I worked at a gas station, and just constantly handled money the same way. You'd feel that odd smoothness, and the weight was different. My favorite moments though was pre 1965 quarters. They clinked different, I'd dig into my pocket immediately to change one of those out.
Well it's called "rag paper" its still available in certain areas..and aqua net helps the paper give that real feel....just a light coating over the top,... 😉
Same, I was a vault teller so the amount of bills going through my hands it was nearly impossible for a fake to get me. You can't describe it unless you just know.
this was actually way more interesting than i expected it to be. he's professional/well-spoken but he keeps it interesting with cool tidbits like that pablo escobar's money made by generations of artisans is still in circulation
About 25 years ago one of my professors brought in an active agent that was a friend of hers. He also referenced To Live and Die in LA as the most accurate depiction of counterfeiting in film.
I love how this guy is so focused on how the real consequences of counterfeit are economic, not moral. It's not about lying or fraud or something, it's about _inflation_ which, as we are all discovering at the moment, is way way worse.
@@mellamojeff458 I really people would stop spreading this. You know what happens when you don't bailout large firms- especially financial institutions? The Great Depression. Anyway, the reason the government increases spending when the economy isn't doing so hot is because of Keynesian economic theory. Essentially, the way you get out of a recession is by keeping your consumption high through maintaining wages- prices raising is an unfortunate side effect of this but it's either that or millions of people suddenly losing their jobs at once, which means they are all now competing with each other for jobs, which drives wages down, which decreases consumption, which means businesses decrease supply, which means layoffs, which means more job competition and even _lower_ wages. ETC The real issue is that when the recession is over and the economy is booming again, you're supposed to decrease spending and raise taxes to reduce the deficit, pay off debt (thereby increasing your credit rating and reducing interest rates for the country) and take measures to let the bad businesses fail by cutting some subsidies and such. Now the reason this last part doesn't get done comes down to elections. You can get elected off of raising taxes and increasing spending, or lowering taxes and decreasing spending, but you can't get elected on austerity measures. No one likes austerity measures, not the people, not businesses, nobody. Also, a proper cutting of subsidies and raising of taxes in the boom times would put a whole lot of small businesses... well, out of business. Small businesses are often economically inefficient, with poor business strategies that result in razor thin margins. In other words, if Mom & Pop were actually good at running a business, they'd either be millionaires by now or have sold the business long before it got to this point. Anyone stubbornly holding on for sentimental reasons is just being selfish- after all its the workers that won't be getting paid living wages, offered chances to move up, or any sort of benefits. But I digress. The point that I'm getting at is that what the fed is doing makes perfect sense. We're in this weird situation where there's both inflation and recession on the horizon, which means there's no easy solution. Can't grow the economy too much or inflation will get out of control, can't raise taxes or the interest rates too much or it will ensure a really big recession. The good news is, both the inflation and recession were caused by the same factor- which was only ever gonna be temporary- so it's it's not a huge deal.
Yup, although I’m just gonna add a little bit more information. It’s not 1 person making 1 million of counterfeit that can drastically decay the dollar, it’s millions of people doing that every day.
The main reason for inflation is corporate greed . Inflation is mainly based on how much the CEOs are paid . The more money the rich people make the more inflation is . There's no money fairy that gives CEOs their ridiculous salaries . The consumers pay their salaries .
I've delivered construction equipment to the Canadian Mint and it is no joke. You can't bring a penny into or out of the place without it being inspected.
When Willem DeFoe was on Inside the Actors Studio he was asked by a member of the audience about working the presses. Turned out the guys family were all printers & recognized what he was doing & that it was correct. He also told about having ex-cons there to teach him. Even though they were way out in the desert every times helicopter or plane flew over they got nervous.
One of the "classified security features" is the EURion constellation. It's a specific pattern of small dots/symbols that can be recognized by computers while not being obvious to the casual observer. It's existence is public knowledge but nobody will admit to using it or the specifics behind it. A lot of countries use the EURion constellation in their banknotes, but again, they will never admit to it.
And another "classified" security measure are nearly microscopic red and blue fibers they put in the cotton paper before it's pressed. It's a specific amount that's scattered throughout the cotton and is nearly impossible to duplicate without that specific paper making process. A few counterfeits have tried to replicate it by printing these strands, but it's obvious it's printed on instead of being embedded.
My parents own a flower shop, a guy came in and gave a counterfeit 100 one time. They didn't realize it was counterfeit till the guy left. They had camera footage of him and everything, went to the police, and the police refused to investigate it. Wasn't worth their time. Sometimes this stuff really does pay off sadly.
@@Roseyfinchartworks yea... I will mention less than a week later in the next town over (a little smaller/richer) the same thing happened and it was plastered all over the news. Always thought that was funny
Yes lott times the customer doesn't ..realized it was fake yett.even lott half smart our not sure at times .so need how does 1 come up someone .money .
Prior to 1963 and after 1928, all US Currency size was reduced to the present size, the One Dollar Bill was a Silver Certificate or United States Note also known as a Legal Tender. The One Dollar United States Note was issued in Puerto Rico. After 1963 all Currency produced in the United States has been the Federal Reserve Note except for the One Hundred Dollar United States Note. There were some One Dollar Bills during the 1990's that were not produced by intaglio printing. But these One Dollar Bills used a Rotary Press that are known as Web Notes. All United States Currency that is currently being produced is by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing in either Washington DC or Fort Worth Texas. During World War II special United States Currency was issued for use in Hawaii with a Brown US Treasury Seal, Serial Numbers and Hawaii printed on both sides. Issued as a One Dollar Silver Certificates, Five Dollar Federal Reserve Note, Ten Dollar Federal Reserve Note and Twenty Dollar Federal Reserve Note. This was done so only with a stroke of a pen all these notes could be make not valid. This was done also with any money paid to those in the military who were in either North Africa or Europe. There were all Silver Certificates in the denomination of One Five and Ten Dollars and had a Gold Seal and Serial Numbers.
