Counterfeit Money

Nowadays, the federal government has to do even more to make it difficult for counterfeiters. With copying machines making more and more realistic copies, paper money had to be changed. Luckily, there is a very small percentage of counterfeit paper money actually in circulation. These are some things you can look for when you have paper money:

	Check how the paper feels. U.S. money is made of a linen-cotton mixture. Even though it feels like paper, it is actually CLOTH! The difference between this and the paper that counterfeiters use is the first thing that puts bank tellers on alert.
	The paper has colored threads that are actually in the paper. Counterfeiters try to copy these threads by printing them on the paper. If you look carefully at counterfeit money, you can see that they aren’t part of the paper.
	The print on the paper is slightly raised. This means that you should be able to run your finger across the paper and feel differences. The inked places will feel a little bit higher than the blank areas. You might feel a ridge on the outside border areas.
	There are patterns printed on the paper that we can't actually see. They are small and change the colors of patterns that are printed on top of them. Take another bill and compare it with the one you think might be counterfeit. Check the colors to see if any of them are different.
	Counterfeiters have a hard time clearly printing tiny lines. If you look at the black, leafy border around a one dollar bill, you will see webs of lines. On a real dollar bill, these lines will be sharp and on a counterfeit dollar, they will be a little blurry.
	The new $20.00 bills have a plastic security strip on the left side of the front of the bill. This is the side with President Andrew Jackson's picture. You should be able to see the strip that says "USA Twenty" from both sides.
	There is color changing ink on the $20.00 bill. If you tilt the bill backwards and then forwards, the ink color will change on the number 20 at the bottom right corner.
	There is a watermark that matches the face of the president who is on the bill. You can see this by holding the bill up to a light.
	There are two places on the front of paper money that have long lines of numbers and letters called serial numbers. Both serial numbers on any bill should match.

Counterfeiting is illegal. People who are caught counterfeiting will pay huge fines and go to jail. If you have a counterfeit bill, you need to report it to a Secret Service office. If you know you have a counterfeit bill, and try to use it to buy something, then you could go to jail and have to pay fines just as though you were the one who made it. Check your money!