Counterfeit money "detector" pen revisited

Ladewig

I lost an avatar bet.
Ladewig
Joined
Dec 4, 2001
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I was in a Las Vegas shop earlier this week and saw that the owners had purchased and installed a very elaborate counterfeit money detector. One would place a bill on it and a small white light would shine through the area with the watermark while a UV light shined down on the bill to make the plastic strip fluoresce. The machine even had colored stripes on the edge to indicate the colors and locations of the plastic strips in each different denomination.

Instead of using the machine, the clerk simply swiped the starch detector pen over the bill and put it in the till. Will these pens ever die out?
 
Probably not until the use of the pens begins to cost business greater amounts than the more effective anti-counterfeit tools.

For some reason, I see lawyers salivating over large sums of money. Employee uses pens instead of machine, bogus bills pass, employee is fired, employee sues claiming that the pen was available for use.....end state, no more pens.
 
I think I should start starching and ironing my money. I tend to wad it up and shove it my pocket, and that's so sloppy.
 
Good morning.
This drives me nuts. I manage an auto parts store. I am well aware of the ineffectivness of those pens. When I first started working here I saw they the counter people were all using these pens. I informed the owners that the pens not only will not catch fake bills but also gives the countermen a false sense of security. I took the time to teach the guys what to look for and more importantly what to feel for in currency. One day, one of my guys ended up taking 3 fake $100.00 bills. These bills looked excellant and passed the pen test, but I caught them the second they were handed to me. They were flat. No texture at all. If you run your fingernail over the jacket of the president, you will feel the texture. I was able to determine who was passing the bills and we had a nice visit from the Secret Service. They were very willing to help us, and gave us some great information on what to look for. I now have a very nice UV light on my key ring that makes the stips in the bills glow. We also have a light similar to the one described above, mounted on the counter where everyone can see it being used.
The reason the counterman was caught off guard was the fact the bills were passed by another employee.
While talking to the agents , I made mention of the fact that I watched James Randi demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the detector pens. The one agent simply asked "the magician?".
Still funnier is that our insurance company still insists on the use of the pens. So now I have some very well trained guys, a super high tech UV light, and still need to draw silly lines on the bills.
JPK
 
What's beautiful here is the counterfeiters using starch have learned that if they take a common yellow magic marker swipe it across the bill then a clerk receiving the bill will look at the mark think the bill has been tested before and accept it.
 
JPK said:
. These bills looked excellant and passed the pen test, but I caught them the second they were handed to me. They were flat. No texture at all. If you run your fingernail over the jacket of the president, you will feel the texture.
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Exactly. I watched the craps boxmen at several different casinos accept dozens of $100 bills without looking for watermarks or fluorescing strips. They just handled them. I think some looked at the color-changing ink in the corner, but none of them used the pens.
 
Ladewig said:
Exactly. I watched the craps boxmen at several different casinos accept dozens of $100 bills without looking for watermarks or fluorescing strips. They just handled them. I think some looked at the color-changing ink in the corner, but none of them used the pens.
Click to expand...

I doubt my customers realize that I am checking the money by feel when I do it. I do like to use the light on the counter in front of people though. It serves as a good deterant.
With the frequency that they are changing the look of our currency, it gets harder and harder to tell what a real bill looks like anymore.
This leads me to my idea to solve our national debt. Why don't we just sell the backs of our bills and coins as advertising space?
JPK
 
Who do these pens stop? The kid who scans a twenty on his home computer and prints out the results on office copier paper?

I have heard of kids who've pulled that stunt, but the gig was revealed by the 'feel' of the dollar in veteran hands.

(note to larcenous kids: Do not try to make the old-time grocer the target of your first ink-jet printed twenty.)
 
JPK said:
.............. If you run your fingernail over the jacket of the president, you will feel the texture. I was able to determine who was passing the bills and we had a nice visit from the Secret Service. .....
JPK
Click to expand...

Which president did these $100 bills have on them ?

Sounds like your co-workers needed a lot more help than a UV light...
 
It's good to see you well enough to type, Mr. Randi.
I was at Staples ~2 weeks ago and I noticed a type of counterfeit detector pen on sale -- one that claims to check the ink rather than the paper. One simply rubs the pen over an inked spot and if the applicator comes up dirty, the bill is a counterfeit. I'm guessing this would snare the rank amateur counterfeiter and miss the more professional jobs.
 
Good morning
Diogenes said:
Which president did these $100 bills have on them ?

Sounds like your co-workers needed a lot more help than a UV light...
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Grover Cleavland. They really should have caught them. :)

However your point is taken. Wasn't Ben the president of the local 4-H club or something?
JPK
 
I was looking at some ads for these pens, and they made an interesting claim, which is that these pens detect bills made on color copies or printers. They also said that "cheap" paper will not turn the stain black but that good counterfeitors must use "quality" paper. Now it may or may not be true that copier paper is usually starched, but it is manifestly false that quality paper is sized with starch and cheap paper is sized with something else. Copy machine bills are not likely to fool any but the least observant human, and are probably mostly passed in change machines.

The best counterfeit bills are made on a special paper which is readily available in handy pre-sized pieces for the very reasonable price of $1 each.
 
You will find spray starch right next to the washing soda, the borax, the fabric softener, the iron cleaner, the oxygen bleach, the chlorine bleach, the enzymatic stain pretreater, the water conditioner, the delicates bag, the drier scents, and the low sudsing detergent.
 
strathmeyer said:
The washing machine. I use Tide detergent. I put the clothes in the machine with my hands. Sometimes I forget to close the lid.
Click to expand...
Just about anywhere that sells laundry detergent will also sell spray on starch, I think.
 
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