The most expensive pewter I've ever bought...

[imashooter2]

Stopped at the Goodwill thrift shop on the way home from work today. Found 2 nice hallmarked mugs at a buck each. Sweet! A pound and a quarter net for a deuce? That's within my price limits!

I take my prize to the counter and hand the cashier a ten. She starts looking around for her marker. As is my habit, I banter a little...

"Huh! You have a lot of trouble with people passing counterfeit tens at the Goodwill?"

"Oh you'd be surprised. We get fives tens and twenties all the time. People are starting to bring in ones."

Finds her marker and swipes my bill...

"This was supposed to turn yellow. This bill is counterfeit. I have to call my manger."

"And the cops." I say. (I got that bill straight from the bank last Thursday and there is no way Goodwill is stealing my ten spot!)

So the manager takes my bill in the back to call the cops. Inside 5 minutes, the local gendarmes arrive and the Sargent is a friend and neighbor. The cashier calls him over. He takes my ID, even though he knows darn well who I am and where I live (procedure I suppose). Then he walks in the back to get the manager and a minute later he walks out holding my bill...

"Dale, this bill is fake."

"What the heck are you talking about? I got that bill at the [bank] drive through last Thursday. Let me see it."

He hands it over and sominabeech! :oops: There's no Mylar thread and no watermark. It was fairly worn too. That bill had been circulating for a good bit of time.

So my pound a a quarter of tin cost me $12. [smilie=b:

At least I didn't get a free ride and a cheese sandwich for dinner. [smilie=1:

[22Short]

I arrested a man for attempting to pass two counterfeit hundred dollar bills. He was trying to pay a traffic ticket with them. They were very nice bills, but lacked the "In God we trust" written on the back. The clerk at first attempted to get him to take them back but he wanted to argue about it! I took him directly to jail.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

"And the cops." I say. (I got that bill straight from the bank last Thursday and there is no way Goodwill is stealing my ten spot!)

[smilie=1:

I would have demanded the friend cop and the bill be driven to the bank where it was issued from. They owe you ten bucks

[JohnFM]

Yeah, I don't understand this.
If you take a bill in good faith and it turns out to be counterfeit, I would think whoever seized it would need to replace it with a valid one, if you're just the victim.

[imashooter2]

Jim, I could have made that demand, and the bank would just have refused to replace it. I know where it came from, but there is no way I can prove it.

John, it is the same as if stolen property was purchased in good faith. Once it is discovered to be stolen, it gets seized and the buyer is SOL. As for whoever seized it replacing it... That is an interesting concept, but I expect that neither the PD nor Goodwill would see that as just.

[montana_charlie]

I would have demanded the friend cop and the bill be driven to the bank where it was issued from. They owe you ten bucks
You could never work your way back to the one who really owes ...
CM

[JohnFM]

I've heard a few things about what can happen if you end up with a counterfeit bill, and how the person stuck with it is SOL.
The Secret Service is the agency that ultimately takes it, right?
It only seems just that a victim who took that bill on good faith should be reimbursed by the Feds.

[imashooter2]

I don't see why I would expect the taxpayers to reimburse me for this. I had the right to inspect that bill when I received it and refuse acceptance. I didn't. Shame on me.

[captain-03]

I don't see why I would expect the taxpayers to reimburse me for this. I had the right to inspect that bill when I received it and refuse acceptance. I didn't. Shame on me.


+! Personal Responsibility!! Taxpayers would not owe me either ....

[JohnFM]

You gonna tell me you get some currency somewhere and you're going to inspect it all and be able to tell right off if it's counterfeit?

[oneokie]

A silver certificate will not pass the pen test.

[imashooter2]

You gonna tell me you get some currency somewhere and you're going to inspect it all and be able to tell right off if it's counterfeit?

No, I'm gonna tell you that if I don't, it is my problem, not the taxpayer's. A very quick examination of this bill would have indicated it was counterfeit. I just didn't look at it.


A silver certificate will not pass the pen test.

And probably a United States Note as well, but it is unlikely that I would be spending either of them.

[SlippShodd]

I spent over 32 years in retail, handling fair amounts of cash every day. Counting down at the end of the day once I stopped dead in the middle of the pile of twenties because one just felt wrong. I don't think I was the one that accepted it because it wasn't very good. Another one slipped by me once and the bank caught it... that one was very, very good. It's a bummer, but nobody is entitled to a refund on bogus bills.
I was standing in line at the bank one time behind a gal from another local biz while her deposit was being processed. The teller stopped short and held up a counterfeit hundred. When she found out it was going to be siezed, the gal tried to get it back (???) but was rebuffed. She threw a hissy fit over that one. I sorta stepped up and took a look at the bill and in a moment of uncontrollable, open-mouthed honesty, said, "I can't believe anyone took that bill. It's terrible!" (it really was awful)
The withering glare I got told me she was the one who'd taken it.
Oh, well.

mike

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

My point was, the banks business IS money, they should have caught it, especially without the strip in it, they can see them in your pocket at the airport, I cant believe the bank would not have caught it.

[fryboy]

here in the middle of america i've received canadian coins in with change from several stores , if i catch it they dont want it back leaving me to believe that most places ( like most people ) would rather someone else was out of the money , i hear they've gotten sneaky bleaching dollar bills out etc , one also has to consider that two or three transactions before your's they may of just received it and not had time to "catch it"

[evan price]

Paid a traffic ticket at the county courthouse last week. Paid in $20 bills. The clerk penned all of them then gave me my change. I used her pen to check them. She got a sort of snotty expression and told me I didn't need to do that. I told her that if it was good enough for her it was good enough for me. Everybody can get stuck with fakes.

[imashooter2]

I'm surprised she let you use her marker...

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Evan,
Good for you!
Good for the goose, good for the gander!

[evan price]

I'm surprised she let you use her marker...

I didn't ask. It was within reach on the counter.

[WILCO]

I didn't ask. It was within reach on the counter.

Way to go Bro! :drinks:

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I was a teller for a short while when I started my banking career. One day an employee from the restaurant next door came in with a $100 bill and asked to borrow my counterfeit pen. I loaned it to her and the bill failed the test. I asked to look at it and it was absolutely perfect in every way (strip, shadow, fibers, ect), with the exception of failing the pen test.

[imashooter2]

Well THAT is a depressing bit of news...

[handyman25]

I check all my bills except ones even at the bank before I am done. A teller told me this is a bank we don't hand out bad money. My reply "It says in God we trust and you are not God".