It’s debatable whether this really happened. Possible, yes. How much was a Mad Magazine back then? The mad magazine bill was a three dollar bill, with alfred’s picture on it.
I was a printing press operator when that movie came out. I've done everything they did in it, just not with money. I've cleaned up the negative, shot and developed the plate, mixed ink( no one can do it like that, you will just waste ink) and ran the press. I've even used a manual cutter like that. Those days are long gone now.
I expected this guy to be boring, but he was actually really knowledgable and interesting. He would make an excellent teacher/professor. I actually want to hear him give a full lecture on counterfeiting now.
It is interesting about some of the physical security around money production facilities; I live within a few miles of one and there isn't an entrance onto the motorway there, to slow down the getaway (if there was a theft)
The Bureau of Printing and Engraving facility in Fort Worth is open to the public, you can get a tour and watch them make it. They also sell sheets of uncut currency in the gift shop.
Nope. Had many years handling money. Was the worst fakes ever. Serial Numbers the same. No color changing ink. No security stripe in the bill. Used photocopy paper. Person admitted to scanning and printing the money. Was safe to say that the currency was fake.
whole thing sounds like a disaster to me! So there's super secret security feature in bills, but staff at supermarkets etc will never be allowed to know what they are & therefore forced to accept the counterfeit bills. I really do wonder how America got to where it is with this sort of stuff!
It's a real fact that almost 30 countries use Indian ink for special operations like printing currency and security bonds etc because of special properties.
My friend was getting a $100 bill tattoo and asked me to print him out a picture of both sides, larger than a life size bill for reference. I left it in the printer overnight and my roommate saw it and pulled me aside and was all "I know we're not doing great financially (this was like peak pandemic), but counterfeiting currency is not the answer!" And I just stare at him like he's an idiot. I have a color printer and I printed it black, not to mention it wasn't double sided, I'd have to cut out each side and glue them together. Also they're CLEARLY over 3x the size of a real bill. And it's just the one bill! I told him if I was going to do something that stupid, I'd be way smarter about it 😂
@@EB-yx4fn I'm an artist and a perfectionist, I was insulted he thought I'd even consider the garbage in the printer as anything remotely good or even close to passable, not that he thought I'd commit crimes 😂
We have an old joke about counterfeiting money The man says, when everyone "prints" money, so will I. he went to Germany and was in prison in a week - They ask him why he is in prison: - I printed counterfeit notes - Were they that bad? - No, they were perfect. - ????? - I made a 90 DEM bill
Not to mention that every inkjet or laser printer made for the last 15+ years will incorporate identifying information such as serial numbers about that particular printer whenever currency is printed. I know what you're thinking...those of you who think you'd be okay because you didn't do on online registration after purchase...or you bought it secondhand; but there are some in the know who'll tell you that newer printers that have built in wi-fi ARE capable of immediately reporting upon observance of a scan or print of currency. :) Ah yes...Orwell UNDERestimated, huh?
My favorite little nugget of info to share about Lethal Weapon 4 is that the counterfeits they are making aren't actually for 100 Yuan bills, they are using the 10 Yuan bill in the movie. Which actually makes more sense in the overall plan, because those would be much more common than 100's at the time.
why don't you just put raised tactile dots onto the bills so they can just quickly run their hand over the top of the bill to know what denomination they're holding?
A really nice explanation of some of the security features (of the less recent currency standard) and IIRC even the term "P-note" plus its explanation were also in one of the episodes of Numb3rs.
Customer came into my job the other week with the fakest $10 bill I've ever seen. Just to humor them I used the counterfeit pen, but if anyone saw it they'd know right away 😂.
Those pens shouldn't be used as the first line of defense. There are these boxes that have a backlight to illuminate any watermark, and a blacklight to fluoresce any fluorescent pigments, such as the security strip. And then there's the microprinting details.
@@rphelps4227 because they are relatively easy to defeat. The iodine based pens can be defeated by spraying the fake bill with hairspray. Also in some countries defacing currency is technically a crime, and marking it with a pen is technically defacing it. I can't find reliable info on what's in a non-marking counterfeit pen, but I'm assuming it's a relatively common solvent of sorts. Which can either be defeated by using ink that doesn't dissolve in said solvent, or by applying a coating that's unaffected by the solvent. If you're worried enough about counterfeit money, say you run a bodega in a sketchy part of town, then just get one of those money detector machines. Just feed the bill to the machine, it does all the UV, IR, magnetic, etc testing, much more reliably than any pen ever could. Faster too.
@@fermitupoupon1754 I think most people misunderstand what defacing money is. Also, using a counterfeit marker isn't going to deface the currency since it will disappear after about a day or so.
@@rphelps4227 it can damage the pen if you use it on regular paper, especially with multiple uses. The tactile/visual/UV indicators are better IMO. Plus, you can stick a toothpick through the ribbon on a $100 bill!
@@dubious6718 Yeah, but you can only use that excuse a few times unless you're willing to move a lot. If you want to be stationary then $100 for all that risk doesn't seem too great.
@@dubious6718 the secret service doesn't care if you knew it was fake or not. They don't play around with that stuff. Maybe if they believe your story that you really didn't know, they might let you go, but getting caught with multiple bills, no, it's a wrap. Off to prison and a huge fine of at least $100,000 dollars. You better have a great lawyer too.
To print good quality ones, you're probably right. But the lower quality ones that only pass a casual observation, are probably quite cheap; well under a dollar per note.
What amazes me is the cost to try to catch the counterfeiters, compared to the cost of just doing as the rest of the world does & printing on polymer to make counterfeit near impossible to begin with & save all that money on enforcement. Very counter-productive!
