Home U.S. Coin Forum

I received a counterfeit 100.00 at the bank!........

goose3goose3 Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭
I cashed a coin check last week and as is my norm, I place the proceeds into my bank box until I find something cool to buy.

The teller was counting out the 100's and finished and I pointed one out to her that caught my eye. She took it and looked closely at it and even used the "pen" on it which showed it to be real. I placed it in my stack and put in my box.

Went in today with another check to do the same and thought while I had the box open that I'd exchange that 100 for another since I didn't like the look of it. Took the 100 out to her at her counter and told her that something was definitely not right with it and that I would like another. She gave me another and then she and I and another teller and the 2 managers inspected the one very closely and I also called my fellow worker that is currently working on a counterfeit case involving 100's and he came too and inspected.

The 100 was bogus. She wrote on it again with the "pen" and her marking looked yellowish and not dark brown or black which means counterfeit. Within a minute or 2, or probably as it dried, the ink disappeared.

The Strip that reads USA 100 upon closer examination was not within the bill but rather applied to the reverse side of the bill which gave the appearance of genuine when quickly held up to the light and inspected. The strip appeared to almost be something like correction tape for a typewriter.

The seal on the front right was also very thick and all of the green lettering including "100" was a shade or 2 darker. The reverse was also just a shade off but on the light side.

One pretty much fail safe way to determine whether or not your 100 is real is to look in the lighter areas for blue and or red colored fibers.....the almost look like little hairs.

On a side note, there are also bills in our area (11 in the past week or 2 in our SMALL town) that do check out as genuine WIth the "pen" and are very deceiving....but again....look for the "hairs". Most of these are series 1996 also.

I have no qualms in saying that my note would have gotten past 999 people out of 1000, if not everyone.

Comments

  • 1jester1jester Posts: 8,637 ✭✭✭
    Goose, you need to be more careful about where you try to spend your counterfeit C notes. I mean, come on--don't try it at a bank!!!image

    imageimageimage
    .....GOD
    image

    "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9

    "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5

    "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
  • mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    Interesting. Sounds like the fake stuff is getting pretty good.
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
  • ebaytraderebaytrader Posts: 3,312 ✭✭✭
    Sounds like the North Korean $100. The Middle East $100 were series 1988A (no such series issued) and were of excellent quality other than the engraver 'signing ' his work with a non-existent series.

    Asia has been doing battle with counterfeit $100 for years. In some countries, our $100 isn't even accepted anymore. Kind of like here. image

    I would have liked to have handled the fake.


  • << <i>Interesting. Sounds like the fake stuff is getting pretty good. >>



    image

    Looks like its time for the BEP to escalate its never-ending war with the counterfeiters..
  • 1jester1jester Posts: 8,637 ✭✭✭
    I came across a fake new $5 in Warsaw a couple years ago (and alerted the proper authorities), but so far haven't seen any fake $100s.

    imageimageimage
    .....GOD
    image

    "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9

    "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5

    "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
  • LanLordLanLord Posts: 11,723 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It't getting to the point where I don't wanna take a hundred any more.

    When I go to the bank and get my usual withdraw of several thousand dollars (daily I might add) I just don't have time to look through all those hundredsimage
  • BuffaloIronTailBuffaloIronTail Posts: 7,547 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Fake C-notes are being passed in a way that 99 out of a hundred people would not know it.

    All you have to do is look at the watermark.........that will tell you.

    The recent "craze" in counterfieting involves taking normal $5.00 bills and then soaking them to remove the ink.

    They are then printed to be a higher denomination on GENUINE paper.

    When the pen is applied, they appear to be normal.

    Before you accept ANY 100, 50, or 20..........look at the watermark. If the watermark shows Lincoln.....the bill is FAKE.

    Pete
    "I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
  • goose3goose3 Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭
    Pete....

    I believe the one I had DID have some sort of watermark. I did not think to look at that but the one teller remarked that she had never seen a fake with a watermark. I believe she was commenting because that bill did indeed have some sort of mark.
  • ERER Posts: 7,345
    So, where did it originate from?
  • goose3goose3 Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭
    well my co-worker was informed that his were likely out of Africa but it sounds like China would be a good guess as well.


    as far as that note.....probably Kentucky Fried Chicken in town.
    image

    they had the last one (a 20.00) that I handled at my bank while on duty.
  • LongacreLongacre Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
    Can you please provide more details on this "pen"? I never heard of it.
    Always took candy from strangers
    Didn't wanna get me no trade
    Never want to be like papa
    Working for the boss every night and day
    --"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
  • BuffaloIronTailBuffaloIronTail Posts: 7,547 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The lack of a watermark would go a long way to proving the bill is bogus.

    Always check for one.

