The Art of the Steal

Counterfeiters use a grease pen and merely pen a little sketch of Ben Franklin. When you hold it up, the light bounces off the grease pen mark and you thought you saw a watermark. In reality, you saw a grease pen mark. If you rubbed it, it would smear. If you turned it over, you wouldn’t see anything. So you have to make sure the watermark is visible, front and back.

At the bottom right-hand corner of the bill is the numeral 100, indicating the denomination of the bill. That number is printed in a shiny, sparkly metallic green in what is known as OVI, or optical variable ink. When you tilt the bill slightly forward, the green color of the numeral will turn a dull jet black. Color copiers can’t pick up the changeable appearance of this ink. What’s more, this ink is made by just one company in the world, located in Switzerland, and the ink’s use is tightly restricted. Trying to replicate it is extremely difficult.

If the color doesn’t change, you don’t have a real bill. Counterfeiters in the United States use a Revlon metallic nail polish and paint the number in so it’s shiny. In Bogotá, they add flakes to the ink to make it sparkly. It’s a nice try, but it doesn’t change color from green to jet black.

The greatest tool we can give a bank teller is a little magnifying loupe. On the bottom left-hand corner of the bill is another 100. If you look at it through a magnifying glass, you will see that what appeared to be shading is actually the words “USA 100” repeated one hundred times in microprinting. Copiers can’t see it. Scanners can’t see it. So when we examine money out of Bogotá, it looks great, but if you study the numeral under a magnifying glass, you can’t read anything. The microprinting is just a blur. Then if you move the magnifying glass to the left side of Franklin’s collar, you’ll see the words “United States of America,” again in microprinting. On a counterfeit bill, there’s just another blur.

Making bogus money is one of the oldest crimes known to man. Back in the time of the Civil War, when individual banks issued their own currency, about a third of all money was thought to be counterfeit. I’d hate to see those levels reached again, because counterfeit money can destroy a country’s economy. Sadly, it’s looking more and more likely. Every day, I learn of someone buying a McDonald’s meal or getting change for a fifty at a yard sale with counterfeit money. The other day I read about a priest smuggling in counterfeit bills from South Korea. I guess his vow of poverty slipped his mind. Stories like these are disheartening, because when people are getting something for nothing, the cycle of greed continues. Still, until technology advances once more, the simple steps I explained are entirely reliable in separating the real from the fake. All we have to do is use them.