Canada has a "supernote" that was being passed by banks for decades. That was the major incentive to change to a plastic "polymer" note which in theory was more difficult to replicate.
I remember trying to scan a $10 bill back 10 years ago for a website I was designing, the scanner software actually wouldn't let me do it :D of course there are ways around it, but that did kinda amaze me.
fascinating. So you can 3d print guns, but not US dollars, meanwhile in other countries, we just use polymer bank notes, so really no need to limit the printing of it & we can buy toy money with ease too, just not toy guns that look like the real thing
@@user-jj5tq4qs7j I can't imagine it would have been easy to teach a printer to identify & limit it's capacity to print notes either, without malfunctioning it's ability to print a wide range of other objects, such as presidents faces & numbers, but they apparently managed it, back when scanner/printers couldn't even recognise text correctly! FAR more effort needed to find a way to do that than to make polymer notes or find a way to stop people getting/printing guns! Even if people find workarounds, there's obvious actions that could be taken to reduce the ease of doing it & stop the majority
A long time ago, I couldn't exchange genuine US hundred dollar bills in Hong Kong because North Korea was printing some kind of counterfeit super bill.
I would have loved to see your review of the 1960s comedy movie "Who's Minding the Mint" with Jim Hutton, Milton Berle, and many other notable stars of the time.
@@12412... Not "every" printer. However if it is a color laser printer, then most likely yes.. If the printer prints in black only, then it most likely does not have MIC.
US currency is interesting because its really 90% classified in process, but that 10% spans most of its life, being passed around in exchanges, 60% is its production and 30% is its private circulation management
The crazy thing to me is that Frank Abignail actually passed the bar, in real life he said it took more than 2 months of studying where as the movie he said 2 weeks, but still, the man passed the Louisiana bar without ever attending a day of law school.
Frank Abignail's biggest fraud is pretending he was a successful scammer that only was caught once. He was caught many times, spent time in jail in multiple locations. And he has never been hired by the FBI in any real capacity.
in live and die in la that was an offset printer, they do not print off of a metal plate they print off of a rubber blanket, the plate does not touch the paper unlike with letterpress or gravure
This is what I would expect. My favorite coffee shop had a few months of a lot of counterfeit 100s, 50s, 20s coming in and they really started to crack down on the employees, making sure they checked them. But they'd never have checked the 5s and 10s. I have seen a place where they just had a machine to check them and they basically checked everything but that was a rarity.
Why doesn't US money use the more modern security features that other major currencies have adopted? Why not make it harder for the counterfeiters by changing the puzzle they're trying to solve?
Because the US is secretly a bunch of different countries in a trenchcoat pretending to be one country. The same reason we have social security numbers, one of the least secure and most ineffective methods of identification. We think we're more organized and unified than we really are, and that causes huge security weak points
For the same reason it's taking them so long to put a women's picture on a banknote - everything is political and nothing changes without a fight. And the vending machines would have to be upgraded as well - and retailers lobby politicians too.
For starters, overhauling the way currency is produced will require a great deal of adjustment for so many other sectors of the economy. Vending machines and importantly ATMs will need to be remade.
An excellent video. Many people dont know that the FBI/CIA has a department that screens all books ready to be published and all movies ready to be released for information that is detrimental to the security of the United States, and even the world. The movie, Three Days of the Condor, with Robert Redford, is all about this department, and what it does. The former author, Tom Clancy, had several meetings with both the CIA and the FBI over several of his books, and the government's interest in where he got information that was so close to the truth. The one I heard the most of was Sum Of All Fears, and it's discussion on how to construct a working nuclear device.
@@chrisnotyou eh, not exactly. True, all currency has no literal value but more a community based value, but the difference between counterfeit and "real" currency is whether it is authorized, if it was printed by the government body responsible for the currency or not.
@@chrisnotyou Bread is also only worth as much as we collectively agree it does. Your value metaphysics is a fallacy because it could be applied to anything at all with the same result.
I thought the whole "burning the bill" to see the color of the smoke was silly. You technically aren't allowed to destroy bills. So burning one to test it seems a bit risky because a)you are potentially destroying a good bill, and b)you are now committing a crime.
I wonder if that Live and Die in LA losing some of its money is why you see currency today for TV that specifically says such on the bill. I have seen some movie money and while the front looks legit as most people know the face of US Bills(specially the $100 note), One reason many films dont show the back today is instead of "In God We Trust" it often says "For Movie and Television Production Only" or something similar.
Guys is clearly smart but at 0:48 he makes a mistake: Federal reserve notes did not exist yet (Fed started 1914). What he meant is national bank notes, since it was currency created by the federal government not the central bank
As long as we’re being pedantic, let’s mention US notes, silver certificates, gold certificates, refunding certificates, not to forget fractional or postal currency.
about a month ago someone tried to pass some fake hundreds through my ups store... the first guy got in (my co-worker wasn't paying attention to just how BAD the note felt)...the second person...we asked her to leave... they were the most sketchy people i've ever seen...
4:15 i once had a cashier rip a bit of a bill i gave her to see if it was counterfeit and then try to refuse it because he couldn't accept ripped bills
Same for almost the entirety of Europe (not just the European Union...) for some reason the USA still sticks to their cotton bills system while most other Western nations have since switched to plastic bills with transparant sections that cannot be printed.
Yes, Australia invented polymer money back in the 1980's, but since that time, the entire developed world has noticed & adopted that tech for it's own currency. America didn't invent it though, so like with everything, they refuse to adopt if they can't lie & claim they did (wifi being a good example of where they simply lie & try to pretend they invented it when they didn't). Smart countries just use the best available tech, regardless of who invented it
US paper money is almost impossible to counterfiet today with all the many safeguards in the money.The denomination strip inside the bills cannot be printed.
