Fake denominations of United States currency
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fake denominations of United States currency have been created by individuals as practical jokes, by money artists such as J. S. G. Boggs, or as genuine attempts at counterfeiting.
Before the passage of the National Banking Act of 1863, individual banks in the United States were permitted to issue their own currency. Many banks did so, resulting in a proliferation of banknotes of various denominations, and the need for merchants to have books explaining the characteristics of various notes.
Contents |
[edit] $3
Various $3 bills have been released, generally poking fun at politicians or celebrities such as Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, or Hillary Clinton.
In the 1960s, Mad magazine printed a three-dollar bill. This was not counterfeiting, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation complained to the magazine's editors, because people were cutting the bill out of the magazine in Las Vegas, Nevada and successfully using it to obtain change in bill changers.[citation needed] On the bill, which had a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman, a line read: "This is not legal tender—nor will tenderizer help it."[1]
Prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve System, individual banks offered their own currencies. The faces on the various currencies were standardized across the country, but designs varied per bank. Several banks issued three dollar bills, with the face of Santa Claus gracing the front of the note. Such banks included Howard Banking Company of Boston, the Central Bank of Troy, the Pittsfield Bank and the White Mountain Bank, and perhaps coincidentally, the St. Nicholas Bank of Manhattan.[2]
[edit] $6
Shortly after the Lewinsky scandal, parody $6 bills (or "sex" dollars) appeared in the market.
[edit] $200
In 2001, a man bought a sundae at a Danville, Kentucky Dairy Queen with a $200 bill featuring President George W. Bush and received $197.88 in change.[3] 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 accepted the fake bill and presented Martin with $50 in change.[3]
[edit] $1,000,000
Many businesses print million dollar bills. They're sold as novelties, and they do not assert that they are legal tender; the Federal Reserve has declared them legal to print or own as long as they are not used fraudulently, and does not consider them counterfeit because no genuine million dollar bill exists or ever has existed.
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 arrested.[4]
In November 2007, Alexander D. Smith tried to open a bank account in Aiken County, South Carolina by depositing a $1,000,000 bill. The bank employee refused to deposit the bill and called the police. Smith was immediately arrested on a charge of forgery.[5]
The Libertarian Party makes an annual tradition of handing out informational fliers made to look like $1,000,000 bills on April 15 to draw attention to its anti-income tax platform.
Though not meant to be used as actual legal tender, Christian evangelist Ray Comfort's ministry, Living Waters Publications, produces a 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 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.[6][7] However, in a precautionary move LWP also produced an enlarged "Secret Service version".[8]
[edit] $1,329,063
The Mad Magazine Game features a $1,329,063 bill that serves as an Old Maid in the game, in which the players compete to lose all their money. The bill features a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman.
[edit] $1,000,000,000
In July 2006, Comfort's ministry developed and began printing a similar $1,000,000,000 bill (one billion USD). Its color scheme more closely resembles 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, but the picture is instead that of 19th century British evangelist Charles Spurgeon, whose portrait obscures the last two zeros on the upper-left corner of the "bill".[9] There have yet to be any repercussions from the Secret Service regarding this new tract.
In March 2006, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the 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.[10] The suspect had previously been arrested on federal charges for attempting to smuggle more than $37,000 in currency into the U.S. following a trip to Korea in 2002.
[edit] $8,000,000,000,000
An $8,000,000,000,000 (eight trillion USD) "Federal Deficit Note" was designed in 2005 by Alexander S. Peak to acknowledge what was at that time the United States public debt.
The president at that time, George W. Bush, appears in the center of the bill. Over the seal on the right-hand side of the bill appears the word BROKE. In place of the usual claim that a given bill is legal tender, this bill reads, "This note represents the legal tender stolen from you, the American people, and now constitutes the current federal debt, which increases every fiscal year."
[edit] TWE dollars
In the 1970s, a fake bill dispensed in gumball machines had a denomination of "TWE DOLLARS". Much of the artwork was duplicated from the real twenty-dollar bill, including the portrait of Andrew Jackson, but the name "Jefferson" was printed under Jackson's picture. The country's name was printed as "The Untied States of Anemia." The "twe-dollar bill" has 3s in the corners.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The MAD World of William M. Gaines, by Frank Jacobs, 1972; Lyle Stuart
- ^ Common Place vol. 4 no. 4, Stephen Mihm. http://www.common-place.org/vol-04/no-04/mihm/2.shtml
- ^ a b In anything we trust: Clerks accept $200 bills bearing Bush picture, make change. MSNBC. Accessed August 22, 2006.
- ^ Woman says she thought $1 million bill was real, AP, via MSNBC.com, March 11, 2004.
- ^ Ga. man tries to deposit fake $1M bill
- ^ Feds seize 'millions' in gospel tracts
- ^ Christians to battle Feds on 'million-dollar' tracts
- ^ Darwin $10,000 bill: Living Waters Store
- ^ Billion dollar bill: Living Waters Store
- ^ Homeland Security Agents Seize "Billion Dollar" Bogus Federal Reserve Notes
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||