    It disturbs me that our special paper is being manufactured so that the pen shows it as real.

    That's not good.................

    Pete
    "I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
  • The notes and ink are designed to disappear after it dries. That is why every $100 bill does not have the mark on it. They would fill up quickly and have to be taken out of circulation.
    If I was half as smart as I am dumb Iwould be a genious
  • nwcsnwcs Posts: 13,386 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Can you please provide more details on this "pen"? I never heard of it. >>

    I believe it is just a highlighter which marks a fake but doesn't mark a genuine bill. At least in theory.
  • goose3goose3 Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭
    yes, that is scary Pete. In the case of the bills that my friend is working on.....the ink "stays" which makes it even worse! On my personal experience with that one bill in my money, the mark showed long enough for the teller to think it was real and place it in a stack, then disappeared!

    Wife works as a manager at our Target, I explained all of this to her today.

    Some of the bills that I've seized while working are incredibly horrible copies and it amazes me that people actually get some of them to pass for real. With these, even I was fooled for a week!image
  • goose3goose3 Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭


    << <i>The notes and ink are designed to disappear after it dries. That is why every $100 bill does not have the mark on it. They would fill up quickly and have to be taken out of circulation. >>




    I did a quick google.....


    If the bill is counterfeit and the paper is wood-based, the iodine in the pen solution will react with the starch and leave a dark brown or black mark. If the bill is authentic and the paper is fiber-based, there won't be any starch and the pen will not leave a mark.


    it goes on to say that some of the pens have something else in them that will leave a small mark that will disappear after some time so you know what bills you've marked/checked.


    I should clarify my original post and say that when she marked the bill it did not turn Dark brown or black!!!
  • LincolnCentManLincolnCentMan Posts: 5,347 ✭✭✭✭
    I withdrew several thousand dollars for a show about a year ago. I went to the show and bought next to nothing. I went back to the bank the following Monday to deposite the cash. One of the hundreds was an older style one, before the magnetic strip was put in. The teller went through the bills and pulled that one out. For the next five minutes I had to watch two tellers looking over the bill and holding it up to the light. It reminded me of the "hanging chad" deal in Florida. Then the bank manager came and inspected it. After ten minutes of waiting to make the deposit, I told them that I got all of the bills from this bank and they'd better hurry up and give me my depoiste slip. They finally decided it was ok and took it for deposite.

    David
  • fishcookerfishcooker Posts: 3,446 ✭✭

    I would not take a $100, since I cannot afford to flush $100 for accepting a counterfeit.
  • DMWJRDMWJR Posts: 6,042 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I got a bogus $100 from a bank branch too. It was a couple of months ago in Mississippi. They know me there so they took it back, but they asked a lot of questions. I know for a fact that I got it there because nobody else ever gives me change including a $100 bill! It it had been a $20 or lower, I would have wondered if I had picked it up at Wal-Mart or something.
    Doug
  • krankykranky Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
    I think the problem is that even though the BEP puts a good mix of anti-counterfeiting devices on the current bills, all that people do is use an 89 cent pen to check them. If that's all that people are going to do, then all the counterfeiters need to do is figure out how to fool the pen. Bleaching the ink out of genuine currency is sufficient. You have authentic paper, and the colored fibers are still there. But the magnetic strip will either have to be faked, or will be missing altogether.

    And it takes about three seconds to check the watermark, which would ID the fakes.

    New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.

  • ebaytraderebaytrader Posts: 3,312 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I got a bogus $100 from a bank branch too. It was a couple of months ago in Mississippi. >>



    Banks are the biggest passers of bad paper.


    Surprised?
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,731 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's surprising they didn't ask for there money back when it was determined it was fake. They must trust you a lot. image
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • MikeInFLMikeInFL Posts: 10,188 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I think the problem is that even though the BEP puts a good mix of anti-counterfeiting devices on the current bills, all that people do is use an 89 cent pen to check them. If that's all that people are going to do, then all the counterfeiters need to do is figure out how to fool the pen. Bleaching the ink out of genuine currency is sufficient. You have authentic paper, and the colored fibers are still there. But the magnetic strip will either have to be faked, or will be missing altogether.

    And it takes about three seconds to check the watermark, which would ID the fakes. >>



    I'm not sure I agree.

    The bleached bill, as you describe, would still have the watermark. The watermark is made during the paper manufacture and is a feature of the paper itself which will not be modified by bleach.

    That being said, and from what I understand, bleaching will remove the colored fibers too.

    Please also explain how the magnetic strip will disappear if the paper is bleached?

    Take care...Mike
    Collector of Large Cents, US Type, and modern pocket change.
  • i wonder how much of our curency is bogus?
  • krankykranky Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
    With bleached bills, the watermark will still be there, but it won't be the correct picture for the denomination. And the strip won't be in the right position for that denomination (plus won't have the right value printed on the strip, unless it's faked).