Interesting video, but the former Agent was wrong about President Lincoln being concerned about the Confederates printing counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes; the first Federal Reserve Note was printed in 1914. During the Civil War period, most official circulating currency was in the form of Demand Notes, National Bank Notes, and United States Notes.
On a related note, one interesting little-known fact is that the Union was doing the exact same thing to the Confederacy, albeit unofficially. A lot of folks who're aware of it consider that to be a major cause of Confederate monetary struggles later in the war. Wiki link for the main guy involved if anyone cares. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_C._Upham
"taking an image..... you can do that on your phone. And print on a regular printer you bought for 50$ at walmart" Pro tip: also pay with a phone app for the printer.
Europe and US printed over 2 trillion euros and 3.3 trillion dollars respectively the last decade, with enormous inflation as a result. It feels a little weird hearing this man talking about the economic impact of printing some small time money counterfeiting.
I worked at a bank 20 years ago and I've seen good fakes and bad fakes, but what always gave the counterfeit bills away was the feel of the paper.
I worked at a gas station, and just constantly handled money the same way. You'd feel that odd smoothness, and the weight was different. My favorite moments though was pre 1965 quarters. They clinked different, I'd dig into my pocket immediately to change one of those out.
@@jbfairchild people under estimate the weight of money honestly. It is actually quite heavier than most think
Well it's called "rag paper" its still available in certain areas..and aqua net helps the paper give that real feel....just a light coating over the top,... 😉
Australia moved over to polymer and it's really good..
Same, I was a vault teller so the amount of bills going through my hands it was nearly impossible for a fake to get me. You can't describe it unless you just know.
this was actually way more interesting than i expected it to be. he's professional/well-spoken but he keeps it interesting with cool tidbits like that pablo escobar's money made by generations of artisans is still in circulation
best $100 bills ever were made with phone books true story,the paper used for phone books fooled the counterfeit markers
Scary😵💫
About 25 years ago one of my professors brought in an active agent that was a friend of hers. He also referenced To Live and Die in LA as the most accurate depiction of counterfeiting in film.
I love how this guy is so focused on how the real consequences of counterfeit are economic, not moral. It's not about lying or fraud or something, it's about _inflation_ which, as we are all discovering at the moment, is way way worse.
and the federal reserve still doesn't understand that printing millions more is bad but WE CANT LET THE BUSINESSES FAIL
@@mellamojeff458 I really people would stop spreading this. You know what happens when you don't bailout large firms- especially financial institutions? The Great Depression.
Anyway, the reason the government increases spending when the economy isn't doing so hot is because of Keynesian economic theory. Essentially, the way you get out of a recession is by keeping your consumption high through maintaining wages- prices raising is an unfortunate side effect of this but it's either that or millions of people suddenly losing their jobs at once, which means they are all now competing with each other for jobs, which drives wages down, which decreases consumption, which means businesses decrease supply, which means layoffs, which means more job competition and even _lower_ wages. ETC
The real issue is that when the recession is over and the economy is booming again, you're supposed to decrease spending and raise taxes to reduce the deficit, pay off debt (thereby increasing your credit rating and reducing interest rates for the country) and take measures to let the bad businesses fail by cutting some subsidies and such.
Now the reason this last part doesn't get done comes down to elections. You can get elected off of raising taxes and increasing spending, or lowering taxes and decreasing spending, but you can't get elected on austerity measures. No one likes austerity measures, not the people, not businesses, nobody.
Also, a proper cutting of subsidies and raising of taxes in the boom times would put a whole lot of small businesses... well, out of business. Small businesses are often economically inefficient, with poor business strategies that result in razor thin margins. In other words, if Mom & Pop were actually good at running a business, they'd either be millionaires by now or have sold the business long before it got to this point. Anyone stubbornly holding on for sentimental reasons is just being selfish- after all its the workers that won't be getting paid living wages, offered chances to move up, or any sort of benefits.
But I digress. The point that I'm getting at is that what the fed is doing makes perfect sense. We're in this weird situation where there's both inflation and recession on the horizon, which means there's no easy solution. Can't grow the economy too much or inflation will get out of control, can't raise taxes or the interest rates too much or it will ensure a really big recession. The good news is, both the inflation and recession were caused by the same factor- which was only ever gonna be temporary- so it's it's not a huge deal.
@@Jay2JayGaming sorry if that happened to you or not
Yup, although I’m just gonna add a little bit more information. It’s not 1 person making 1 million of counterfeit that can drastically decay the dollar, it’s millions of people doing that every day.
The main reason for inflation is corporate greed . Inflation is mainly based on how much the CEOs are paid . The more money the rich people make the more inflation is . There's no money fairy that gives CEOs their ridiculous salaries . The consumers pay their salaries .
I've delivered construction equipment to the Canadian Mint and it is no joke. You can't bring a penny into or out of the place without it being inspected.
Somehow I can't get my local SevenEleven to accept my $3 bills. The image of Kim Kardashian is flawless,everything is perfect.
Must be the paper.
It may be because it isn't wide enough to be a real Kardashian bill.
Did you light it on fire to prove that it was real?
@@SidneyBroadshead Yep, their asses would never fit on something that small.
The cashier is gonna know that 3 dollar bill is as fake as kim Kardashian's a$$
When Willem DeFoe was on Inside the Actors Studio he was asked by a member of the audience about working the presses. Turned out the guys family were all printers & recognized what he was doing & that it was correct. He also told about having ex-cons there to teach him. Even though they were way out in the desert every times helicopter or plane flew over they got nervous.
Clear, precise and "just the facts, ma'am" - This gentleman knows the business and how to talk about it. 🤑
surprised they showed to live and die in LA. it’s very underrated imo. it’s not your average action movie
My favorite movie with Willem Defoe early in his career. Been a fan since.
ikr. Fantastic movie. Even the Wang Chung soundtrack is underrated.
