Beware Of “Movie Money”

Jefferson County Sheriff Nick Georgi and the Fairbury Chamber of Commerce have both issued warnings about counterfeit bills. The Sheriff's Office has received calls about $100, $50 and $20 bills. According to some reports, some of the $50 bills didn’t register with a “counterfeit detector pen” test. A counterfeit detector pen is a chemical test that distinguishes the type of paper used for printing money. Genuine US currency is printed on stock that is normally distinguishable from the paper used by counterfeiters. There are others tests by which counterfeit bills can be detected. However, not all these bills recently discovered in the county require anything more than a visual inspection to identify as not legitimate currency. Some of the bills have “For Motion Picture Use Only” on them. Some have Asian characters on them. It is easy to spot these bills if one looks. Unfortunately, in many businesses where currency is exchanged repeatedly and rapidly, people handling the money may not think to closely inspect the bills. Jefferson County Attorney Joseph Casson told FJN, “There is a difference between counterfeit money and prop money. Counterfeit money is intended to look precisely like real money. It is illegal to possess or use counterfeit money. Prop money is printed in such a way that it is distinguishable from real money. It is not illegal to possess prop money, but it is illegal to use prop money as real money.” Casson also noted, “In my experience, those who try to pass prop money as real money try to claim ignorance. But that defense has not proven to be very successful. Of course, there is some responsibility on retailers to train their employees to distinguish prop money from real money. Retailers already have in place procedures to check for counterfeit money.”

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