Some local merchants say they have seen more than the usual counterfeit bills floating around Greenwood this holiday shopping season.
Derrick Simpson, manager of Greenwood Market Place on West Park Avenue, said he has seen several counterfeit notes.
"I'm seeing a lot of 20s," he said, "more than usual this time of year."
The holiday shopping season sees a lot of counterfeit money passed because more money changes hands, and cashiers and clerks are so busy that some worthless notes slip into circulation, said Allen Bryant, resident agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Jackson.
The Secret Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, investigates counterfeit money complaints, among other duties.
Bryant said he had received some notes from the Greenwood area last week. He declined to talk specifically about the investigation.
Greenwood Deputy Police Chief Henry Purnell confirmed the department recovered some counterfeit bills last Friday.
"I know that they apparently came in by way of Wal-Mart," he said.
Nobody at the Wal-Mart in Greenwood would comment on the money recovery.
A woman in media affairs at Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Ark., said she was unaware of any issues with counterfeit money at the Greenwood store.
Teresa Hopper, head teller at AmSouth Bank on West Park Avenue, said employees at the bank have seen five times more counterfeit money this Christmas season than in other years.
"Sometimes, we see five or six (bills) per day," she said.
Most of the counterfeit money comes in the deposits from grocery stores, liquor stores or other large, chain-type stores, such as a Wal-Mart, she explained.
Some of the bills are easy to detect, she said, because they're printed on regular paper. "They're just slick, slick, slick."
Others might be harder to detect.
For instance, many cashiers and clerks have a special
\marker that turns a specific color when they mark a good bill. That color tells the cashier the bill is good.
But recently, Simpson's clerks have found bogus notes that give the proper color when marked, indicating a true bill - at least when it's marked on one side.
When Simpson confiscated one of the bills and used the marker on the other side, the color didn't show, meaning the bill was counterfeit.
"I feel for all of us retailers out here trying to deal with it," he said.
Once someone passes a counterfeit bill, the store or bank gets stuck with the debt. The bad money goes to the authorities.
People who suspect they have counterfeit money handed to them can check in several ways, according to the Treasury Department:
- Color-shifting ink: If you hold the new series bill (except the $5 note) and tilt it back and forth, observe the numeral in the lower right corner as its color shifts from green to black and back.
- Watermark: Hold the bill up to a light to view the watermark in an unprinted space to the right of the portrait. The watermark can be seen from both sides of the bill since it is not printed on the bill but is imbedded in the paper.
- Security thread: Hold the bill up to a light to view the security thread. You will see a thin imbedded strip running from top to bottom on the face of a banknote. In the $10 and $50 bills, the security strip is located to the right of the portrait, and in the $5, $20, and $100 bills, it is located just to the left of the portrait.
- Ultraviolet glow: If the bill is held up to an ultraviolet light, the $5 bill glows blue, the $10 bill glows orange, the $20 bill glows green, the $50 bill glows yellow, and the $100 bill glows red - if they are authentic.
- Microprinting: There is microprinting on the security threads: the $5 bill has "USA FIVE" written on the thread, the $10 bill has "USA TEN" written on the thread; the $20 bill has "USA TWENTY" written on the security thread; the $50 bill has "USA 50" written on the thread; and the $100 bill has the words "USA 100" written on the security thread. Microprinting can be found around the portrait as well as on the security threads.
- Fine line printing patterns: Very fine lines have been added behind the portrait and on the reverse side scene to make it harder to reproduce.
- Comparison: Compare the feel and texture of the paper with other bills that you know are authentic.