    New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.

  • BigE2BigE2 Posts: 1,037
    image this just sucks. Just sent details to the wife. She works at a bank and they have had no warnings about these.
  • I would've liked to have seen this, it's too bad it was always at the bank and you didn't scan it at home. Just wondering if I would've been able to tell.
  • goose3goose3 Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭
    for 100.00 it probably would have been worth it to keep it.

    if I had taken it home I probably would not have had the ease of exchange on the new one.

    that and the bank was wanting to use it for educational purposes until they turned it over to the SS.


  • << <i>image this just sucks. Just sent details to the wife. She works at a bank and they have had no warnings about these. >>



    They have been warned for years. I took a week long class taught by the Secret Service in 2001 at the ANA summer seminar on counterfeit US currency. The superbills from Asia are very deceiving but can still be caught. Within weeks of the new $100 bills coming out counterfeits started appearing and pamphlets made by the Secret Service for every US bank.

    Cameron Kiefer
  • xbobxbob Posts: 1,979
    If it was an ink jet bill, it looks like the govt. has been using a nearly invisible code to track it's orgin.

    Just in yesterday's Washington Post: Link- Ink Jet pages contain code that link back to printer and time printed. Code cracked by EFF

    Quote form article "The content of the coded information was supposed to be a secret, available only to agencies looking for counterfeiters who use color printers."

    edited to add quote.
    -Bob
    collections: Maryland related coins & exonumia, 7070 Type set, and Video Arcade Tokens.
    The Low Budget Y2K Registry Set
  • Very interesting! I will look more closely at all the hundreds that I get. image
  • pontiacinfpontiacinf Posts: 8,915 ✭✭
    hey John

    was that funny money from selling a funny coin?

    (couldnt resist) hope all is well on your end, as my father would say "don't take any wooden nickles"
    image

    Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
  • BarryBarry Posts: 10,100 ✭✭✭
    Somewhat related to xbob's post... Ever try to Photoshop a currency image? It won't let you print or save it. This is the case, with US, Euro and several other major notes.
    Also, I've read that ink in pens is date-coded by manufacture date, as a means of document authentication, when necessary.
  • IrishMikeIrishMike Posts: 7,737 ✭✭✭
    Man you are lucky you got it at the bank otherwise would have been an expensive transaction for you.


  • << <i>If the bill is counterfeit and the paper is wood-based >>



    goose, what type of paper is our bills made of. I've had a long
    held conspiracy theory that our paper is made from hemp.
    part of the reason they refuse to legalize.......
    Is it????
  • Our currency paper is made of 80% cotton 20% linen (It is possible they have dropped the linen content, those figures are a little old.)

    The fake 100's with lincoln watermarks (Printed on bleached out fives) was reported in the news around here about two weeks ago.
  • xbobxbob Posts: 1,979
    A few hours after reading this thread today, I had to go to the bank pick up 2K in hundreds today to pay a contractor. The greeter at the bank was telling me about a guy that got 7K last we at a different bank (Suntrust) and all the watermarks were Lincolns (which wasn't discovered until he tried to spend them). I checked through all mine. They all seemed legit but I noticed the Franklin watermark, although in the same area, is all over the place withing that area. The USA 100 security band, while also in the same place, was reversed on some, upside down on others - no consistency on orientation. With inconsistency like that, how the heck is the average shmoe supposed to ID a fake?

    One bill was even an old style small portrait '85 note. Shouldn't the bank have pulled it from circulation?
    -Bob
    collections: Maryland related coins & exonumia, 7070 Type set, and Video Arcade Tokens.
    The Low Budget Y2K Registry Set
  • You can check you $100's all you want. A mojority of what is being slipped by is $20 bills. People take the attitude that they don't want the larger bills because logically they could make more money off of a fake $100 than a $20. Most of what we see at the bank are $20's. People don't worry about anything under a $50. Plus the $20.00 is the most popular bill. That makes it easier to slip them in. Banks don't just use pen's though. Our counting machines kicks out fakes. The nice part about this is, they also kick out all the older notes. Easier for me to find them. The only plus to spending money on counterfit machines, besides not losing money.

    Just my opinion


  • << <i>The USA 100 security band, while also in the same place, was reversed on some, upside down on others - no consistency on orientation. With inconsistency like that, how the heck is the average shmoe supposed to ID a fake? >>


    I don't understand this comment. What do you mean reversed on some, upside down on others? You say it is in the proper place which is good, but the strip itself should say on it USA $100 and then the same thing upside down and it alternates back and forth between those two. So either way half are upside down and half are right side up when viewed through the front face of the note.

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file