being that you can make a return on your investment if you put the work in to shift 'the product'. Quality is a factor in the price so (for example) a bag of 100 £1 coins might cost £60 but you might not be able to use them in vending machines due to the weight being wrong. Notes again have their price depending on quality and cut.

erichurkman 13y ago

> It makes me wonder what more sophisticated criminals can get away with. A lot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar

MrBuddyCasino 13y ago
That was a fascinating read, thanks! Tl;dr: 100$ bills produced in all likelihood by a foreign government (suspects are North Korea, Syria, Iran) or maybe criminal gangs are so well done that they are practically indistinguishable from the original. The numbers printed seem to be pretty low though, and not nearly enough to endanger the economy in any way. Probably its hard to launder the money?
- erichurkman 13y ago
  Rates for the US are around 0.01% of circulating notes. As far as counterfeit currency being a danger to economies, check out Operation Bernhard [1] where Nazi Germany forged British bank notes to flood the economy, with the goal of causing rapid inflation that would be damaging to the government. There's a good movie as well, from 2007, about the operation: Die Fälsche (The Counterfeiters) [2]. Definitely worth a watch. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/
- midas007 13y ago
  Some how this comment reminded me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs This guy made beautifully artistic bills that didn't look official currency and then made purchases with them at their face value: $100, $500, etc.
grecy 13y ago
When I was in Ecuador (which uses the US dollar) it was extremely common to find fake $20s in your change. I could never spot them, but the locals could. They were exceptionally good, right down to the watermark, security strip, etc. etc. Even when I had a known real one and a known fake one, I couldn't tell them apart.
- GigabyteCoin 13y ago
  Well which part about the note made it a "known fake" to the locals?
  - grecy 13y ago
    They could feel the texture with their fingers (I couldn't tell any difference) and the security strip was a tiny, tiny bit longer than it should have been on the fakes. Even after they told me what to look for, I couldn't tell.
    - nate_meurer 13y ago
      This is precisely the reason the U.S. Treasury still insists on using natural fiber in paper notes. There's more detail in this delightful Esquire article about the making of paper currency: http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill.. http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill....
      - cskau 13y ago
        I can't seem to make your link work, but I managed to track down the original article so allow me to repost: http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill-0913-6 http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill...

Theodores 13y ago

If you have the criminal connections you can buy forged currency in a similar way to how you can buy drugs, the idea being that you can make a return on your investment if you put the work in to shift 'the product'. Quality is a factor in the price so (for example) a bag of 100 £1 coins might cost £60 but you might not be able to use them in vending machines due to the weight being wrong. Notes again have their price depending on quality and cut.