Counterfeit money

[1] Before the introduction of paper money, the most prevalent method of counterfeiting involved mixing base metals with pure gold or silver.

Today, some of the finest counterfeit banknotes are called Superdollars because of their high quality and imitation of the real US dollar.

Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised intaglio printing on bills which allows non-experts to easily spot forgeries.

Before the introduction of paper money, the most prevalent method of counterfeiting involved mixing base metals with pure gold or silver.

[7] In the 13th century, Dante Alighieri wrote of Mastro Adamo as a counterfeiter of the Florentine fiorino, punished by burning at the stake.

Evidence supplied by an informant led to the arrest of the last of the English coiners "King" David Hartley, who was executed by hanging in 1770.

In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, Irish immigrants to London acquired a reputation for the production and spending (uttering) of counterfeit money,[9] while locals were more likely to participate in the safer and more profitable forms of currency crime, which could take place behind locked doors.

During the Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763, Prussia disrupted the economy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (ruled by King Augustus III, simultaneously Elector of Saxony) by minting counterfeit Polish coins.

As a result, counterfeit Southern notes were often equal or even superior in quality compared to genuine Confederate money.

An example of this is the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925, when the British banknote printers Waterlow and Sons produced Banco de Portugal notes equivalent in value to 0.88% of the Portuguese nominal Gross Domestic Product, with identical serial numbers to existing banknotes, in response to a fraud perpetrated by Alves dos Reis.

[citation needed] In December 1925, a high-profile counterfeit scandal came to light, when three people were arrested in the Netherlands while attempting to disseminate forged French 1000-franc bills which had been produced in Hungary.

Subsequent investigations uncovered evidence that plot had received widespread support in Hungarian and German nationalist circles including the patronage of high-ranking military and civilian officials.

[citation needed] The affair facilitated the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency in April 1929 and formalized the role of Interpol.

The Nazis took Jewish artists to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and forced them to forge British pounds and American dollars.

[23] As a result of their rarity, gold and silver certificates have sometimes been erroneously flagged as counterfeits in the United States when they have, in fact, been genuine.

[24] Due to the fact that these banknotes carry significant numismatic value and are sought after by collectors, counterfeit examples have surfaced on eBay via unscrupulous sellers.

[citation needed] In the early years of the 21st century, the United States Secret Service has noted a substantial reduction in the quantity of forged U.S. currency, as counterfeiters turn their attention towards the euro.

[31] Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised intaglio printing on bills which would allow non-experts to easily spot forgeries.

In early paper money in Colonial North America, one creative means of deterring counterfeiters was to print the impression of a leaf in the bill.

[11] In the late twentieth century, advances in computer and photocopier technology made it possible for people without sophisticated training to copy currency easily.

In response, national engraving bureaus began to include new, more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting systems such as holograms, multi-colored bills, embedded devices such as strips, raised printing, microprinting, watermarks, and color-shifting inks whose colors changed depending on the angle of the light, and the use of design features such as the "EURion constellation" which disables modern photocopiers.

[35] In the 1990s, the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong was placed on the banknotes of the People's Republic of China to combat counterfeiting, as he was recognised better than the generic designs on the renminbi notes.

In 1988, the Reserve Bank of Australia released the world's first long-lasting and counterfeit-resistant polymer (plastic) banknotes with a special Bicentennial $10 note issue.

[citation needed] Parodies of banknotes, often produced for humorous, satirical or promotional purposes, are fantasy issues, referred to as 'skit notes'.

The artist's original intent was to throw them off a building, but after some of the notes were dropped at a festival, he discovered that they could pass for legal tender and changed his mind.

The sculpture was discovered in Brooklyn two-and-a-half years later by Jessica Reed, a graphic designer and coin collector, who noticed it while paying for groceries at a local store.