Amid a bleak economic climate, money is in short supply for many Americans all across the country.  This may lead one to infer that a rise in counterfeit money may be looming or have already begun.  This inherently disadvantageous scenario is not virgin territory, though, as individuals have been counterfeiting money for hundreds of years.

In America, counterfeiting money has proved to be a tempting and valued form of fraud for individuals since the inception of the country itself.  At the outset of the Revolutionary War, the First Continental Congress issued paper money known as “continentals” design to subsidize the financial burden of an extended entanglement with Great Britain.  This earliest form of American currency presented a prime target for eighteenth century counterfeiters as these bills contained very few safeguards deterring counterfeiters. 

Individuals that produced counterfeit money during the formative years of the United States could actually be subject to capital punishment.  Even though counterfeiting money was possible simply through the use of a wooden press, it was viewed as such a serious crime that money printed by Benjamin Franklin included the warning “to counterfeit is death.” 

These harsh punishments existed for counterfeiting money because counterfeit money damages the value of genuine currency, and was viewed at the time as an affront to the nation that disrespected and disregarded its worth.

During the Great Depression, counterfeit money was prevalent in the country, and was most likely a response to the harsh economic circumstances of millions of Americans.  It was at this juncture in time that the United States Treasury and the Secret Service initiated a campaign to educate the banks and citizens in general about counterfeit money and how to detect fraudulent bills.

As time progressed further into the twentieth century, the United States Treasury implemented numerous techniques that made the production of counterfeit money a much more arduous process.  If an individual was not armed with extensive printing presses and the artistic aptitude to mold metal plates, counterfeiting money was virtually impossible.  However, with the advent of home computers, scanners, and printers, counterfeiting money has become a more achievable aim. 

Counterfeit money is not a problem isolated to the United States alone as almost all nations using monetary currency have to deal with this issue.  In fact, sometimes it can be the government itself that engages in counterfeiting money to satisfy an ulterior motive.  The Nazis did just this during the Second World War as they forced Jewish artists to make counterfeit American and English money in an attempt to reduce the worth of the actual currency of those two nations.

In addition to devaluing actual currency, counterfeit money can directly lead to inflation since an excessive amount of money has been flooded into circulation.  Also, businesses that receive counterfeit money due not receive any compensation for their losses which, in turn, may prompt them to raise the prices of the products and services they offer. 

The history of counterfeiting money is continually adding new chapters to its saga.  The most effective manner for government to close the book on this chapter of history is to develop and implement new sophisticated measures of detection.

An individual making counterfeit money can print more currency than the gross domestic product of a small nation, but all the money in the world does not matter if that counterfeiter runs afoul of the law and ends up behind bars.  Printing counterfeit bills does not amuse the government of any nation, and the reprimands and punishments that accompany counterfeiters are not simple slaps on the wrist. 

Individuals making counterfeit money are guilty not of a misdemeanor but of a federal felony.  The Secret Service actually is the governing body that deals with counterfeit issues, and was created as such before its role expanded to include protecting governmental entities like the president.

If convicted, this particular felony carries with it a fifteen year prison sentence.  A prison term of more than a decade is not the only penalty that an individual might face for making counterfeit money.  Various fines will likely be imposed on the counterfeiter, and the government has the right to confiscate materials such as scanners, printers, and computers that aided in the use or creation of the counterfeit currency.   

The penalty for making counterfeiting money is so stringent because fraudulent currency is harmful to the economic prosperity of the nation.  As citizens become less confident in the genuine nature of their money, businesses may produce less and individuals may curtail their spending habits.

Beyond the borders of the United States, other countries offer punishments of varying degrees for those making counterfeit money.  In South Africa, the possession or proliferation of counterfeit bills is also punishable by fifteen years of incarceration as it is in America.  Canada falls into a similar legal bracket as it punishes counterfeiters with as much as fourteen years behind bars.

The creation of counterfeit euros brings with it an entirely different penalty.  Making counterfeit money in Europe will only cost an individual four years in jail, but that individual will face extensive fines and penalties of more than one hundred thousand dollars.  Australia operates within the most lenient of models as counterfeit fraud in that country could only result in two years in jail and a monetary fine of five thousand dollars.

Counterfeiting is illegal everywhere in the world, but governmental views of the gravity of this crime are certainly not uniform.  Although the severity of the punishment can vary, making counterfeit money does not pay off anywhere in the world. 

Most counterfeit money is crafted by individuals who will never become well known to the public at large.  There are some counterfeiters, though, whose production of counterfeit bills is so prodigious and extensive that their names will be remembered in the lexicon of great charlatans for generations to come.  An examination of a few famous cases involving counterfeit money can shine some light on the deeds of these notorious scam artists.

