The new additions to the hundred dollar bill should make it much more difficult to copy. Counterfeiters will need to come up with some new techniques to make this one work. Until then, I’m sticking to making money the old fashioned way.
I was struggling to come up with an original idea this week until one of my employees showed me the new hundred dollar bill. After cashing his meager paycheck he showed me one of the new bills he received in exchange. “Heh” he shrugged, “try forging this one.”
If you haven’t seen the new notes, they’re covered in holographic type art, a fancy strip on the outside of the bill, and a big colorful $100.00 imprint on the back. Outside of looking like play money, all the changes the mint made would make forgery very difficult. Many different technologies have been implemented to keep us safe.
Years ago it wasn’t uncommon to receive counterfeit bills. I’ve taken a couple over the years and most are easy enough to spot. In fact, most of the time counterfeits can be picked up just by feel. Other times they’re not as easy to tell by feel, but can be held to light for watermarks and imprinted identification bands.
A little known fact is that US currency is only printed on 100% cotton fiber paper from Dalton, MA. Because of this, the forgery detecting pens used by businesses change to black when marked on cellulose based media. The ink used in the pens reacts differently to cellulose than cotton.
So what happens if a counterfeiter were to get his hands on cotton paper? I checked one of the bigger art supply stores in the area and ‘rag’ paper can be purchased; but not with the signature colored threads that our money is printed. The only way to get the exact paper is to use the paper which our currency is printed.
Bleaching smaller bills and reprinting with artwork from larger bills is a very common forgery technique. One of the most common is bleaching five dollar bills and printing a one hundred in its place. This makes the bill pass the feel and pen test but not the black light test. Looking through the bill with a black light would show a blue band and not a red band (as is found in a real $100.00 bill).
Magnetic ink is used by the government which allows change machines and bill detectors to tell what type of bill the machine is counting. Rather than imprint the entire note with magnetic ink, only certain portions of the artwork are magnetized. Some counterfeit detection equipment scans for magnetism as part of its test.
Real money is printed on true presses and the ink is pushed onto the paper under pressure. Small counterfeit operations usually use inkjet technology because it’s fairly inexpensive and creates adequate results. The problem with inkjet is it’s not permanent and the quality is noticeably worse than real money.
Luckily many of the counterfeit hundreds originate from underground drug deals and rarely make it to mainstream trade. Counterfeiters produce small quantities of fake hundreds and use them for illicit black market purchases. Most of those bills are picked up by bank tellers and others who handle large quantities of cash.
Creating a high quality counterfeit bill requires much more than a Xerox machine and good paper. A true counterfeiter would need access to a Heidelberg press, 100% rag paper, and specialized inks. Reproducing previous generations of bills is certainly much easier than this year’s C note.
Like most people, just after purchasing my first scanner I scanned and printed a dollar bill. The quality was remarkable for mid 90’s technology and probably could have passed the bill off if it had been printed on better paper. Luckily for our economy money isn’t easy to reproduce or I probably would have been a counterfeiter and not a repair technician.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him directly at (978) 413-2840 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)