PSA: My local bodega guy taught me to spot a fake $20 in under 3 seconds

After I tried passing a counterfeit bill at his register last summer, he spent 10 minutes showing me the watermark and hologram tricks. Has anyone else gotten a crash course in forgery detection from a corner store clerk?

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barnes.shane3mo ago

Read somewhere that most US counterfeits actually pass the pen test because criminals figured out how to make the starch test look legit. The real trick is feeling the jacket texture on the portrait and tilting the bill to watch the color shift in the ink. My corner store guy showed me that the watermark should match the portrait exactly, not just be some random scribble. Also told me to check the thin security thread runs straight through the bill and glows pink under UV light. Those little details are way harder to fake than people realize.

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kim.charlie3mo ago

Honestly the ink color shift is the easiest way to tell. Most people don't even bother checking that.

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