This first case takes us back to the time of the American colonies in the early 1700s.  Mary Butterworth was a Massachusetts resident born in 1710, and purportedly initiated the foundation of her counterfeit bill campaign at the tender young age of six.  Butterworth did not have any home computers or scanners available to aid in her production of counterfeit money as do today’s creators of counterfeit currency.

She used cotton cloth in her formulation of counterfeit bills, which was quite advantageous for her security as the cotton cloths could simply be torched when no longer useful.  This would help eliminate some of the material evidence of her involvement in unlawful activity.  Butterworth manipulated these cotton cloths to produce counterfeit money by placing an iron on top of the cloth and a faceless piece of currency.  She would then draw the necessary patterns of the bill with a quill pen. 

Butterworth was eventually arrested and brought to trial in 1723 in the state of Rhode Island after authorities in that state centered their investigation of a counterfeiting operation on her.  She became the prime suspect in this case only after she and husband bought an uncharacteristically pricey house in the area.

During her trial, a colonial citizen produced two counterfeit bills that he had allegedly received from Butterworth, and her own brother and sister-in-law testified on behalf of the state.  Still, Butterworth was acquitted because the court found that not enough concrete evidence was presented to convict.

During the American Civil War, Samuel C. Upham created counterfeit money that closely resembled the currency of the Confederacy.  His work was so meticulous and authentic looking that citizens of the Confederacy would actually use his counterfeit bills as currency, thus injuring their own fledgling economy.

Although Upham initially made these bills as a mere novelty, he began to produce them on a larger scale as he saw demand for them increase.  He would attempt to acquire as much Confederate currency as possible in order to produce a vast array of counterfeit money for consumption in the seceded states. 

Two years after the inauguration of his business, Upham was in trouble with Union authorities who felt that Upham was creating not only counterfeit bills of the Confederacy but also fraudulent Union money also.  Much like Mary Butterworth, Upham escaped any jail time and had his case thrown out of court.  Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War at the time, directly influenced the dismissal of charges. 

Countless other counterfeiters have come and gone since the heydays of Mary Butterworth and Samuel C. Upham.  However, very few have had such a distinct impact on the world of counterfeiting as these two infamous individuals.

A counterfeit money detector may sound like a high level job title in the U.S. Treasury, but it is simply a term that can be used to describe any of the multitude of protective features built into U.S. currency that assists individuals in identifying fraudulent bills.  Recognizing fake money may sound like a burdensome task, but anyone armed with the knowledge of counterfeit money detectors should possess the capacity to spot illegitimate currency and save themselves the headache of being saddled with useless green paper.

If you suspect you are in possession of a counterfeit bill, one of the first counterfeit money detectors you should examine are the serial numbers on the bill.  Serial numbers printed on authentic currency are always uniformly spaced and printed in ink identical to that of the Treasury Seal on the bill.  Fraudulent bills often have misaligned serial numbers that may be printed in ink of varying shades.

Another counterfeit money detector is the paper that the bill is printed on itself.  All U.S. currency has a distinctive paper texture, and the paper that money is printed on cannot be purchased by the general public.  Therefore, many counterfeit bills will feel strange to the touch, and this is a telltale counterfeit money detector.

On occasion, counterfeit bills are not produced by individuals, but actual bills are altered to raise their monetary value.  For example, you can recognize some counterfeit money detectors by viewing the numerical values in the four corners of the bill and comparing them with the written value of the bill beneath the portrait of the president adorning a given piece of currency.  Sometimes counterfeiters will adhere a higher numerical value to the corners of a bill worth far less, which can often go unnoticed unless one takes the time to examine the entire bill.

When viewing the constituent parts of a bill fails to elucidate any fraud, an effective counterfeit money detector is a special iodine filled pen.  These counterfeit money detectors are most effective at identifying counterfeit bills that are created by individuals on printers and copiers that aren’t of the utmost quality but still looking acceptable to the naked eye.

The counterfeit money detector pen identifies these fraudulent bills because its iodine solution creates a black mark on bills that are printed on wood-based paper.  The U.S. Treasury prints its currency on paper containing fiber instead of wood, and the iodine solution does not react to this form of paper.  Thus, these counterfeit money detectors are effective tools for quickly identifying phony currency.

Counterfeit money can cost individuals and businesses a lot of money if they unwittingly accept these fraudulent bills.  Knowing how to spot counterfeit money detectors is a primary weapon guarding individuals from falling prey to counterfeit currency.