We recently reported that Ben Franklin is getting a facelift this October with a litany of new features designed to make replication damn near impossible. But even with the enhanced security, there are still plenty of bills being passed around that may not be worth the paper they’re printed on.
Joe DeSantis, an assistant special agent with the Secret Service, told 24/7 Wall St. that “most people don’t realize that they have counterfeit [money] until they try to make a deposit at the bank or [with] a merchant.” Another special agent with the Secret Service, Ed Lowery, said, “It is a constantly evolving process of putting more and more features on the bill to allow the common citizen to detect counterfeit.”
Here are eight tips for spotting counterfeit money:
1. Portrait: On a real bill, the portrait tends to stand out from the background. However, on a counterfeit bill, the portrait’s coloring tends to blend too much with the rest of the bill.
2. Federal Reserve and Treasury Seals: One way to detect a counterfeit is by looking at the coloring. If the color of the Treasury Seal does not match the color of the serial number, the bill is fake.
3. The Border: The outside border on real paper currency is “clear and unbroken,” according to the Secret Service. However, the agency notes the edges on a counterfeit bill can be “blurred and indistinct.”
4. Serial Numbers: The Secret Service points out that the serial numbers on a note must be the same color as the Treasury Seal. The agency also notes that the numbers on counterfeit bills “may not be uniformly spaced or aligned.”
5. The Paper: Real bills have tiny red and blue fibers embedded in the paper, and counterfeiters have tried to replicate those. Ink marks can be printed onto the paper to look like hairs.
6. Starch: At many grocery and convenience stores, clerks will use an iodine-based counterfeiting pen. The pen reacts to the starch in the paper. If the bill is real, the ink turns yellow. But if the bill is counterfeit, it will turn a dark blue or black.
7. The Feel: Real currency has a “raised texture” to it because of the type of press used to produce the bills. Counterfeit bills feel flat because they are often made digitally or on an offset press.
8. The Watermark: The watermark is the shadow of the portrait that appears when you hold the bill up to light. “That is one of the easiest ways for the common citizen to identify counterfeit versus genuine,” DeSantis said.
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