Counterfeiting Money

[rbcp]

Here's something I did in the mid 80's...

I think the law on dollar bills, is that as long as 1/3 of the bill is intact, the store must take it.  So I ripped about 1/4 of a $20 bill off the left side, kept it, and spent the remaining 3/4 of the $20.  Then I got another $20 bill, ripped 1/4 from the right side, and spent that 3/4 of that $20.  Now I had both side pieces of a $20 bill, including the "20" from the corners.

I took a $1.00 bill, carefully cut each of the sides off so the number 1's were missing, and then scotch taped the $20 sides onto both ends.  I now had a $20 bill, made from a $1 bill.  Sure, it had a picture of George Washington on it and it said One Dollar along the bottom, but it sure looked like a $20 if you didn't look too closely.  I went to a store, bought a pack of Life Savers for 59 cents, and collected my $19.41 cents in change.  Profit!

I only did this a couple more times, finally deeming it way too risky. I wouldn't suggest anyone trying this.  Seems like it's be really easy for a cashier to notice something like that.  Especially since these days, a lot of cashiers will take the time to mark your bill with a counterfeit-detecting pen.  It would still mark correctly, but that'd be an extra couple seconds for her to look at your fake $20.

[frog]

This would be more than too risky in Canada.  Every bill has a different color and a very different design. Cf,





Wow, check this out. Howstuffworks did a segment on counterfeiting.

You will learn about the techniques that you might use if you wanted to create your own counterfeit bills.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/counterfeit.htm

[Zazen]

I've heard of that, I think they call it "raising" a bill. And I'm pretty sure that the law is that more than 50% must be intact for a store to take it. If it was 1/3 then you could just rip a bill in half and spend the halves seperately.

There's another scam I always wanted to try, which is to get 12 bills and to cut each one at a different interval of 1/12th, 2/12ths, etc. and then shift each piece down one and tape them all back together. Basically you'd have 13 bills that are all 1/12th shorter than they used to be. The only problem is that the serial numbers on the left wouldn't match the ones on the right, but otherwise there's no way to tell that the bill wasn't just damaged and taped back together in a sloppy way.

[SloFuze]

A freind and I did this back in the 90's. He got his paycheck cashed at a grocery store. When we got home, we took 4 of the 20 dollar bills and ripped the 20's off of a corner of each one then cut around the 20. We glued them onto a 1 dollar bill, then he went back to the grocery store and told them they gave him a fake 20. They gave him back a real one. It worked great because the blame was put on them and we made a whole $19.

[Magus]

*Magus' mom is writing this post*

My son wanted me to come up with a "counterfeiting" story. But since I've never counterfeited money, I will have to change the subject a bit and tell one about "counterfeiting" marijuana. I was in my early twenties and basically living on the streets in Florida. I didn't want a job, of course, hanging out at the beach all day was much more fun! So I had to come up with creative ways of making money. One of these was selling marijuana. Of course, I didn't have any real marijuana to sell, so I had to "make" it. First, I took small twigs with some greenery on them, and rolled them in Elmer's glue. I then proceeded to dip them in parsley (or basil or oregano would work too). The result was an amazing likeness to "real" marijuana buds. I bagged them up and went to the places where people that were partying hung out. I was making $40 a quarter bag on these because I told them it was "Thai bud". Of course, I didn't hang around the same town for long, I'd just to go a different part of Florida and do it again. By the way, I once was stopped by the police and almost arrested for my "fake" marijuana. But they tested it and it didn't turn the solution purple. They let me go.

[SloFuze]

*Magus' mom is writing this post*

Bad Mommy! send pics!

[rbcp]

I used to pass off rolls of pennies as rolls of quarters.  Taking 4 pennies out of a penny roll made it the right length.  Then wrapping a couple strips of construction paper around the rolls gave them the right thickness.  Slip a quarter wrapped around it, tape the ends shut and you're all set to pay for convenience store items with it.  I got caught several times at it, but always managed to get out of it.  The police put a notice in the paper about it and offered a nice reward, but somehow the dozen or so people that knew I was doing it didn't turn me in.  Once a convenience store lady cracked open the roll as I was walking out the door.  She yelled HEY and I ran out to my car, backed out of my space and kept backing down the street because she ran across the parking lot after me.  That convenience store was across the street from the police  station.

[SloFuze]

I'm going to try that soon. I got some change rollers from the bank this week and I asked the lady if I needed to write my account number or something on the rolls and she said "no". Bet I only get away with it once though.

[rbcp]

I'm going to try that soon. I got some change rollers from the bank this week and I asked the lady if I needed to write my account number or something on the rolls and she said "no". Bet I only get away with it once though.

It's a bad idea to try it.  When I did this, there weren't many cameras in convenience stores.  Now every store has a camera.  So even if you don't get caught while passing them, the cops will have a picture of your face to put in the paper.  And it's just too easy for them to discover they're fake before you're even out of the store.  When you're caught, I'm pretty sure you're in secret service jurisdiction.  That would suck.

[MattGSX]

With the way that large bills have been re-designed to look completely different from small bills, it doesn't seem likely that someone would let this go. I know I notice when I see an "old" 20, and I'll generally scrutinize it. Some people may just be more ignorant than I am, though, I guess.

[Jo Nathen]

I'm going to try that soon. I got some change rollers from the bank this week and I asked the lady if I needed to write my account number or something on the rolls and she said "no". Bet I only get away with it once though.

It's a bad idea to try it.  When I did this, there weren't many cameras in convenience stores.  Now every store has a camera.  So even if you don't get caught while passing them, the cops will have a picture of your face to put in the paper.  And it's just too easy for them to discover they're fake before you're even out of the store.  When you're caught, I'm pretty sure you're in secret service jurisdiction.  That would suck.

I used to work at a CVS and can say - try there also. There are a load of cams but the back of the store or the photo lab is sometimes out of the cam view......I think I have some washers laying around as well.

[rbcp]

With the way that large bills have been re-designed to look completely different from small bills, it doesn't seem likely that someone would let this go. I know I notice when I see an "old" 20, and I'll generally scrutinize it. Some people may just be more ignorant than I am, though, I guess.

Cashiers aren't normally hired for their intelligence.  This is why I was able to pull this off back then.  This one guy I worked with at a 7-Eleven accepted a half of a $20 bill once.  Another lady I worked with had a guy tell her that he gave her a $20 when he really only gave her a $10.  She believed him and gave him an extra $10.  A cashier at Wal-mart accepted a $200 bill with a picture of George Bush on it.  People are dumb.

[Magus]

I like to carry around lots of $2 bills with me, because when I pay for things with one, the cashier will sometimes (not very often, but it has happened) mistake it for a five.

[spsmckintra]

I have a 20 Amero coin. Legal tender. "Union of North America" Almost passed it but would not like free room and board for doing so.........