I’ve gotten burned by receiving a fake bill before. It had the wrong kind of paper — the stiff, smooth kind you buy at the office supply store — not the rough flexible stuff with the gritty, raised texture of ink laid down by a specialty intaglio press. But I wasn’t paying attention when I received it mixed in with other bills. When I went to pull the bill out of my wallet later on, I got that sick feeling — I’d been fooled.
Suppose you received a fake $100 bill. Would that make you believe that $100 bills didn’t exist? Or would it make you double down on learning the characteristics of real bills to make sure that you never accepted anything but genuine currency? There are more than fifteen special security features that have been introduced in the last seventeen years to try to stay a few steps ahead of counterfeiters. I’ll give you a head start on spotting the real bill with five of the key features of genuine $100 bills.
Silk fibers: Tiny red and blue silk fibers have been sprinkled throughout the paper genuine bills are printed on. Seen against the white background, I suppose that’s meant to be mildly patriotic.
Plastic security thread: A special security thread runs through the bill and glows red when the bill is exposed to UV light. That’s what some of those bill-detectors they use at the store are looking for. This thread appears in different positions in bills of different denominations. It seems counterfeiters were bleaching $5 bills and printing them as $100 bills.
Super fine printing: Grab a magnifying glass next time you have a “Benjamin” in your possession. Focus on the super tiny details on Benjamin Franklin’s lapel and you’ll discover the tiny words “the United States of America” in clear, crisp printing. Any printing process inferior to that of the U.S. Treasury will muddy up those words and show you you’re looking at a fake.
Color-shifting ink: The latest bills have a new version of this ink that shifts from copper to green depending on the angle you’re looking at the bill. Try finding that ink to put in your home printer!
Motion security ribbon: One of the cleverest features of the newest $100 bills is a strip of Liberty Bells that shift to the numerals “100” as you tilt the bill.
If you’ve ever been fooled, as I have, perhaps you’d show a little caution when receiving a large denomination bill. However, the U. S. Treasury insists that only about one-tenth of one percent of all bills are counterfeits. I suspect you’re not likely to see one anytime soon.
Ever spot a counterfeit person? I mean someone who claims to be what they aren’t. A few years ago I met a construction worker who wouldn’t trust any Christians. He had been attending a place where the so-called pastor had stolen his wife. The pain, disappointment and mistrust were still evident in his voice as he spoke to me. In one sense, who could blame him? In fact, every Christian comes short of completely and perfectly representing Jesus Christ to people they meet. Does that mean that the genuine, perfect Jesus Christ doesn’t have a message for them? Will they be able to stand before a holy God and blame others for their unbelief? The Bible says “every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)). Saying we refused the claims of the genuine Christ because we encountered counterfeit Christians will have no weight with God. Read How to Know for Sure He’s Genuine to get to know a few of the genuine features of the real Son of God.