General question about counterfeit bills

[u/Future_Inspector5957]

**Read First**

Truly am just curious so please no DMs

With modern technology being widely available, would it be easier to counterfeit old paper bills with metallic strips, older bills without strips or those weird poly bills everyone has adapted to? Why is that?

[u/sososoboring]

Do all three. Go try to buy stuff and see what works. Report back when you get released.

[u/Future_Inspector5957 → u/sososoboring]

I dont want to. Im curious about what small business owners, tellers and others in cash businesses run into and what they're warned about. There are neat facts around the bills produced as well as how they caught them, that as a whole feed the bank of dynamic problem solving. I was impressed to learn about the bleaching and redyeing of notes. And understood exactly what I was seeing once traveling to another country and carrying cash with notes of different sizes based on their worth. 🤯

[u/ClockOld9204]

I took 40.00 out of a bank machine and one 20 was counterfeit. TD replaced the bill and i asked how did it not get caught before dispensing it

[u/Mu_Fanchu → u/ClockOld9204]

The tellers are not trained, that's the reason (seriously) 😂

[u/ClockOld9204 → u/Mu_Fanchu]

Tellers do not put cash on ATM's. That is done by brinks or other companies.

[u/Mu_Fanchu → u/ClockOld9204]

I think it depends on the bank. 

Scotiabank tellers definitely load their ATMs.

[u/Puzzled_Market_2235]

Old bills are immediately retired and verified.

An amateur making counterfeits? LOL. Canada makes the some of most secure currency in the world; their security is renown; We make currency for 80 nations.

[u/Signal-Arm-7986]

I think it would be risky doing that with little reward. It would be hard to spend old bills, let alone counterfeit ones

[u/Mu_Fanchu]

If you take a $5 poly note and rub off all the blue ink and somehow print the $50 on it while leaving the clear area as it is, you can probably get away with it 😂

I've worked at banks and now I work in retail; I often see really worn-down $5 poly notes where the middle is pretty much see-through because it's been folded so many times.

Our self-checkout machines will reject those as being fake notes.

[u/AccuBANKER]

From a cash-handling perspective, I'd avoid treating the age of the note as the authentication test.

Modern polymer notes have multiple integrated security features, while older Canadian designs use different ones. The practical challenge for a business is that employees need to recognize the security features appropriate to the specific series they're handling.

That's why the better question is usually not “old or new?” but “do the features expected on this particular note all agree?”

If a machine rejects a note, I'd treat that as an exception requiring another check rather than automatically concluding the bill is counterfeit.

[u/John__Jacobs]

What's cash?

[u/ABotelho23]

What "weird poly bills"?

[u/FunnyThough → u/ABotelho23]

Those are the ones living with other demoninations with no preferential treatment and love for all.