One of the "classified security features" is the EURion constellation. It's a specific pattern of small dots/symbols that can be recognized by computers while not being obvious to the casual observer. It's existence is public knowledge but nobody will admit to using it or the specifics behind it. A lot of countries use the EURion constellation in their banknotes, but again, they will never admit to it.
FBI! Open your Doors!
And another "classified" security measure are nearly microscopic red and blue fibers they put in the cotton paper before it's pressed. It's a specific amount that's scattered throughout the cotton and is nearly impossible to duplicate without that specific paper making process. A few counterfeits have tried to replicate it by printing these strands, but it's obvious it's printed on instead of being embedded.
@@tylerharry6319 He mentioned the colored fibers.
I think its called the orion constellation
Some standard printers pick up this pattern and censor the print or decline to print
My parents own a flower shop, a guy came in and gave a counterfeit 100 one time. They didn't realize it was counterfeit till the guy left. They had camera footage of him and everything, went to the police, and the police refused to investigate it. Wasn't worth their time. Sometimes this stuff really does pay off sadly.
The customer might not even know that it was a fake, so it takes a lot of time to investigate, so its rarely worth the time.
Yeah unless it’s thousands of dollars of counterfeits they will not investigate
@@Roseyfinchartworks yea... I will mention less than a week later in the next town over (a little smaller/richer) the same thing happened and it was plastered all over the news. Always thought that was funny
Yes lott times the customer doesn't ..realized it was fake yett.even lott half smart our not sure at times .so need how does 1 come up someone .money .
And telll them I find this on your grounds.
Prior to 1963 and after 1928, all US Currency size was reduced to the present size, the One Dollar Bill was a Silver Certificate or United States Note also known as a Legal Tender. The One Dollar United States Note was issued in Puerto Rico. After 1963 all Currency produced in the United States has been the Federal Reserve Note except for the One Hundred Dollar United States Note. There were some One Dollar Bills during the 1990's that were not produced by intaglio printing. But these One Dollar Bills used a Rotary Press that are known as Web Notes. All United States Currency that is currently being produced is by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing in either Washington DC or Fort Worth Texas.
During World War II special United States Currency was issued for use in Hawaii with a Brown US Treasury Seal, Serial Numbers and Hawaii printed on both sides. Issued as a One Dollar Silver Certificates, Five Dollar Federal Reserve Note, Ten Dollar Federal Reserve Note and Twenty Dollar Federal Reserve Note. This was done so only with a stroke of a pen all these notes could be make not valid. This was done also with any money paid to those in the military who were in either North Africa or Europe. There were all Silver Certificates in the denomination of One Five and Ten Dollars and had a Gold Seal and Serial Numbers.
Would've loved to have him review the counterfeiting method used in Reacher (Amazon Prime).
I remember when To Live & Die in LA came out ..... kids in high school printing shops all over America started printing $20's
Someone should talk about the time Mad Magazine printed a joke bill... that was close enough that it was usable in vending machines.
what, me worry :P
@@MrSteve420b said alfred newman😆
That's more an indication of how bad the scanners are in vending machines. (not they'll ever be as good as a bank.)
It’s debatable whether this really happened. Possible, yes.
How much was a Mad Magazine back then?
The mad magazine bill was a three dollar bill, with alfred’s picture on it.
I was a printing press operator when that movie came out. I've done everything they did in it, just not with money. I've cleaned up the negative, shot and developed the plate, mixed ink( no one can do it like that, you will just waste ink) and ran the press. I've even used a manual cutter like that. Those days are long gone now.
Still print in my basement on a multi 1250,it's in my blood
@@scottgarber4558 Ran one of those, worked my way up to Heidelbergs. Retired now, don't miss it.
Agent Wackrow was great! Hope he comes back for a part 2. They could talk about the first season of Reacher.
I expected this guy to be boring, but he was actually really knowledgable and interesting. He would make an excellent teacher/professor. I actually want to hear him give a full lecture on counterfeiting now.
It is interesting about some of the physical security around money production facilities; I live within a few miles of one and there isn't an entrance onto the motorway there, to slow down the getaway (if there was a theft)
The Bureau of Printing and Engraving facility in Fort Worth is open to the public, you can get a tour and watch them make it. They also sell sheets of uncut currency in the gift shop.
@@chrisc3878 that doesn't mean it can't be secure
@@chrisc3878 That's meant to be part of the facade. Langley has a gift shop, too - even though it's in the basement.
Live and die I'm L.A. was a great movie.
Really under rated.
It is a good movie, but I haven't seen it in over 30 years and can't find it streaming anywhere :-(
I've actually caught a counterfeiter.
He photocopied bills and i knew they were fake by the paper
Are you a police officer?
Nope. Had many years handling money. Was the worst fakes ever.
Serial Numbers the same.
No color changing ink.
No security stripe in the bill.
Used photocopy paper.
Person admitted to scanning and printing the money.
Was safe to say that the currency was fake.
@@PUgrad05 Those would be easily identifiabla counterfeights, yes, but how did you catch the counterfeiter?
This video is of good enough quality to be used as training for business employees.
They want to see who watched it so they can get leads when the funny money starts floating around.
whole thing sounds like a disaster to me! So there's super secret security feature in bills, but staff at supermarkets etc will never be allowed to know what they are & therefore forced to accept the counterfeit bills. I really do wonder how America got to where it is with this sort of stuff!
I could listen to this man speak for hours.
It's a real fact that almost 30 countries use Indian ink for special operations like printing currency and security bonds etc because of special properties.
This feels illegal to watch 😂 But this guy is an amazing speaker and explains the topic so well!
