Fake denominations of United States currency
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Fake denominations of United States currency have been created by individuals as practical jokes, by money artists like J. S. G. Boggs, or as genuine attempts at counterfeiting. In 2001, a man bought a sundae at a Danville, KY Dairy Queen with a $200 bill featuring George W. Bush and received $197.88 in change.[1] In September 2003, a North Carolina man named Travis Martin used a $200 bill at a Food Lion to purchase $150 in groceries. The cashier cashed the fake bill and presented Martin with $50 in change.
In March 2004, Alice Regina Pike attempted to use a $1,000,000 bill with a picture of the Statue of Liberty on the front to purchase $1671.55 in goods from a Wal-Mart in Covington, Georgia, for which she was promptly arrested.[2]
The Libertarian Party also makes an annual tradition of handing out informational flyers made to look like $1,000,000 bills on April 15th to draw attention to their anti-income tax platform.
Various $3 bills have been released, generally poking fun at politicians or celebrities such as Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, or Hillary Clinton; this likely stems from the American expression "queer as a three-dollar bill."
In March 2006, Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Secret Service seized 250 counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, each bearing a denomination of $1,000,000,000 (one billion USD) from a West Hollywood apartment. The suspect, Tekle Zigetta, had previously been arrested on federal charges for attempting to smuggle more than $37,000 in currency into the US following a trip to Korea in 2002.
Though not meant to be used as actual legal tender, Christian evangelist Ray Comfort's ministry, Living Waters Publications, produces another fake $1,000,000 bill featuring Grover Cleveland, which is in reality a Christian gospel tract. It appears to be based on the series 2004 $20 bill, with the gospel message around the back, and also includes some of their Web site addresses on the bill with the statement "This is NOT legal tender for all debts, public and private." After someone attempted to deposit one of the fake bills in North Carolina, the United States Secret Service raided The Great News Network, a sister ministry to LWP based in Denton, Texas, on June 2, 2006. The USSS told workers at GNN they would locate and seize all of the million dollar bills at LWP's Bellflower, California headquarters. Comfort has been advised by his lawyers to refuse such an action, and no warrants yet appear to have been issued for the tracts. [1] [2] However, in a precautionary move LWP also produced an enlarged "Secret Service version." [3]
In late July 2006, Comfort's ministry also developed and began printing on a similar $1,000,000,000 bill (one billion USD). It has a color scheme more closely resembling the series 2004A $10 bill, although the background resembles the series 2004 $20 bill (like their "million-dollar bill"). The tract contains a similar gospel message and features to the million-dollar tract. However, the picture is instead that of 19th century British evangelist Charles Spurgeon, whose portrait obscures the last two zeroes on the upper-left corner of the "bill." [4] There have yet to be any repercussions from the Secret Service regarding this new tract.
In an issue in the 1960s, Mad Magazine printed a three-dollar bill. This was not counterfeiting, of course; but the FBI complained to the magazine's editors, since people were cutting the bill out of the magazine in Las Vegas and--successfully--using it to get change in bill changers. (On the bill, which, of course, had a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman, a line read: "This is not legal tender--nor will tenderizer help it.") (Source: The MAD World of William M. Gaines, by Frank Jacobs, 1972; Lyle Stuart).
An episode of the television program The Simpsons (The Trouble with Trillions) found Homer Simpson hired by the FBI to search for a $1,000,000,000,000 bill (one trillion USD) which featured Harry S. Truman simultaneously giving a thumbs up and OK signs.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Clerks accept $200 bill, make change. MSNBC. Accessed August 22, 2006.
- ^ Woman says she thought $1 million bill was real, AP, via MSNBC.com, March 11, 2004.
[edit] External links
- Fake $200 bill
- Fake Million Dollar Bill
- Fake Billion Dollar Bills
- Homeland Security Agents Seize "Billion Dollar" Bogus Federal Reserve Notes
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| Topics | Federal Reserve System · Federal Reserve Note · U.S. dollar · U.S. Mint |
| Current coinage | Cent (penny) · Nickel (5¢) · Dime (10¢) · Quarter dollar · Half dollar · Dollar |
| Paper money | $1 · $2 · $5 · $10 · $20 · $50 · $100 · Larger denominations |
| See also | Commemoratives · Confederate dollar · Fake denominations · Obsolete denominations |
