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The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself.

The US secret service was originally created specifically to combat counterfeit money, it's no surprise that they would keep tracking this man for a decade.

This man is unusual because he did the tiniest amount of one the most severely punished crime.

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I have two "counterfeiting" stories - both of which are humorous even though one involve the Secret Service.

The first was in college. A buddy of mine scribbled a facsimile of a $20 onto a piece of paper with a green marker. He then handed it to the checkout clerk at the cafeteria who took it and started to hand them back change. He stopped her and said "no, no it's a joke - look at what I just handed you". She was embarrassed but they both laughed together.

The second story which does involve the Secret Service is when my friend had a bunch of presents that he had wrapped and put in his front porch until was going to depart for a party. One of the presents was wrapped in a sheet of uncut dollar bills - which you could buy for that purpose.

A neppy neighbor saw it through the window and called the police who called the FBI who called the Secret Service who came knocking on his door to investigate. They were also embarrassed but I don't think they laughed. My friend told him he understands that they're just doing their job and that it's an important one.

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> The first was in college.

I remember my friend coming home from his first year in college and telling me about how he passed a counterfeit $30 he'd found to a clueless clerk and they actually made the correct change. My wise-ass response was that that wasn't actually counterfeit, it was just fraud.

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The fraud of passing off something of lesser value as the genuine article is the definition of counterfeiting.
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But there is no such thing as a “genuine” $30 bill.
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If it's being passed off as money, then someone thought it was. I don't think the Secret Service cares if it's an invalid denomination or has Bozo the Clown on the front.
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The best are sheets of $2 bills with perforations, as Steve Wozniak did: https://youtu.be/LJ1TIYxm1vM
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Also a fascinating read: The Nazi counterfeiting operation, intended to devalue the Pound and crash the British economy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard

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Maybe it's just that any investigation that takes 10 years is by definition one of the more expensive ones.
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A small leak can sink a ship. The fake dollars weren't knowingly accepted. If public confidence in the value of money is lost, we're all in big trouble. The Secret Service was right to pursue the case zealously.
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I think the public take a pretty pragmatic view on this and don't care as long as they are not losing money on it. A few years ago it was estimated that 3% or so of the 1 pound coins in the UK were fake (there is now a more secure coin type); AFAIK the quality was pretty good, so they weren't glaringly obvious, and it seems no-one really cared - if the supermarket or pub would accept it, then it's effectively money, right?
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