My friend was getting a $100 bill tattoo and asked me to print him out a picture of both sides, larger than a life size bill for reference. I left it in the printer overnight and my roommate saw it and pulled me aside and was all "I know we're not doing great financially (this was like peak pandemic), but counterfeiting currency is not the answer!" And I just stare at him like he's an idiot. I have a color printer and I printed it black, not to mention it wasn't double sided, I'd have to cut out each side and glue them together. Also they're CLEARLY over 3x the size of a real bill. And it's just the one bill! I told him if I was going to do something that stupid, I'd be way smarter about it 😂
😂 yeah at LEAST he could give you some credit for being better at crimes!
@@EB-yx4fn I'm an artist and a perfectionist, I was insulted he thought I'd even consider the garbage in the printer as anything remotely good or even close to passable, not that he thought I'd commit crimes 😂
We have an old joke about counterfeiting money
The man says, when everyone "prints" money, so will I.
he went to Germany and was in prison in a week
- They ask him why he is in prison:
- I printed counterfeit notes
- Were they that bad?
- No, they were perfect.
- ?????
- I made a 90 DEM bill
Not to mention that every inkjet or laser printer made for the last 15+ years will incorporate identifying information such as serial numbers about that particular printer whenever currency is printed. I know what you're thinking...those of you who think you'd be okay because you didn't do on online registration after purchase...or you bought it secondhand; but there are some in the know who'll tell you that newer printers that have built in wi-fi ARE capable of immediately reporting upon observance of a scan or print of currency. :) Ah yes...Orwell UNDERestimated, huh?
@@TLL1969 hahahahaha good one
My favorite little nugget of info to share about Lethal Weapon 4 is that the counterfeits they are making aren't actually for 100 Yuan bills, they are using the 10 Yuan bill in the movie. Which actually makes more sense in the overall plan, because those would be much more common than 100's at the time.
Watch 2 counterfeit videos in a row and now I feel like I'm on a watchlist after this 🤣
😂😂
Shout out William Friedkin !
Didn't the Secret Service attempt to censor To Live And Die In LA's counterfeiting scene, because it was so accurate and to the point?
Yes
On the flip-side, they got a great free training video.
The raised ink on genuine currency is why a blind person candistinguish a bill's denomination by feel, so that is very cool.
why don't you just put raised tactile dots onto the bills so they can just quickly run their hand over the top of the bill to know what denomination they're holding?
Or you could add brail like all other civilised countries
we have plastic bills in the UK, with holograms and transparent sections, not easy to photocopy...
Plastic is definitely the way to go.
We've been doing it in Australia for around 30 years now.
yeh, I think the entire developed world has switched to polymer a LONG time ago!
@@mehere8038 except the eu..... a pretty major part of the world if you ask me
This is how a supernote has been described: American money that just wasn't made here. That's how close it is to the real one.
one of the single most interesting episodes VF has ever done. fascinating stuff, thanks for bringing such an expert on!
A really nice explanation of some of the security features (of the less recent currency standard) and IIRC even the term "P-note" plus its explanation were also in one of the episodes of Numb3rs.
When its cheaper to buy a printer and risk jail time/money then go to fill up your car with gas.
There was a restaurant in Hopkins MN that was printing out there employees pay in fake money 😢
Customer came into my job the other week with the fakest $10 bill I've ever seen. Just to humor them I used the counterfeit pen, but if anyone saw it they'd know right away 😂.
Those pens shouldn't be used as the first line of defense. There are these boxes that have a backlight to illuminate any watermark, and a blacklight to fluoresce any fluorescent pigments, such as the security strip.
And then there's the microprinting details.
@@ZeldagigafanMatthew why shouldn't they be used as a first line?
@@rphelps4227 because they are relatively easy to defeat. The iodine based pens can be defeated by spraying the fake bill with hairspray. Also in some countries defacing currency is technically a crime, and marking it with a pen is technically defacing it.
I can't find reliable info on what's in a non-marking counterfeit pen, but I'm assuming it's a relatively common solvent of sorts. Which can either be defeated by using ink that doesn't dissolve in said solvent, or by applying a coating that's unaffected by the solvent.
If you're worried enough about counterfeit money, say you run a bodega in a sketchy part of town, then just get one of those money detector machines. Just feed the bill to the machine, it does all the UV, IR, magnetic, etc testing, much more reliably than any pen ever could. Faster too.
@@fermitupoupon1754 I think most people misunderstand what defacing money is. Also, using a counterfeit marker isn't going to deface the currency since it will disappear after about a day or so.
@@rphelps4227 it can damage the pen if you use it on regular paper, especially with multiple uses.
The tactile/visual/UV indicators are better IMO. Plus, you can stick a toothpick through the ribbon on a $100 bill!
As a general rule, trying to counterfeit US currency is a really, really bad idea.
(Unless you want to go to prison)
Stay small and never carry more than 1-2 fake at any time, then you have deniability. How could I know that they were fake..
@@dubious6718 Yeah, but you can only use that excuse a few times unless you're willing to move a lot. If you want to be stationary then $100 for all that risk doesn't seem too great.
@@dubious6718 the secret service doesn't care if you knew it was fake or not. They don't play around with that stuff. Maybe if they believe your story that you really didn't know, they might let you go, but getting caught with multiple bills, no, it's a wrap. Off to prison and a huge fine of at least $100,000 dollars. You better have a great lawyer too.
Now we know why Vanity Fair's printing presses are still alive and well.
VF uses a Chemex in the credits then sticks our man with a $20 hotel room coffee maker.
You'd have to think, with all the security details in U.S. bills, it would cost more to print them than their actual worth, unless you printed A LOT.
That's probably why most counterfeiters try and make fraudulent $20, 50, or 100 notes. I heard that below $20, it actually isn't worth doing it.
