
A counterfeit is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. The word ''counterfeit'' most frequently describes forged money or documents, but can also describe clothing, software, pharmaceuticals, or any other manufactured item. == History == [[Image:counterfeit_nickel_plant.jpg|250px|thumb| This building was used to mint counterfeit American United States five cent coin in the late 19th century and/or early 20th century. The picture was taken in 1911 and featured in a Chicago newspaper.]] Counterfeiting money is probably as old as money itself. However, the introduction of paper money has made it an easier thing to do. Nations have used counterfeiting as a means of warfare. The idea is to overflow the enemy's economy with fake bank notes, so that the real value of the money plummets. This was used by Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War to impact the war effort and managed to significantly reduce the value of the Continental Dollar. This tactic was also employed by the United States during the American Civil War. However, fake Confederate currency was of superior quality to the real thing. In 1926 Hungary had suffered a high-profiled international scandal. Several people were arrested in the Netherlands while trying to commission 10 million's worth of fake french 1000 franc bills made in Hungary: after 3 years, the state-sponsored industrial scale counterfeit operation has finally collapsed. The League of Nations's investigation found Hungary's motives were to avenge its post-WWI territorial losses (blamed on Georges Clemenceau) and to use profits from the counterfeiting business to boost a militarist, border-revisionist ideology. Germany and Austria had an active role in the conspiracy, which required special machinery. The quality of fake bills was still substandard however, due to France's use of exotic raw paper material imported from its colonies. During World War II, the Nazis attempted to do a similar thing to the Allies with Operation Bernhard. The Nazis took Jewish artists in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and forced them to forge British pounds and American dollars. The quality of the counterfeiting was very good, and was almost impossible to distinguish between the real and fake bills. The Germans could not put their plan into action, and were forced to dump the counterfeit bills into a lake, and they were not recovered until the 1950s. Over one billion American dollars were forged, and economists estimate that that would have seriously damaged the American war effort. Today the finest counterfeit banknotes are claimed to be United States dollar bills produced in North Korea, which are used to finance the North Korean government, among other uses. The fake North Korean copies are called ''Superdollars'' because of their high quality. Bulgaria and Syria are also significant sources of counterfeit currency. In the early years of the 21st century, the United States Secret Service has noted a substantial reduction in the quantity of forged U.S. currency, as counterfeiters turn their attention towards the Euro. == Anti-counterfeiting measures == American_twenty_dollar_bill">Image:Dollarsecurity.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Anti-counterfeiting features on the American_twenty_dollar_bill Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised intaglio (printmaking) printing on bills which would allow non-experts to easily spot forgeries. On coins, ''milled'' or ''reeded'' (marked with parallel grooves) edges are used to show that none of the valuable metal has been scraped off. This detects the ''shaving'' or ''clipping'' (paring off) of the rim of the coin. However, it does not detect ''sweating'', or shaking coins in a bag and collecting the resulting dust. Since this technique removes a smaller amount, it is primarily used on the most valuable coins, such as gold. In the late twentieth century advances in computer and photocopy technology made it possible for people without sophisticated training to easily copy currency. In response, national engraving bureaus began to include new more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting systems such as holograms, multi-colored bills, embedded devices such as strips, microprinting and inks whose colors changed depending on the angle of the light, and the use of design features such as the "EURion constellation" which disables modern photocopiers. Software programs such as Adobe Photoshop have been modified by their manufacturers to obstruct manipulation of scanned images of banknotes. For United_States_dollar, anti-counterfeiting milestones are as follows: *1996 American_hundred_dollar_bill gets a new design with a larger portrait *1997 American_fifty_dollar_bill goes this way *1998 American_twenty_dollar_bill goes this way *2000 American_ten_dollar_bill and American_five_dollar_bill go this way *2003 American_twenty_dollar_bill gets a new design with no oval around Andrew_Jackson portrait and more colors *2004 American_fifty_dollar_bill goes this way *2005 American_hundred_dollar_bill goes this way It is not known whether the American_five_dollar_bill or the American_ten_dollar_bill will go the way the American_twenty_dollar_bill went in 2003. The Federal_Reserve_note and United_States_Two_dollar_bill are not worth counterfeiting, and so they continue to have the traditional appearance. In the 1980s counterfeiters in the Republic of Ireland twice resulted in sudden changes in official documents: in November 1984 the £1 postage stamp, also used on savings cards for paying television licences and telephone