At first glance, a dollar bill may seem simple. But after looking at it closely the detail comes alive. The U.S. Treasury makes bills very complicated so that counterfeit money can be detected. Other countries use other methods of keeping their money safe.  Counterfeiting is one of the oldest crimes in history.  It is illegal and the people who are found printing counterfeit money face big consequences. Counterfeiters could get a $1500 fine, imprisonment or both for making any type of false money over $0.05.

Things are done to the bills in the United States so that they are very hard to copy. They have a portrait that can be detected if there is a mistake in copying the portrait. The U.S. Treasury also uses color changing ink. This ink changes from green to black and prevents people from copying. It is unavailable to the public. These are just a few ways The U.S. Treasury protects money from counterfeiters.  If you wish to learn how to identify counterfeit money yourself, visit the Secret Service web site to learn how!

Counterfeiting is usually done with a photo copier or a scanner. But a long time ago people would copy money by hand. This definitely was time consuming but some people thought it was worth it. Counterfeiting was a serious problem in the US during the 19th century because the banks issued their own currency. Some people tried copying by hand and the bank name they wrote on the guarantee was a non-existent bank. Banks would also look for mistakes in the designs on the note. Sometimes the counterfeiter would forget to write some things on the bill.  At the time of the Civil War, it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. Some people believed that when a national currency was adopted in 1863, it would stop the counterfeiting problem. However, the national currency was also counterfeited. It became necessary for the government to put a stop to it. On July 5, 1865, the United States Secret Service was started to stop  counterfeiting. Today counterfeit bills can still be detected. Usually even the best copiers or scanners cannot copy the fine writing on the bills clearly. 

In the United States, the paper of $10 bills and over use a special type of paper that has little threads running through it. A counterfeit bill would not have these threads.  On October 9th, 2003 the United States introduced a newly designed $20 bill that makes it more difficult to counterfeit.  To learn about the bill follow this link to the Department of the Treasury web site and click on the "Explore the Interactive Bill" button.  

Counterfeiting is a pretty serious crime. With technology constantly changing, counterfeiters are finding it very difficult to pass fake money. Counterfeiters do get caught and are punished for their crimes.

Citations

Books

Armentrout, Patricia.  Protecting Money. Vero Beach, Florida: The Rourke Press, Inc. 1996.

Web Sites

Pearson Education. Fact Monster.com.  "Counterfeit Money." 2000-2003. <http://www.factmonster.com/index.html> (February, 2004).

Images

Images of stack of bills, copy machine and bank from "Microsoft Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?cag=1> (December, 2004).

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