She had no idea that the $50 bill she received was a counterfeit, until authorities came to her store to tell her that she received a fake note.
The storeowner may have received several counterfeit notes in the past without knowing it. Money changes hands so fast and so often that you would not know if a counterfeit bill has passed your hands and you have passed it on to someone else.
If you think that the circulation of counterfeit money does not concern you, think again. Everyday, you pay money and receive change from the grocery stores, the gasoline station, taxi, vegetable vendor, the Laundromat, restaurant owner, from your office mates and from anybody else. No one is spared and any day you can be a victim of receiving counterfeit money if you don’t know how to detect it.
Early last year the alarm bells were pressed as the number of counterfeit bill circulation cases went up in the CNMI.
The federal government busted several counterfeit schemes and several individuals had been arrested and penalized for the crime.
Special agents and criminal investigators from the U.S. Secret Service conducted trainings on detecting counterfeit money for the local police officers, businessmen and other stakeholders so they can share what they have learned to their employees.
How to detect counterfeit money
Get a $20 or $50 bill and use the illustrations to guide you on how to detect if your money is genuine based on information from the U.S. Secret Service Web site. www.secretservice.gov.
1.Watermark. Hold the money up to a light source. You should see the watermark which is a faint image similar to the portrait on the bill.
2. Color-Shifting Ink. The ink on the number on the lower right-hand corner shifts from green to black, and depending on the denomination if you tilt the note 45 degrees.
3. Security Thread. This is a clear polyester thread imbedded vertically in the note and is visible only when you hold it up to light. Each denomination has unique thread positions and glows a certain color. A $100 bill has a red/pink security thread located between the Federal Reserve seal and portrait while $50 has a yellow thread located between the portrait and Treasury Seal. $20 has a green thread located left of Federal Reserve seal. $10 has an orange thread found between portrait and Treasury Seal while the thread in $5 is blue, located center to left of Federal Reserve seal.
4. Serial numbers. The first letter of the serial number corresponds to the series year the money was manufactured: A-1996, B-1999, C-2001, D-2003, E-2004, F-2003A and G-2004A.
5. Federal Reserve Indicators. In the Federal Reserve Notes 1996 and 2004 styles, this is the number-letter combination which identifies one of the 12 issuing Federal Reserve Banks.
6. Check letter/Quadrant Number
7. Face plate number
8. Series year
9. Back plate number
If you received money and noticed any difference in the texture or feel of it, or if you are suspicious that it could be a counterfeit, don’t hesitate to check and compare it with a genuine note.
A genuine currency paper is made up of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. It also contains small red and blue thread fibers throughout the paper. Counterfeit bills are typically smooth, like a photograph and the color may be faded.
If you receive a counterfeit
• Do not return the money to the passer.
• Delay the passer if you can, without putting yourself at risk.
• Observe the passer. Memorize his physical description or his companions if he had any, the license plate number of his car and anything else about the passer.
• Call the police or the U.S. Secret Service field office.
• Write your initials and the date in the white border areas of the money you suspected to be a counterfeit.
• Place the suspected note it an envelope and limit any handling of it.
• Turn over the note only to a properly identified police officer or a U.S. Secret Service special agent.
• Don’t be tempted to knowingly pass the counterfeit money to anybody else to get back your money’s worth.
Counterfeiting carries heavy penalties, depending on the different countries.
The Department of Public Safety said the latest developments in technology have made it possible for counterfeiters to print money from their own homes.
The counterfeit bills circulated on island were printed here on Saipan and DPS is urging the public to be on the alert at all times.
Did you know…
• Over four billion $1 bills are in circulation, and the life expectancy of each is approximately 18 months?
• Larger denominations last longer since they are handled less?
• Less than 400 years ago, the penalty for counterfeiting was death? People
caught producing their own money in England were hung, disemboweled and quartered.
• If you had 10 billion $1 notes and spent one every second of every day, it would require 317 years for you to go broke?
• A piece of currency can be folded forward and back 4,000 times before it will tear?
• The $100 note has been the largest denomination of currency in circulation since 1969?
• The largest bill ever printed was the $100,000 bill? It was actually a Gold Certificate issued in 1934. President Woodrow Wilson was depicted on the bill.