bills, was invalidated and replaced by another design at a few days notice, because of widespread counterfeiting. Later, the £20 Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Series B banknote was rapidly replaced because of what the Finance Minister described as "the involuntary privatisation of banknote printing". In the 1990s, the portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung was placed on the banknotes of the People's Republic of China to combat counterfeiting, as he was recognised better than the generic designs on the renminbi notes. == Money Art == A subject related to that of counterfeiting is that of money art, which is art that incorporates currency designs or themes. Some of these works of art are similar enough to actual bills that their legality is in question. While a counterfeit is made with deceptive intent, money art is not - however, the law may or may not differentiate between the two. == Counterfeit American Goods == For years, China has been the workshop of the world. And for years, American and other western firms have set up shop in China to tap into the enormous, cheap labour force. The Americans teach the Chinese the know how to produce their goods. Then the Chinese teach each other the know how to produce American goods. Evidence of the counterfeiting trade can be seen every day at one Hong Kong warehouse, where counterfeit watches, shoes and computer chips -- all copied in China and seized in Hong Kong -- are tossed onto a conveyor belt and consigned to the dustbin of history. "There has never been a problem of this size and magnitude in world history. There’s more counterfeiting going on in China now than we’ve ever seen anywhere,” says Dan Chow, a law professor at Ohio State University who specializes in Chinese counterfeiting. “We know that 15 to 20 percent of all goods in China are counterfeit.” According to American attorney Harley Lewin,“This(counterfeiting) is the most profitable criminal venture, as far as I know, on Earth. And your partners don’t kill you.” ==Famous counterfeiters== *Samuel C. Upham - was the first known counterfeiter of Confederate money. His activities began or became known in early July 1862. *Wesley Weber - was sent to prison for counterfeiting the Canadian 100 dollar bill. *Anatasios Arnaouti == See also == *Counterfeit drug *Counterfeit United States Notes *Currency *Fourrée *Questioned document examination *Secret Service *Security printing Crimes Hoaxes ==External links== *[http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/money_detect.shtml U.S. Secret Service article about how to detect counterfeit money]
Should this article be merged with counterfeiting (another stub)? -- User:Notheruser 04:50 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC) :Indeed it should. I didn't see that article. If you search for "counterfeit", the article "counterfeiting" does not come up as a title match - that is strange. --User:Snoyes 04:55 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC) == How can you tell?? == Did I get this correct?? Look at the back of the bill. You can tell whether it is a counterfeit by whether there are any hard-to-see curves that look like string. If none are present, this means it is a counterfeit. Also, has anyone gone to the Discuss this page at the U.S. fifty dollar bill article?? ---- Here is some text I took off the article page: :''(rough notes)'' two classes of counterfeiting - one to deceive as to the content (gold coins, pharmaceuticals) and one to deceive as to the source (paper currency, software) --User:Yath 08:42, 23 May 2004 (UTC) ----- The quotation "the involuntary privatisation of banknote printing" is a lovely one. But could we have a citation for it? A Google search on those terms reveals nothing new. :Hmm, tricky, it happened before every newspaper got online, so I'm not surprised Google couldn't find it (other than 48 mirrors of Wikipedia!). You'd have to go through Irish newspapers of the 1980s, I suppose, though I clearly remember the quotation being reported at the time. It was a pity, because the series B £20 was a particularly nice design in my opinion -- W.B. Yeats on the front and a nice Irish wolfhound on the back, in a nice shade of blue. It was also the highest denomination banknote one could legally take out of the country... -- User:Arwel Parry 13:05, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC) Another fine theme is quotations from the counterfeit banknotes. It may be have been another urban legend, as I have not seen any such personally, but in 1980s there was a widespread story about Soviet roubles with changed text. At that time, roubles were heavily covered in dense script (using languages of all 15 "member states" of USSR), so it was not hard to miss that in the place where it should have been written "counterfeit is a crime legally punished by (bla-bla-bla)" the text said actually "ours are not worse than yours" (наши не хуже ваших). Another version (allegedly) said "read it through and pass it to your comrade" (прочитай и передай товарищу), a common note on the wartime leaflets. --User:Oop 13:21, Jan 29, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Counterfeit:
Counterfeit
Counterfeit
Counterfeiter
Counterfeiting
Counterfeit_dollars
Counterfeit_dollar_bills
Counterfeit_drug
Counterfeit_drugs
Counterfeit_medicine
Counterfeit_medicines
Counterfeit_money
Counterfeit_money_detector_pen
Counterfeit_news
Counterfeit_pen
Counterfeit_United_States_Notes
Counterfeit_United_States_Notes
Counterfeit
