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> It makes me wonder what more sophisticated criminals can get away with.

A lot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar




When I was in Ecuador (which uses the US dollar) it was extremely common to find fake $20s in your change. I could never spot them, but the locals could.

They were exceptionally good, right down to the watermark, security strip, etc. etc. Even when I had a known real one and a known fake one, I couldn't tell them apart.


Well which part about the note made it a "known fake" to the locals?


They could feel the texture with their fingers (I couldn't tell any difference) and the security strip was a tiny, tiny bit longer than it should have been on the fakes.

Even after they told me what to look for, I couldn't tell.


This is precisely the reason the U.S. Treasury still insists on using natural fiber in paper notes. There's more detail in this delightful Esquire article about the making of paper currency:

http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill....


I can't seem to make your link work, but I managed to track down the original article so allow me to repost:

http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill...


That was a fascinating read, thanks!

Tl;dr: 100$ bills produced in all likelihood by a foreign government (suspects are North Korea, Syria, Iran) or maybe criminal gangs are so well done that they are practically indistinguishable from the original.

The numbers printed seem to be pretty low though, and not nearly enough to endanger the economy in any way. Probably its hard to launder the money?


Rates for the US are around 0.01% of circulating notes.

As far as counterfeit currency being a danger to economies, check out Operation Bernhard [1] where Nazi Germany forged British bank notes to flood the economy, with the goal of causing rapid inflation that would be damaging to the government.

There's a good movie as well, from 2007, about the operation: Die Fälsche (The Counterfeiters) [2]. Definitely worth a watch.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard

[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/


Some how this comment reminded me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs

This guy made beautifully artistic bills that didn't look official currency and then made purchases with them at their face value: $100, $500, etc.




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