Lifehacks Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people looking to bypass life's everyday problems with simple tricks. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Say I do business with somebody and they pay me with a $100 bill. I want to know if it's real or not. I've already held it up to light to inspect the fibers of the paper, but I want to know if there's a hack to ensure it isn't counterfeit.
A method that works similarly to a counterfeit detection pen would be the best.
I recently looked up a similar question myself and I can across a way to make your own counterfeit money pen (if it goes one colour it's real, the other other colour it is fake type thing).
What you need:
What you'll need to do:
And there you have it, you can get a bank note and try marking it - if it comes out yellow/amber/brown, it's genuine, if it marks the note black, it's a dud. See image below (the small crosses are the pen marks)
Please note that iodine does stain so only make a small mark on your note as to not completely ruin it!
Here are more detailed instructions from where I found the idea before!
It would perhaps be wise to purchase a scanner if you are in a high risk industry like a bar or a club. This will at least let your cashiers quickly check notes reasonably well in the variable lighting conditions.
Otherwise I do not believe there is a hack to your question. A study of the Secret Services "Know your money" website is your best path to becoming familiar with the US currency nuances.
EDIT: Some background, I used to exchange US dollars in large numbers some time back. And quite often I would receive in a batch of $100 bills one or two fake notes. Fortunately my money changer were understanding and sorted it out on my behalf. This was in Singapore not the US FYI.
However they recommend UV and Magnetic scanners as the only reliable way of identifying currency that is either in need of checking or outright fake.
The list of publicly known US Currency security features can be found here.
Essentially, they are:
- Each bill has a watermark featuring the same historical figure as the main portrait.
- Use of Color-Shifting Ink on the face in the lower-left corner
- Various Fine-Line printing patterns
- Polyester security thread running through paper
The brand-new (late 2013) bills have completely new designs and sets of security features that can be found here. They are numerous and vary by denomination, so I'll leave them as an exercise for the reader.
If you don't wish to memorize these attributes, you can get an actual 'counterfeit detection pen' for under $5 here. They likely don't work any better than the hacked-one in the currently accepted answer, but I doubt you could re-create one for less.
