Funny money

[condorjohn]

I got this dollar bill in change at a local pub. Didn't notice until tried to put it in a video poker machine and it kept spitting it out. The bartender told me he got a $20 like it last week.

I don't know how wide spread this stuff is but just be aware. (click on image to enlarge)

250960

[Winger Ed.]

Never saw one like that.

What I have seen was a corner torn off of 2 or four different $5 bills, then glued onto the corners of a one.

[dangitgriff]

Looks like movie candy money to me...[emoji106]

[Murphy]

dangitgriff nailed it.

It's been floating around my area (Tri-state area of Okla/Ark/Tex) for over a year now. Some denominations as high as $100 bills. Most of the $100 don't pass muster at your local Git-N-Go's or any other stores. They have the pens they can quickly scan a $100 with to see if it's fake or not. Mostly $20's are the ones passed around down this way. Typically, it's druggies trying to pass them off.

Murphy

[LUBEDUDE]

Back in the 70s I was given a counterfeit 20 for food to go at a restaurant I worked at. I instantly knew it was fake, But as a 16 year old kid I was afraid to challenge an adult, but I did take down the license number on his 73 Grand Prix.

I showed the bill to my manager and he told me that it was real. A few days later the bank deducted 20 from the company’s account and notified the Secret Service. They came and interviewed me at work.

It was funny because they kept pressing me how I knew it was fake. They said it was one if best counterfeits that they had seen. All I could tell them was that when you handle money all day you can just tell when something’s not right.

Never knew if the counterfeiters got caught or if the tag number helped them or not.

[Idaho45guy]

I've got one of those sitting right here at my desk...

250964

250965

[FISH4BUGS]

Looks to me like someone skirting the law by saying "For Motion Picture Use Only"....or at least THINKING they are skirting the law.
Kind of like the hooker asking the undercover cop " are you a cop?" thinking if they answer "no" they are safe.

[higgins]

Maybe they're legitimate movie props for closeup scenes of currency. I wouldn't think a director, producer, etc. would want to be responsible for several hundred or thousands of dollars in real currency being on a set.

[Idz]

the law is:
Federal law permits color illustrations of U.S. currency only under the following conditions:
Currency reproduction dimensions

1) the illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated;
2) the illustration is one-sided; and
3) all negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use.
18 U.S.C. § 504(1), 31 CFR § 411.1.

Using parts of a banknote image that hasn't been scaled probably is illegal. Intentionally using these notes to pay for something is definitely illegal.

[koehn,jim]

Higgins is correct, they are used in movie scenes that need a pile of currency. They re not uncommon in this area but everyone knows about them. I have several 100s that I use to light cigars for a laugh.

[EMC45]

It's what the rap "artists" use in their videos.

[cheese1566]

You can buy these and the fake Chinese training bills (looks real but had Chinese symbols stamped in big red print) all over eBay.
In my State, they are legal to own but illegal to attempt to pass in a business dealing.

[gwpercle]

Check out Movie Prop Money www.propmoney.com
Buy a wrapped stack of 100 - $100.00 dollar bills for $24.95 .
They have all denominations , new and used looking and in new style and 1990's style look . All Denominations from $1 to $100 .
You can even have custom funny money printed ...
Must be legal to print and sell the stuff because I had no trouble finding the place .
I should get a few boxes , bury in the back yard and leave a treasure map for my two kids to find .
That would be funny... on second thought I better not ...might have to live with one of them .

There was a warning on the site about it was illegal to pass this stuff as real money...
Gary

[gwpercle]

Higgins is correct, they are used in movie scenes that need a pile of currency. They re not uncommon in this area but everyone knows about them. I have several 100s that I use to light cigars for a laugh.

I even found a web site that sold the "Movie Money" ... it came in large boxes , in common denominations , was legal to sell as movie props ... If you start passing it for real money ...
You might be breaking a law or two ! Check the stuff out at www.propmoney.com
It's a educational experience !
They do sell Full Prints ... printed on both sides ... read the prop money guide ... very interesting !
And you can get both New and Aged bills .
Gary

[John Guedry]

Gary be nice to the kids, they pick the nursing home you may wind up in.

[bedbugbilly]

Cheer up - at the rate the current Administration is printing and spending money, that bill may turn out to be worth more that legit currency . . .

[Gator 45/70]

Shades of George Floyd, Funny money is what started his demise.

[Nazgul]

You can buy these and the fake Chinese training bills (looks real but had Chinese symbols stamped in big red print) all over eBay.
In my State, they are legal to own but illegal to attempt to pass in a business dealing.

I was teachers aide in a High School after retiring as a heavy equip mechanic. I ran the In School Suspension class, all the students who got in trouble. Really liked the kids, even the knot heads .

I had a stack of the Chinese marked bills to illustrate how much an arrest for vaping or being high could cost them from a paycheck.
Lay out what they made a week, then deduct all the fines/court costs/lawyer fees/etc. Seemed to make them think.

Don

[gwpercle]

Gary be nice to the kids, they pick the nursing home you may wind up in.

Oh Yeah !!! I forgot about that ... Dang it though ...it would have been funny !
Gary

[imashooter2]

I got this dollar bill in change at a local pub. Didn't notice until tried to put it in a video poker machine and it kept spitting it out. The bartender told me he got a $20 like it last week.

I don't know how wide spread this stuff is but just be aware. (click on image to enlarge)

250960

I’d be pretty pleased to get that for a dollar. The twenty is a bit much for a conversation piece though…

[condorjohn]

I have showed it to several people without telling them. I just say "take a look at this". Most don't even notice 'till I point out to them that it's funny money. Great conversion piece...

[Forty Rod Ray]

T’aint funny Magee…..

[Tazman1602]

Check out “Goldbucks”, do the research and it’s amazing how the guys that invented them came up with them. They’re even accepted by three (I think…) States if retailers want to take them.

https://www.apmex.com/search?&q=Goldbucks


Art

[hwilliam01]

I have seen these and own quite a few. I am probably responsible for some of them ending up in circulation (innocently enough). You can buy them on Amazon for a stack of multiple denominations. Why did I buy them?

My mother is 86 and suffers from dementia. She complained that she wanted some spending money for where she was, so I would give her a couple of ones and a five just to put in her pocket. Made her happy...until....it was missing from her pants pocket, either by going through the wash and someone kept it, or she set it down somewhere. Well...at a facility like a nursing home, that becomes a federal case. It was suggested to me that I get some of this type of "currency", give it to Mom and that way if it gets lost or stolen, no big deal. I did that. A week later, that money was missing. I replaced it. I am sure the person that got it spent it thinking that it was real. I have given some away as a novelty making very sure that they knew it was not real money.

[Gator 45/70]

I have seen these and own quite a few. I am probably responsible for some of them ending up in circulation (innocently enough). You can buy them on Amazon for a stack of multiple denominations. Why did I buy them?

My mother is 86 and suffers from dementia. She complained that she wanted some spending money for where she was, so I would give her a couple of ones and a five just to put in her pocket. Made her happy...until....it was missing from her pants pocket, either by going through the wash and someone kept it, or she set it down somewhere. Well...at a facility like a nursing home, that becomes a federal case. It was suggested to me that I get some of this type of "currency", give it to Mom and that way if it gets lost or stolen, no big deal. I did that. A week later, that money was missing. I replaced it. I am sure the person that got it spent it thinking that it was real. I have given some away as a novelty making very sure that they knew it was not real money.

I would call this Pure Genius !

[DocWatson]

They have the pens they can quickly scan a $100 with to see if it's fake or not. Mostly $20's are the ones passed around down this way.
The pens are markers whose ink turns a particular color on the special paper used for US Federal Reserve notes. (How does a counterfeit detector pen work? (https://money.howstuffworks.com/question212.htm) at HowStuffWorks; "How Counterfeiting Works" is further down the page.) Some of them also have blacklight penlights (ahem) to illuminate the security threads in bills of $5 and up. See "Security Features" (archived) (https://web.archive.org/web/20141027033925/http://moneyfactory.gov/anticounterfeiting/securityfeatures.html) from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (CSI: Miami had an episode back when that mentioned the fluorescing security threads, so I looked it up and tested it. The color for $100s is actuallly pink, not red.)

My recollection is that $20s are preferred for counterfeiting because they are valuable enough to pay back the costs while being easy to pass, though that information is probably from TV.

Oh, and see "Stage Money" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StageMoney) at TVTropes. I recall reading somewhere that the "good" prop money was seized in the wake of the attacks on 9/11, but I can't find the reference.

Wait—here's something: "The Business of Fake Hollywood Money" (http://priceonomics.com/the-business-of-fake-hollywood-money/) at Priceonomics, though it doesn't mention the seizure(s) I recall reading about.

[Greg S]

Used to xerox one side of alot of buy money back in the day.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

A little more inflation and the real dollar will be worth the same as the movie prop dollar.



DG