To print good quality ones, you're probably right. But the lower quality ones that only pass a casual observation, are probably quite cheap; well under a dollar per note.
What amazes me is the cost to try to catch the counterfeiters, compared to the cost of just doing as the rest of the world does & printing on polymer to make counterfeit near impossible to begin with & save all that money on enforcement. Very counter-productive!
@@mehere8038
You say "rest of the world", but most countries, and even most developed countries, use some form of paper money.
@@OriginalPiMan what developed world countries still use paper money instead of polymer?
In Canada our money is polymer, makes it harder to copy.
Canada has a "supernote" that was being passed by banks for decades. That was the major incentive to change to a plastic "polymer" note which in theory was more difficult to replicate.
Australian technology at its finest
I remember trying to scan a $10 bill back 10 years ago for a website I was designing, the scanner software actually wouldn't let me do it :D
of course there are ways around it, but that did kinda amaze me.
fascinating. So you can 3d print guns, but not US dollars, meanwhile in other countries, we just use polymer bank notes, so really no need to limit the printing of it & we can buy toy money with ease too, just not toy guns that look like the real thing
@@mehere8038 it’s kinda hard to limit printing 3d objects
@@user-jj5tq4qs7j everything's hard if there's no will to do it
@@mehere8038 no it’s just harder to limit the printing of 3d objects, woulda thought that’d be obvious
@@user-jj5tq4qs7j I can't imagine it would have been easy to teach a printer to identify & limit it's capacity to print notes either, without malfunctioning it's ability to print a wide range of other objects, such as presidents faces & numbers, but they apparently managed it, back when scanner/printers couldn't even recognise text correctly! FAR more effort needed to find a way to do that than to make polymer notes or find a way to stop people getting/printing guns! Even if people find workarounds, there's obvious actions that could be taken to reduce the ease of doing it & stop the majority
A long time ago, I couldn't exchange genuine US hundred dollar bills in Hong Kong because North Korea was printing some kind of counterfeit super bill.
I would have loved to see your review of the 1960s comedy movie "Who's Minding the Mint" with Jim Hutton, Milton Berle, and many other notable stars of the time.
Remember: Printer paper has an almost invisible self identifying code on it.
Not the paper. Every printer prints a code onto every sheet
@@12412... Not "every" printer. However if it is a color laser printer, then most likely yes.. If the printer prints in black only, then it most likely does not have MIC.
Even if it didn't counterfeiting on one of the printers that can be purchased OfficeDepot would be extremely stupid anyway
US currency is interesting because its really 90% classified in process, but that 10% spans most of its life, being passed around in exchanges, 60% is its production and 30% is its private circulation management
This is fascinating! Bring him back
The crazy thing to me is that Frank Abignail actually passed the bar, in real life he said it took more than 2 months of studying where as the movie he said 2 weeks, but still, the man passed the Louisiana bar without ever attending a day of law school.
Pretty sure he was bullshitting as there was never a record of him or any of his aliases that passed the bar...
a guy like him easily buys or steals exams
and then learn the questions and answers
Frank Abignail's biggest fraud is pretending he was a successful scammer that only was caught once. He was caught many times, spent time in jail in multiple locations. And he has never been hired by the FBI in any real capacity.
Frank Abignail was a con man.
I don't think we should believe everything he tells us.
His greatest con was convincing everyone he was the greatest con man.
in live and die in la that was an offset printer, they do not print off of a metal plate they print off of a rubber blanket, the plate does not touch the paper unlike with letterpress or gravure
It's funny because a lot of the counterfeit that is not caught is in the $5 and $10 market. Less controls, less attention paid.
This is what I would expect. My favorite coffee shop had a few months of a lot of counterfeit 100s, 50s, 20s coming in and they really started to crack down on the employees, making sure they checked them. But they'd never have checked the 5s and 10s.
I have seen a place where they just had a machine to check them and they basically checked everything but that was a rarity.
Why doesn't US money use the more modern security features that other major currencies have adopted? Why not make it harder for the counterfeiters by changing the puzzle they're trying to solve?
1) that change costs a lot at scale
2) they don’t need to yet
3) it’s possible not every puzzle piece is know
Because the US is secretly a bunch of different countries in a trenchcoat pretending to be one country. The same reason we have social security numbers, one of the least secure and most ineffective methods of identification. We think we're more organized and unified than we really are, and that causes huge security weak points
For the same reason it's taking them so long to put a women's picture on a banknote - everything is political and nothing changes without a fight.
And the vending machines would have to be upgraded as well - and retailers lobby politicians too.
There are more security features he didn't talk about but they are classifed, They don't want counterfeiters to know.
For starters, overhauling the way currency is produced will require a great deal of adjustment for so many other sectors of the economy. Vending machines and importantly ATMs will need to be remade.
An excellent video. Many people dont know that the FBI/CIA has a department that screens all books ready to be published and all movies ready to be released for information that is detrimental to the security of the United States, and even the world. The movie, Three Days of the Condor, with Robert Redford, is all about this department, and what it does. The former author, Tom Clancy, had several meetings with both the CIA and the FBI over several of his books, and the government's interest in where he got information that was so close to the truth. The one I heard the most of was Sum Of All Fears, and it's discussion on how to construct a working nuclear device.
He doesn't blink!
Occupational hazard of staring at currency all day trying to detect fakes.
You can't scan a whole bill, the scanner will not allow you to do it. Instead scan it in parts then then merge them together.
It depends on the scanner.
You heard him, as long as only 9999 of us print off a few hundred dollars a day it's okay. We will have to set up a schedule.
9:40 sort of reminds me of the United States government running the printing press 24/7
So my takeaway is that there's still hella lot fake money in circulation even if you can detect it
It's all fake. It's only worth as much as we collectively agree it does. It has no real value.
