The following message (and its' events) are New York City based, but
I figured it was still worth sharing here, 'cuz we all handle money
a lot. Though I doubt we'd get bad bills from a cashier window, I
wonder if it would be possible to pass them by way of bill changers
(don't know!).
- - - - - - - - -
Just a word of warning to all my friends out there.
I got "burned" for $10 'cuz, somehow or other in the last day or
two, I was passed a counterfeit ten dollar bill.
This afternoon I went to the little shop in the lobby of the
building I work in to get something to satisfy my salt craving. I
handed the clerk a $10 bill from my pocket. He had the bill in his
hands only a moment when he turned to me and said, "I'm sorry, sir,
but this is counterfeit", and handed it back to me. I asked him how
he knew so quickly, and he rubbed his thumb over the area of
Hamilton's collar and said, "this is too smooth, it should feel
rough." Now, I can tell you that that is not one of the security
features the Treasury mentioned adding to the late-2005 re-design -
but I've checked a couple more tens and some twenties, and noticed
that there is a distinct roughness caused by the cross-hatch design
that wasn't on "my bad bill".
Now, for clarity, I'm talkin' 'bout the newer $10 bill that has the
picture of Hamilton without the "oval" around the image, and has a
large red ink image of Lady Liberty's torch to Hamilton's right (and
a smaller one to his left) and red ink words "We The People" to his
left.
Well, to make a long story (somewhat) shorter - when I held the bill
up to the light - there was no security line that reads "USA TEN"
running across the bill from top to bottom, there was no watermark
image of Hamilton's face toward the right-hand end of the front of
the currency, and the "coppery" colored #10 in the lower right-hand
corner of the front of the bill doesn't change to green when
shifting the position of the bill in the light.
So - don't become paranoid. But check your money before you walk
away from the register.
Neil M.