counterfeiting

Video on How to Spot Counterfeits

Philip Brewer — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:00:08 +0000

As part of introducing the new $100 bill that'll come out in February, the US Treasury is producing a video podcast. The current episode is on spotting counterfeit notes.

The previous video in the series looked in particular at the new features that are unique to the new $100 bill. This video looks at the features that are common to all the bills, so it provides a good overview on using the security features to spot counterfeits of US money.

It used to be kind of tricky to spot counterfeits — you needed to look very closely at the printing, looking for whether the fine lines were smooth and even, whether the points were crisp and sharp. Now, with the new security features, it's pretty easy. Here's how to do it:

You can find the ongoing podcast series at the Treasury's new money site.

You might also be interested in my post on How to Spot Counterfeit Money and my post on the New $100 Bill.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

New $5 bill starts circulating today

Philip Brewer — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:28:00 +0000

The new $5 enters circulation today with a ceremonial "first spend" at the gift shop of President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in Washington, D.C. The various Federal Reserve Banks will also start providing new $5 bills as they fill orders for cash from banks. Some banks should have them in a matter of days, although it'll probably be several weeks before you start seeing them.

Having written about the new $5 when the design was unveiled back in October, I wanted to let you know the new bills are actually out there, as of today.

Of course, old $5 bills remain legal tender and should spend just the same.

The treasury is trying to use every avenue to get the word out, including bloggers. (I got email from their advertising agency mentioning my earlier post and inviting me to the event at the Lincoln Cottage!) I guess this makes sense--the more people know that the new bill is coming, the less confusion there'll be. Also, the more people know about the new security measures, the tougher it'll be for counterfeiters.

With that in mind, here are the new security measures:

There are now two watermarks--a large numeral 5 on the right where there used to be a portrait of Lincoln and three smaller 5s in a column to the left:

The security thread has been moved to the right of the portrait:

The idea behind both the changes is to make the bill more different from higher denomination bills, so it'll be easier to spot counterfeits made by bleaching out a $5 and printing a counterfeit $50 or $100 bill on the paper.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

New $5 bill unveiled

Philip Brewer — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:14:05 +0000

The US Treasury today unveiled a new $5 bill, with security features intended to make it harder to bleach out a $5 and use the paper to counterfeit a $100 bill.

Until about ten years ago, a growing form of counterfeiting was bleaching out $1s and printing $50s or $100s on the paper. For the past ten years, though, new large-denomination notes (but not $1 or $2 bills) have had security features to make this harder:

A watermark that is visible when you hold the bill up to the light, showing an image that matches the portrait.

A security thread embedded in the paper and is visible when you hold the bill up to a light, showing the denomination of the bill and an image that's unique to that bill.

Both the security thread and the watermark are actually part of the paper, meaning that it is impossible to copy them using any sort of printing technique. This provides some real security.

Now that people are getting used to seeing the security features, counterfeiters have started having trouble passing paper that doesn't have them. Since the $1 and $2 bills don't have them, it's no longer practical to use the old bleach-a-$1-bill technique for getting paper for counterfeit hundreds. The $5 bill, though, does have these feaures, and even though it's a more expensive source of paper, counterfeiters have been using them.

The security features on the new $5 have been changed to make that less successful.

Changes

The new $5 has the security thread moved to the right of the portrait, to make it more different from the $100.

The new $5 still has a watermark, but the image has been changed to that of the numeral 5. (Different as the portrait of Lincoln was from that of Franklin, it's certainly true that a 5 is even more different.) There's also a second watermark with three numerals 5, one above the other, to the left of Lincoln's portrait.

The new bill also follows in the footsteps of other new bills by adding color--the new $5 is a pale purple.

The new bills will enter circulation in early 2008.

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This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: