Local coin club "YN Dollar Bills" - UPDATED with $5 note.

coppercoins

This is a story of a person with a bit too much time on his hands...but loves to do things for the kids.

Our coin club had been making off-color photocopies of dollar bills with a pasted "OZARKS COIN CLUB" across the center of the obverse for kids to use in door prizes, etc. at the local show. It was a decent idea, but I'm too embarassed to even show what they looked like. They only very remotely resembled money.

Since I am a newly elected board member, I came up with the idea that we could "pay" the kids to do ANA assignments, locally conjured assignments, setup before meetings, tear down after meetings, etc. We could pay them in a form of currency made locally with all the proper markings to be legal, something like the club dollars we gave out at shows, only a bit more professional. I would be the printer, and could come up with something everyone would be happy with. The idea was voted on and accepted.

Well, I sort of out-did myself...the following photos show what I came up with. I copied the 1899 series notes and took out "silver certificate" and "USA" wherever I could and replaced them with "youth dollars" and the name of the local club. I took the size of the note from the large size down to the current standard size for money so they would fit well in the kids' wallets. I also made sure every note received a separate serial number. In addition, the notes are printed on special check paper that has a watermark and security threads, much like real money. There's little chance anyone would want to try counterfeiting these.

So, what do you think?



detail showing the serial number, seal, etc...



and the new $5 note, inspired by the same silver certificate series...



As for method, I used Adobe Photoshop CS. I found the fonts in an exhaustive search through font sites on the internet. Shadowing and morphing techniques on the font to get them to look right was accomplished through years of practice, but using the text transform tool, layer style tool for drop shadowing, and a certain amount of skill and luck.

coppercoins

To add, the first assignment for which they can receive $3 in club notes is to write down the names of the states that have statehood quarters to date that show stars on the state side, the number of stars shown, and what the stars represent on each one.

I forgot to add that the dealers and more experienced collectors in the club will donate merchandise for the YNs to have a quarterly auction of their own where they can bid using the YN dollars. They can also be used to help pay for field trips, etc.

Wekar

Pretty cool idea, and they do look really nice.

I don't know all the rules about what constitutes fake currency that will cause the Secret Service to show up at your door. I've heard some stories about what the Secret Service decides to spend their time pursuing, hope you really did remove all references to USA, Treasury, Fed, etc.

Anyone have and care to share a Secret Service counterfeit currency story?

JrGMan2004

I think it's a great idea!! And your notes look really great too!!

ss350camaro

C.D. ........... I'm impressed !! Those are awesome dude !!

coppercoins

No chance these would warrant any sort of investigation....they are white, less than 75% actual size, copied from designs that are over 100 years old, and have no reference to USA on them. It's quite clear that they aren't "real." In a world where idiot retail clerks won't take genuine $2 bills because they think they're fake, there's no chance one of these would pass off as real.

coinbuf

Very cool CD

Chris

solid

Those are very, very cool! A wonderful idea and brilliantly executed!!!

coppercoins

To add, I have yet to complete the $5 note. It's the indian chief silver certificate. That's it for denominations, just $1, $2, and $5. We doubt any one of the YNs will have more than $50 saved up before we have an auction for them and they blow it all.

coppercoins

Also forgot to add that they will earn coin club dollars for writing articles for the newsletter, for doing presentations at the coin club meetings, for helping the bourse chairman at the two local shows, as well as a whole list of other things I won't bore you with.

Anyhow, you got the idea already...LOL!

pursuitofliberty

CD, very cool notes, keep us posted on the 5 spot ... ... sounds like some lucky YN's in your club. They look nice enough I think they'd be keepers in their own right.

Gonfunko

Be careful - The Secret Service did a raid on some classroom in California because the teacher had printed up some dollars with her face on them and pink bunnies for a school project! It was on the History Channel on the show about counterfeiting.

Steve27

These are nice, do you have any star notes?

coppercoins

No Star notes as of yet, but if I do have to replace any I will be using stars...you betcha!

earlwbollinger

Pretty neat.

Conder101

<< <i>In a world where idiot retail clerks won't take genuine $2 bills because they think they're fake, there's no chance one of these would pass off as real. >>


I wouldn't be so sure of that. There have been at least two cases of fast food burger flippers accepting $200 bills with George Bush's picture on them.

Gonfunko

Someone was charged with forgery for taking a "Million Dollar Bill" to WalMart and demanding change, despite the fact that they didn't make it and supposedly thought it was real. Not surprisingly, this occured in Alabama if my memory serves me right.

cosmicdebris

Nice job

windwhispersintrees

Well done.
Did you use Photoshop or something similar? Just curious how you got the fonts to look "right".

I've thought of doing something similar, but a design from scratch, for play money for my kids and the challenge of it.

You ever read about that guy who would hand-draw realistic looking currency, and then go into stores to see if someone would knowingly accept it as art....or something like that. Amazingly talented. I think he had numerous woes with the Secret Service.

Theop

<< <i> You ever read about that guy who would hand-draw realistic looking currency, and then go into stores to see if someone would knowingly accept it as art....or something like that. Amazingly talented. I think he had numerous woes with the Secret Service. >>



J.S.G. Boggs

http://www.jsgboggs.com/

They may be others too.

DominusDeus

Very nice, those are extremely well done.

coppercoins

Actually the guy he was talking about was a late 19th century artist who actually drew US currency and passed it as real. He spent months to maticulously draw $20 and $50 notes, and people readily took them because they looked real. He ended up blind and in prison.

windwhispersintrees

Thanks for the name....it was Boggs I had in mind.

Conder101

The guy Coppercoins is talking about was "Jim the Penman" bt he was actually just a counterfeiter producing copies for his own enrichment not to get them accepted as art like Boggs does. The reason he drew them was because he did not have the engraving skills or the equipment to print them. He was an independant counterfeiter and not part of a gang that could group skills and resources.