A counterfeit is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. The word ''counterfeit'' most frequently describes forged money or documents, but can also describe clothing, software, pharmaceuticals, or any other manufactured item. == History == [[Image:counterfeit_nickel_plant.jpg|250px|thumb| This building was used to mint counterfeit American United States five cent coin in the late 19th century and/or early 20th century. The picture was taken in 1911 and featured in a Chicago newspaper.]] Counterfeiting money is probably as old as money itself. However, the introduction of paper money has made it an easier thing to do. Nations have used counterfeiting as a means of warfare. The idea is to overflow the enemy's economy with fake bank notes, so that the real value of the money plummets. This was used by Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War to impact the war effort and managed to significantly reduce the value of the Continental Dollar. This tactic was also employed by the United States during the American Civil War. However, fake Confederate currency was of superior quality to the real thing. In 1926 Hungary had suffered a high-profiled international scandal. Several people were arrested in the Netherlands while trying to commission 10 million's worth of fake french 1000 franc bills made in Hungary: after 3 years, the state-sponsored industrial scale counterfeit operation has finally collapsed. The League of Nations's investigation found Hungary's motives were to avenge its post-WWI territorial losses (blamed on Georges Clemenceau) and to use profits from the counterfeiting business to boost a militarist, border-revisionist ideology. Germany and Austria had an active role in the conspiracy, which required special machinery. The quality of fake bills was still substandard however, due to France's use of exotic raw paper material imported from its colonies. During World War II, the Nazis attempted to do a similar thing to the Allies with Operation Bernhard. The Nazis took Jewish artists in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and forced them to forge British pounds and American dollars. The quality of the counterfeiting was very good, and was almost impossible to distinguish between the real and fake bills. The Germans could not put their plan into action, and were forced to dump the counterfeit bills into a lake, and they were not recovered until the 1950s. Over one billion American dollars were forged, and economists estimate that that would have seriously damaged the American war effort. Today the finest counterfeit banknotes are claimed to be United States dollar bills produced in North Korea, which are used to finance the North Korean government, among other uses. The fake North Korean copies are called ''Superdollars'' because of their high quality. Bulgaria and Syria are also significant sources of counterfeit currency. In the early years of the 21st century, the United States Secret Service has noted a substantial reduction in the quantity of forged U.S. currency, as counterfeiters turn their attention towards the Euro. == Anti-counterfeiting measures == American_twenty_dollar_bill">Image:Dollarsecurity.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Anti-counterfeiting features on the American_twenty_dollar_bill Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised intaglio (printmaking) printing on bills which would allow non-experts to easily spot forgeries. On coins, ''milled'' or ''reeded'' (marked with parallel grooves) edges are used to show that none of the valuable metal has been scraped off. This detects the ''shaving'' or ''clipping'' (paring off) of the rim of the coin. However, it does not detect ''sweating'', or shaking coins in a bag and collecting the resulting dust. Since this technique removes a smaller amount, it is primarily used on the most valuable coins, such as gold. In the late twentieth century advances in computer and photocopy technology made it possible for people without sophisticated training to easily copy currency. In response, national engraving bureaus began to include new more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting systems such as holograms, multi-colored bills, embedded devices such as strips, microprinting and inks whose colors changed depending on the angle of the light, and the use of design features such as the "EURion constellation" which disables modern photocopiers. Software programs such as Adobe Photoshop have been modified by their manufacturers to obstruct manipulation of scanned images of banknotes. For United_States_dollar, anti-counterfeiting milestones are as follows: *1996 American_hundred_dollar_bill gets a new design with a larger portrait *1997 American_fifty_dollar_bill goes this way *1998 American_twenty_dollar_bill goes this way *2000 American_ten_dollar_bill and American_five_dollar_bill go this way *2003 American_twenty_dollar_bill gets a new design with no oval around Andrew_Jackson portrait and more colors *2004 American_fifty_dollar_bill goes this way *2005 American_hundred_dollar_bill goes this way It is not known whether the American_five_dollar_bill or the American_ten_dollar_bill will go the way the American_twenty_dollar_bill went in 2003. The Federal_Reserve_note and United_States_Two_dollar_bill are not worth counterfeiting, and so they continue to have the traditional appearance. In the 1980s counterfeiters in the Republic of Ireland twice resulted in sudden changes in official documents: in November 1984 the £1 postage stamp, also used on savings cards for paying television licences and telephone bills, was invalidated and replaced by another design at a few days notice, because of widespread