Last week one of my coworkers at MDOT saw some money on the ground by the truck. He gets out picks it up and then starts finding more. I said ok he's had enough of a head start so the other guy in the truck and I got out and started looking. Turns out he had already got all of it. 5 twentys they looked like they had been there for a while all weathered and all. Its not really that unusual to find some money from time to time working on the road, but not normally that much. His happy state of mind did not last though as he found that between the 5 bills there were only 2 different serial numbers and there was no thread running through them. The sherief said that some people had bought a bunch of fake bills on line and had been trying to buy drugs with them and that they had already been caught. That was the first time I had ever seen any funny money. Have any of you folks ever come in contact with any? Banjo
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18028/20180108_133501.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1516385901)
Had my hands on a $10 once, pretty poor job they did on that one as the printing was not lined up property and it had a white margin that was wider on one side than the other, plus the feel was off.
You better watch out for this guy too. He might sneak a bill in on ya.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/24625/MM6.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1498789047)
If it's not silver or gold coin, it's funny money. But it's not really all that funny, and sadly it is what we are forced to transact in.
To work in Saudi I'm required to have a Saudi bank account and a portion of my salary goes into. It's very difficult for me to transfer it to my home account so as a consequence I end yup making cash withdrawals. If I let it go a while between withdrawals it can be a pretty sizable amount. The $100 bills are always brand new and smell like they are fresh off the presses like they had just printed them in the back room. I always wonder if they are going to pass muster when I get home with them. So far, so good.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10460/IMG_1567.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1381824855)
It's actually a legit bank note, but you can only spend it in the Cook Islands
Ianab a sure fire way to know something is wrong in the US is if you get a 3 dollar bill. :D
Looks like Lynn was a whole lot happier with his than young Josh was the ones he found by the side of the road. It does look like that one is centered pretty good and looks real.
LeeB you might want to get you one of the pens like the bank uses if you are really concerned. About 12 years or so ago I was heading out of town on a job and wanted a fair size of cash on me to get settled in so I went to the bank and made a withdrawal; as the cleck handed me the money, I asked for her pen and proceeded to mark all the bills with it. She said that was the first time anyone had done that. There was talk of counterfeit money going around then. They sure dont mind marking your money. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. :D
I do agree with Delaware Jack about the real money being silver and gold....shoot I like copper and nickle. That too has been taken out of our money. I remember when there was still a fair amount of copper pennies floating around, somebody came up with a device that seperated the copper from the new ones and people were either hoarding the copper ones or melting them down and selling them for scrap.
Banjo
my grandpa worked at a foundry and he had some quarters that he or a coworker made of lead and he'd stop at a tavern and bet guys a drink that he could bend a quarter with his thumb and pointy finger. i always wanted one of the quarters but dad threw them out when grandpa died back in the 60's. jg
There was a few fake $100 bills floating around here a few months ago. I seen a news letter sent to most Joplin ,MO businesses that had a pic of the fake bills. They said''for motion picture use only'' instead of the United States of America.
PC
Lee,
When I got out of USMC (back about time they decided to switch to pre-loaded ammo) I went to work for the Saudi Navy (RSNF) in Riyadh and they paid us in cash. I remember we'd watch the moon to determine when the new Hijjerah month would start to guestimate payday. I'd immediately take mine to the nearest Al Rajji banking center (You know - the one right around the corner from the mosque) and buy it up in large denomination Visa traveler's checks, address them to my wife, sign them and send them home with US Mail via the US base there and they'd get home in about a week. I'd tell my wife to expect my check about the first quarter of the moon.
Of course they were only worth about 26 cents but I remember a taped up local bill with staples in it would still work in the vending machines to buy a Pepsi (Coke products were not readily available at the time for political reasons).
Back in high school I knew a couple of guys that got heavily involved in counterfeiting in New Mexico, always heard they were tied in somehow with the mob. Apparently they were in it in a big way, one died in a fire kind of mysteriously and his brother was caught and sent to prison, last I knew he got an education in jail and started teaching school. Still was the last time I heard of him.
I knew some guys the the mid to late 70's that had a place somewhere down around Alvin Texas, that you could get 20, 20's for a hundred bucks. They would go get them on payday, then spend the weekend barhopping and buy one beer in dark bars, leave a tip and go to the next one to get rid of them. I do not know how long that lasted, or if they were ever caught.
At the grocery store I had a guy pay me in a fake $100 bill
Quote from: starmac on January 20, 2018, 09:22:30 PM
Back in high school I knew a couple of guys that got heavily involved in counterfeiting in New Mexico, always heard they were tied in somehow with the mob. Apparently they were in it in a big way, one died in a fire kind of mysteriously and his brother was caught and sent to prison, last I knew he got an education in jail and started teaching school. Still was the last time I heard of him.
I knew some guys the the mid to late 70's that had a place somewhere down around Alvin Texas, that you could get 20, 20's for a hundred bucks. They would go get them on payday, then spend the weekend barhopping and buy one beer in dark bars, leave a tip and go to the next one to get rid of them. I do not know how long that lasted, or if they were ever caught.
Wow, in NY State and likely all of the lower 48 a background check would never allow anyone who had been in prison to teach school.
Quote from: Banjo picker on January 20, 2018, 06:26:57 AM
LeeB you might want to get you one of the pens like the bank uses if you are really concerned. About 12 years or so ago I was heading out of town on a job and wanted a fair size of cash on me to get settled in so I went to the bank and made a withdrawal; as the cleck handed me the money, I asked for her pen and proceeded to mark all the bills with it.
On the detection pen.
James Randi talks about the Secret Service - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbYcHJdXnyE&t=7s)
Randi used to take a couple $100 bills to the bank every week after he rubbed them in starch powder. So there are a few legit ones out there that the pen will call fakes. :D But as you can hear from Randi, even the SS calls them unreliable.
I asked for "funny money" when I got my IRS refund. I got two Einstein's, two Chief Josephs and a Helen Keller.
What I Bonds Look Like — TreasuryDirect (https://treasurydirect.gov/research-center/history-of-savings-bond/what-i-bonds-look-like/)
The only way to get them are with an IRS refund, anyone buying Ibonds direct can only do so electronically.
I knew of a guy while i was i korea that was printing $10 and $20 bills. He would go out to the ville on payday weekend, 2x a month and buy a beer at every bar on one night, then go to another ville outside another military installation and repeat. He would then on the following weekend go to the currency exchange office and change out the won for usd.
Not sure when/if he stopped, but cid had put out an 8th army wide warning about it. I rotated back to the USA about 3 months after hearing about the counterfeiting.
It aint worth it, eventually they get caught, and now their career and life are ruined for a few $100 dollars of washed money.
Back when I was a gas jockey at the station by the interstate in the 70's, I saw counterfeit $20's a lot. Folks would put them in with a bunch of other bills and try to pass them. You could tell because the color was a bit off or they would be faded and pretty limp paper compared to real legal tender.
People would get angry when I handed it back and asked for a real $20 bill. Had my share of arguments over it because the boss said he would dock us for taking bad money. You'd go back and forth over it and finally you could say, " I can call the police and tell them I think you are passing funny money." I know my tightwad boss would get *pithed when he found them in the till. Sometimes he could slide it by the bank in a stack of bills and other times they would kick it back to him. He probably passed them on to some vendors or something like that.