@@chrisnotyou eh, not exactly. True, all currency has no literal value but more a community based value, but the difference between counterfeit and "real" currency is whether it is authorized, if it was printed by the government body responsible for the currency or not.
@@chrisnotyou Bread is also only worth as much as we collectively agree it does. Your value metaphysics is a fallacy because it could be applied to anything at all with the same result.
@@henrygustavekrausse7459 no, no it doesnt. You can eat bread. Its value as food is intrinsic.
@@chrisnotyou
But the premium some breads have over others, or that various foods have over each other, largely isn't intrinsic.
I was hoping he would discuss the counterfeit process in the recent Reacher show
He's back!
I believe in Money Heist, the Professor is actually quite focused on monetary policy
Thank you Agent Kirk Herbstreit for a very interesting expert review.
I'd like to have seen his take on the "Green Back Jane" arc of Black Lagoon
This was really interesting! It filled in some blanks for me that will help me tweak the batch I’m working on. 😇
I thought the whole "burning the bill" to see the color of the smoke was silly. You technically aren't allowed to destroy bills. So burning one to test it seems a bit risky because a)you are potentially destroying a good bill, and b)you are now committing a crime.
If this man ever gets a chance I want him to check out “gas station encounters” fake 50 video
I wonder if that Live and Die in LA losing some of its money is why you see currency today for TV that specifically says such on the bill. I have seen some movie money and while the front looks legit as most people know the face of US Bills(specially the $100 note), One reason many films dont show the back today is instead of "In God We Trust" it often says "For Movie and Television Production Only" or something similar.
everyone make this man's job as difficult as possible
Guys is clearly smart but at 0:48 he makes a mistake:
Federal reserve notes did not exist yet (Fed started 1914).
What he meant is national bank notes, since it was currency created by the federal government not the central bank
I don't know how he made that error. He should know there were no Federal Reserve notes before the Federal Reserve Bank was created.
As long as we’re being pedantic, let’s mention US notes, silver certificates, gold certificates, refunding certificates, not to forget fractional or postal currency.
It's most likely just a force of habit, happens all the time...
I just saw Wireds video on "how to" counterfeiting. Id love this guy to fact check it
about a month ago someone tried to pass some fake hundreds through my ups store...
the first guy got in (my co-worker wasn't paying attention to just how BAD the note felt)...the second person...we asked her to leave...
they were the most sketchy people i've ever seen...
4:15 i once had a cashier rip a bit of a bill i gave her to see if it was counterfeit and then try to refuse it because he couldn't accept ripped bills
Australia just doesn’t make our money out of paper
Most modern currencies don't use paper any more and even when we did we were using security features that the US hasn't adopted yet.
Same for almost the entirety of Europe (not just the European Union...) for some reason the USA still sticks to their cotton bills system while most other Western nations have since switched to plastic bills with transparant sections that cannot be printed.
Yes, Australia invented polymer money back in the 1980's, but since that time, the entire developed world has noticed & adopted that tech for it's own currency. America didn't invent it though, so like with everything, they refuse to adopt if they can't lie & claim they did (wifi being a good example of where they simply lie & try to pretend they invented it when they didn't). Smart countries just use the best available tech, regardless of who invented it
US paper money is almost impossible to counterfiet today with all the many safeguards in the money.The denomination strip inside the bills cannot be printed.
I service ATMs. I rip money all the time clearing jams. It is stronger then you think but will rip
Printers, at least new ones, will not let you scan a copy of US currency. I believe it’s only starting at one denomination and above. Like $20 and up.
To Live And Die In LA, one of favorite movies.
The Federal Reserve makes the best counterfeit money.
they should have showed some white collar episodes. that show is criminally underrated
Should of had him do Beverly Hills Ninja. Baahahaha “Nice jacket. Who shot the couch.”
Pls do more videos with this guy
It must of been crazy years ago before the new security features
why did they reveal the secrets of how genuine bills are made? they like doing the counterfeiters a huge favor
"To Live and Die in L.A." is an awesome movie!
Interesting video, but the former Agent was wrong about President Lincoln being concerned about the Confederates printing counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes; the first Federal Reserve Note was printed in 1914. During the Civil War period, most official circulating currency was in the form of Demand Notes, National Bank Notes, and United States Notes.
oh sure, mr president glad your here to set him straight
@@narmale He's correct. They couldn't detect counterfeit Federal Reserve notes when the was no Federal Reserve Bank.
Yeah it's really, really weird that someone who is supposed to be an expert on this subject either doesn't know that or straight up lied.
On a related note, one interesting little-known fact is that the Union was doing the exact same thing to the Confederacy, albeit unofficially. A lot of folks who're aware of it consider that to be a major cause of Confederate monetary struggles later in the war.
Wiki link for the main guy involved if anyone cares.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_C._Upham
As a rule, if the government is letting you know how something is done, they have a better something operating.
Cool cool I'm heading to staples now
Awesome video!
The G is silent in "intaglio"
So, what I'm hearing you saying is, if you want to counterfeit money: go yo Staples 😂
Leo is such a good actor bruh
"taking an image..... you can do that on your phone. And print on a regular printer you bought for 50$ at walmart"
Pro tip: also pay with a phone app for the printer.
What happened to that so called $20 note that put 6 police officers in jail? Never heard anything more about that.
Ive always said the most successful businesses are the ones with printing presses in their basement.
Thanks teach
Okie, Now i have all the knowledge to make a counterfeit currency!
Europe and US printed over 2 trillion euros and 3.3 trillion dollars respectively the last decade, with enormous inflation as a result. It feels a little weird hearing this man talking about the economic impact of printing some small time money counterfeiting.
5:55 Okay, so you can't talk about those classified features today; can you talk about them tomorrow? Next week?