Do You Use Counterfeit Bill Detection Markers In Large Cash Transactions

BLUEJAYWAY

Ever have anyone take offense using one when they hand you large bills? Ever use one when the bank hands over any large bills to you? When I shop with a $20 bill or higher out come the pen. Casinos always do it at card tables as well.

asheland

I’ve never used one. I’m usually confident about my counterfeit detection.

BLUEJAYWAY

I'm somewhat surprised how customers will faithfully accept their change,bills, without a second thought. But vendors do just the opposite.

asheland

Years ago, my brother got some hundred dollar bills paid to him from a craigslist transaction, it turned out they were all bleached fives that have been printed over with hundred dollar bills.

The pen would’ve shown those as authentic correct paper I always give the bills a look over for watermark strip, etc.

FlyingAl

I think that a simple understanding of the security features of modern currency would do you much better than any counterfeit detecting pen.

The method described about by @asheland makes the pens useless, as they react to starch in the paper. If you had a piece of paper with no starch, then the pens are useless and most convincing fakes will be made on decent paper.

On the flip side, it's much simpler to test the currency by using your eyes and making sure the watermarks and security strips all line up and match what they should. If you're really in doubt, test the note with a UV light as the security strips will glow a certain color (ten dollar notes have a thread that glows orange).

The modern $100 notes must be ridiculously hard to fake as they are incredibly complex.

FlyingAl

Additional research I did states that treating any paper in a solution of Vitamin C will allow the paper to pass the pen test.

Essentially, the pens are ineffective for any fake that would be in all likelihood even halfway decent (anything not printed on standard printer paper on a home office printer).

BLUEJAYWAY

Very informative. Was unaware of these tells. Thanks.

NewEnglandNotes

I got a call from a friend of mine last week who runs a store. One of her cashiers accepted two of these.

Not only do they not look at or feel the money, as you can see, they don't look at the mark the pen makes. When they hit the note with a pen, most of the time they are just going through the motions.

jedm

No I don't use one regularly; however, on the very rare occasion that I distrust a certain bill I will be sure to check with the pen. In the 12 years that I've managed a small store we've taken in about 2 million bucks and have never encountered a counterfeit bill that I know of. We do keep a pen on hand for the reason that sometimes a bill just looks or feels off, and then in that case we do check.

Herb_T

When I sell cars for cash, I let the buyer know in advance that the pen will come out and check all bills…

johnny9434

If the company doesn't take a fifty or a c note then I see the pens alot more often now. What ever wercs for you ✌️

PerryHall

I'd like to see someone invent a pen for checking personal checks.

PeakRarities

No, but I probably should. I too have been burned on a Craigslist transaction, I was still young and naive at the time.

jmlanzaf

@Herb_T said:
When I sell cars for cash, I let the buyer know in advance that the pen will come out and check all bills…

Is that too remind them to soak the counterfeits overnight?

jmlanzaf

@PerryHall said:
I'd like to see someone invent a pen for checking personal checks.

They already have one. It's the paper that's the problem

Tomthemailcarrier

I once used the pen at a bank teller’s window to check the stack of 100’s that they were paying out to me. The teller had no problem with it since they’d often do the same. This was before the newer security strips.

steve76020

@DeplorableDan said:
No, but I probably should. I too have been burned on a Craigslist transaction, I was still young and naive at the time.

last week huh? lol just joking Dan

steve76020

it seems to me why care if someone gets upset for using a pen they will be the on to try to pull a fast one

BAJJERFAN

You shouldn't expect to get bogus bills from a bank. One way to be safer is to request payment in small bills 10 & 20s. I've seen one instance where the clerk ran every bill through some sort of small machine with some sort of red light detection.

BAJJERFAN

Does a slot machine at a casino sound an alarm if you try to put a counterfeit bill into it?

skier07

Casinos in Nevada and California do not routinely check for counterfeit hundred dollar bills at the blackjack tables. It would delay the game too much if they checked a big stack of money every time a player bought in. Casinos have sophisticated surveillance systems and they would be able to identify a person who was deliberately passing bad money.

1630Boston

Home Depot Worker Swapped $387,500 in Fake Bills for Real Ones,

The U.S. Secret Service said Adrian Jean Pineda bought prop $100 bills, which are used for entertainment purposes, and swapped them for genuine currency for four years.

Adrian Jean Pineda had an entry-level job at a Home Depot in 2018, working as a vault associate in Tempe, Ariz., in charge of counting the money from registers, placing it in sealed bags and depositing it at a local Wells Fargo Bank.

Over the next four years , however, the bank found $100 bills from the store’s deposits with “PLAYMONEY” written as a serial number — a clear sign of prop currency, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

The problem continued, losses ballooned and, in December, Home Depot contacted the U.S. Secret Service. The agency charged Mr. Pineda last month with swapping $387,500 of the store’s real cash with fake bills.

“He was just in a really good position to do the crime,” Frank Boudreaux Jr., the special agent in charge with the U.S. Secret Service’s office in Phoenix, said on Sunday. He added that it was rare that someone would pass so much counterfeit money before being caught.

1630Boston

Namvet69

Why does prop money need to look so real? Make them put Clark Kent or Bob Hope as the portrait.

BLUEJAYWAY

Once I put a 1950 $100 bill in a slot machine. Was rejected. Apparently the bill reader was not programmed to scan/ID older bills. Had to go to the cage to get 5 20's. And yes they did the verification process to the bill.