counterfeiting. Later, the £20 Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Series B banknote was rapidly replaced because of what the Finance Minister described as "the involuntary privatisation of banknote printing". In the 1990s, the portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung was placed on the banknotes of the People's Republic of China to combat counterfeiting, as he was recognised better than the generic designs on the renminbi notes. == Money Art == A subject related to that of counterfeiting is that of money art, which is art that incorporates currency designs or themes. Some of these works of art are similar enough to actual bills that their legality is in question. While a counterfeit is made with deceptive intent, money art is not - however, the law may or may not differentiate between the two. == Counterfeit American Goods == For years, China has been the workshop of the world. And for years, American and other western firms have set up shop in China to tap into the enormous, cheap labour force. The Americans teach the Chinese the know how to produce their goods. Then the Chinese teach each other the know how to produce American goods. Evidence of the counterfeiting trade can be seen every day at one Hong Kong warehouse, where counterfeit watches, shoes and computer chips -- all copied in China and seized in Hong Kong -- are tossed onto a conveyor belt and consigned to the dustbin of history. "There has never been a problem of this size and magnitude in world history. There’s more counterfeiting going on in China now than we’ve ever seen anywhere,” says Dan Chow, a law professor at Ohio State University who specializes in Chinese counterfeiting. “We know that 15 to 20 percent of all goods in China are counterfeit.” According to American attorney Harley Lewin,“This(counterfeiting) is the most profitable criminal venture, as far as I know, on Earth. And your partners don’t kill you.” ==Famous counterfeiters== *Samuel C. Upham - was the first known counterfeiter of Confederate money. His activities began or became known in early July 1862. *Wesley Weber - was sent to prison for counterfeiting the Canadian 100 dollar bill. *Anatasios Arnaouti == See also == *Counterfeit drug *Counterfeit United States Notes *Currency *Fourrée *Questioned document examination *Secret Service *Security printing Crimes Hoaxes ==External links== *[http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/money_detect.shtml U.S. Secret Service article about how to detect counterfeit money]
Counterfeit
Should this article be merged with counterfeiting (another stub)? -- User:Notheruser 04:50 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC) :Indeed it should. I didn't see that article. If you search for "counterfeit", the article "counterfeiting" does not come up as a title match - that is strange. --User:Snoyes 04:55 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC) == How can you tell?? == Did I get this correct?? Look at the back of the bill. You can tell whether it is a counterfeit by whether there are any hard-to-see curves that look like string. If none are present, this means it is a counterfeit. Also, has anyone gone to the Discuss this page at the U.S. fifty dollar bill article?? ---- Here is some text I took off the article page: :''(rough notes)'' two classes of counterfeiting - one to deceive as to the content (gold coins, pharmaceuticals) and one to deceive as to the source (paper currency, software) --User:Yath 08:42, 23 May 2004 (UTC) ----- The quotation "the involuntary privatisation of banknote printing" is a lovely one. But could we have a citation for it? A Google search on those terms reveals nothing new. :Hmm, tricky, it happened before every newspaper got online, so I'm not surprised Google couldn't find it (other than 48 mirrors of Wikipedia!). You'd have to go through Irish newspapers of the 1980s, I suppose, though I clearly remember the quotation being reported at the time. It was a pity, because the series B £20 was a particularly nice design in my opinion -- W.B. Yeats on the front and a nice Irish wolfhound on the back, in a nice shade of blue. It was also the highest denomination banknote one could legally take out of the country... -- User:Arwel Parry 13:05, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC) Another fine theme is quotations from the counterfeit banknotes. It may be have been another urban legend, as I have not seen any such personally, but in 1980s there was a widespread story about Soviet roubles with changed text. At that time, roubles were heavily covered in dense script (using languages of all 15 "member states" of USSR), so it was not hard to miss that in the place where it should have been written "counterfeit is a crime legally punished by (bla-bla-bla)" the text said actually "ours are not worse than yours" (наши не хуже ваших). Another version (allegedly) said "read it through and pass it to your comrade" (прочитай и передай товарищу), a common note on the wartime leaflets. --User:Oop 13:21, Jan 29, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
C
CA | CB | CD | CE | CF | CG | CH | CI | CJ | CK | CL | CM | CN | CO | CP | CR | CS | CT | CU | CW | CX | CY | CZ |Words begining with Counterfeit:
Counterfeit
Counterfeit
Counterfeiter
Counterfeiting
Counterfeit_dollars
Counterfeit_dollar_bills
Counterfeit_drug
Counterfeit_drugs
Counterfeit_medicine
Counterfeit_medicines
Counterfeit_money
Counterfeit_money_detector_pen
Counterfeit_news
Counterfeit_pen
Counterfeit_United_States_Notes
Counterfeit_United_States_Notes
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