Watching for Counterfeits

As economies turn south, counterfeiting tends to increase.  Unfortunately, very few consumers are familiar with the various changes made to US bills in past years. Possesion of a counterfeit bill can lead to its seizure as well as a report to the Secret Service.  The alleged counterfeit is not returned until an investigation determines the bill to be genuine.

The best way to identify a legitimate bill is by its security thread.  Each bill carries a different color and can be identified as follows:

$100 = Red
$50 = Yellow
$20 = Green
$10 = Orange
$5 = Blue

The yellow thread on $50 bills is one of the easiest to identify visually, and for this reason it is one of the least counterfeited bills.  Choosing to accept cash in $50s instead of $100s can reduce your risk of receiving a counterfeit bill.

Merely checking a bill for a security thread is not enough, as clever counterfeiters have taken to bleaching $5 bills and printing $100 notes over them.  This method fools most counterfeit-detecting pens as the bills are genuine lower denomination bills.  A small UV penlight can be purchased for less than $10 and is a good investment if you handle large amounts of cash.  Use of a UV light combined with a knowledge of the security thread’s colors can greatly reduce the chance of being fooled by a counterfeit bill.

photo credit: {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}