Beware of funny money showing up in Butler County Ohio
Posted By RichC on September 22, 2010
Having worked with ink and paper for most of my working life, I pay attention to counterfeiting with a bit more interest than most. An article in the local Pulse Journal reported on businesses finding “washed” small denomination bills being counterfeited and passed as larger bills. These fake bills are often used in drug deals according to police, but some have recently been showing up at local 
businesses. The current fakes are said to be older $5 bills reprinted as 100 dollar bills. According to the article, the counterfeiter bleaches $1 and $5 bills until they are substantially faded, and then reprints the image of Benjamin Franklin and $100 on them. Since the paper is real, the commonly used counterfeit detection pens do not detect them as fakes. For these kinds of counterfeit bills, the solution is check well worn bills carefully and to look for the Franklin watermark.
According to the article, “Hamilton Detective Steve Rogers said in the past 10 days he has received four reports of counterfeit $100 bills passed at city businesses.” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones indicated that he and the Hamilton police chief have contacted and are working with the U.S. Secret Service and that for now local businesses need to pay careful attention to the currency they handle.
Additional information on how to identify U.S. currency may be found at www.secretservice.gov.
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