Coins DIG

East Rutherford Deputy Chief Edward Bury recently reported confiscating counterfeit bills that have been circulating around the borough, specifically bleached-out $5 bills that have been reprinted as $100 bills.

This technique of counterfeiting is more high-tech than printing the money at home on an ink jet printer, according to U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Cindy Wofford. Because of the sophistication of the bills, the bleaching method usually means a more organized group is involved.

“Anytime they are bleaching fives and counterfeiting on top, it creates a better quality because the paper is real,” Wofford said. “It allows counterfeit pens to react like an actual bill due to the paper. … It appears real to the retailer and is a little easier to pass.”

Upset netizens' effort to identify the Taiwanese traveler who burnt paper money at Peru's Machu Picchu had forced the man to apologize online.

The man, surnamed Liu , left an apology message on his blog where he post the video over criticism.

Liu put the video in which he visited Machu Picchu and introduced the sceneries nearby a few days ago.

The video drew local media attention and acute criticism online as he started burning paper money there.

Coins magazine features regular book reviews, so readers should be well aware of current numismatic volumes. But I readers might be interested in some of the “new” works from the paper side of our hobby as they prepare “wish lists.”

The biggest news in the syngraphics book field of late is the announcement that the publisher of this periodical is re-releasing Jim Haxby’s monumental 1988 four-volume opus United States Obsolete Bank Notes, 1782-1866 in CD format. Long out of print (my wife bought my set for me as a Christmas present in 1988), sets have been retailing for $800 more-or-less when available. Prominent currency dealers had “open” buy ads for sets.

Although state obsolete bank note books exist for a number of states either privately or under the auspices of the Society of Paper Money Collectors Wismer Project, Dr. Haxby’s accomplishment in cataloging the breadth of obsolete bank notes in an informed and illustrated way was unprecedented.

Ponterio & Associates, a division of Bowers and Merena Auctions, will bring 1,250 lots of world paper money to Baltimore as part Bowers and Merena’s Official Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Baltimore Expo scheduled for Nov. 10-14, 2009. The auction will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center.

One reason people don't always trust bank notes is because the notes may not necessarily be worth the paper they were printed on. Bank notes that have depreciated to the point of being worthless have ended their lives rather ignobly in the past as toilet paper, wallpaper or some other less than dignified way.

Last fall, markets froze and interest rates soared as investors dumped stocks and corporate bonds and banks cut back on lending to their customers and to each other. In response, the Federal Reserve sharply cut interest rates and established a Scrabble game's worth of acronymic lending and insurance programs to reassure investors and jump-start markets.

Paper money classes offered at the American Numismatic Association's 2009 Summer Seminar are designed for a wide range of interests and collector levels.

The educational event, held June 27-July 3 and July 4-10 in Colorado Springs, Colo., features currency experts and offers students the chance to view some of the country's finest paper money specimens.
Session I courses, scheduled for June 27-July 3, include the five-day course, "Detection of Counterfeit World Paper Money," by Joseph E. Boling, ANA governor and co-author of World War II Remembered: History in Your Hands.

Many different anti-counterfeit processes have been used and are still in existence in today's high tech world. Anyone can learn more about the history of these measures by doing a little research on the internet.

Some of the first money printed on paper in the Untied States came from the printing presses of Benjamin Franklin. In 1739, Franklin printed what was known as colonial notes. These monetary pieces of paper featured nature backgrounds.

Three students aged seventeen and who have been living in Long Island, were arrested after police caught them printing fake ten, twenty and fifty dollar bills. The place where the printing took place was the back of a pickup truck.

Mark Berg was able to discover the first three $10 notes dated 1837 and launched by the Saginaw City Bank. The three banknotes feature serial numbers 1, 2 and 3. All of the ten dollar notes are in perfect condition.

Back in 1836 Saginaw City's founder, Norman Little, was the president of the bank and signed these banknotes Dec. 26, 1837, which is exactly 170 years ago.