tells them, just take this pen and mark the bill and if it stains then you know the bill's good. That pen is ridiculous. All it has is a chemical that checks the Ph level of paper. That's all it does. Money has a very high Ph level, because the paper is bleached white in order to engrave it. But so do about thirty-five hundred other stocks of paper that are sold at office supplies stores. And even if you didn't have that paper, take a sponge, dip it in a pail of Clorox, wring it out, and pat it on the paper you're using. When it dries, the paper will have the same Ph level.
We've become so utterly convinced of the authority of this pen. A clerk will run the pen over a bill and say to the customer, "Well, even though you've got a misspelling on this bill, as long as it's got that mark on there, no problem, I'll take it."
WHAT TO DO
I tell people who handle a lot of money, take five minutes and learn the proper way to identify a genuine bill. Let's consider the new hundred-dollar bill. To the right of the portrait of Ben Franklin is a registered mold watermark. When the bill is viewed above eye level, an image of Franklin appears on the far-right side of the bill, front and back. It shows up right away. If you have to hunt for it, you don't have it. A counterfeiter cannot reproduce this watermark, for it requires a $200 million paper mill. There are only six in the world, and only one capable of doing it in the United States.
Counterfeiters use a grease pen and merely pen a little sketch of Ben Franklin. When you hold it up, the light bounces off the grease pen mark and you thought you saw a watermark. In reality, you saw a grease pen mark. If you rubbed it, it would smear. If you turned it over, you wouldn't see anything. So you have to make sure the watermark is visible, front and back.
At the bottom right-hand corner of the bill is the numeral 100, indicating the denomination of the bill. That number is printed in a shiny, sparkly metallic green in what is known as OVI, or optical variable ink. When you tilt the bill slightly forward, the green color of the numeral will turn a dull jet black. Color copiers can't pick up the changeable appearance of this ink. What's more, this ink is made by just one company in the world, located in Switzerland, and the ink's use is tightly restricted. Trying to replicate it is extremely difficult.
If the color doesn't change, you don't have a real bill. Counterfeiters in the United States use a Revlon metallic nail polish and paint the number in so it's shiny. In Bogota, they add flakes to the ink to make it sparkly. It's a nice try, but it doesn't change color from green to jet black.
The greatest tool we can give a bank teller is a little magnifying loupe. On the bottom left-hand corner of the bill is another 100. If you look at it through a magnifying glass, you will see that what appeared to be shading is actually the words "USA 100" repeated one hundred times in microprinting. Copiers can't see it. Scanners can't see it. So when we examine money out of Bogota, it looks great, but if you study the numeral under a magnifying glass, you can't read anything. The microprinting is just a blur. Then if you move the magnifying glass to the left side of Franklin's collar, you'll see the words "United States of America," again in microprinting. On a counterfeit bill, there's just another blur.
Making bogus money is one of the oldest crimes known to man. Back in the time of the Civil War, when individual banks issued their own currency, about a third of all money was thought to be counterfeit. I'd hate to see those levels reached again, because counterfeit money can destroy a country's economy. Sadly, it's looking more and more likely. Every day, I learn of someone buying a McDonald's meal or getting change for a fifty at a yard sale with counterfeit money. The other day I read about a priest smuggling in counterfeit bills from South Korea. I guess his vow of poverty slipped his mind. Stories like these are disheartening, because when people are getting something for nothing, the cycle of greed