counterfeit money
Counterfeit money is
imitation currency produced without the legal sanction of the state or
government usually in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency and so as
to deceive its recipient. Producing or using counterfeit money is a
form of fraud or forgery. The business of counterfeiting money
is almost as old as money itself: plated copies (known as Fourrées) have
been found of Lydian coins which are thought to be among the first
Western coins. Before the introduction of paper money, the most
prevalent method of counterfeiting involved mixing base metals with pure gold
or silver. Another form of counterfeiting is the production of documents by
legitimate printers in response to fraudulent instructions. During World
War II, the Nazis forged British pounds and American dollars. Today
some of the finest counterfeit banknotes are called Superdollars because
of their high quality and likeness to the real US dollar. There has been
significant counterfeiting of Euro banknotes and coins since the
launch of the currency in 2002, but considerably less than for the US dollar.
Some of the ill-effects that counterfeit money has on
society include a reduction in the value of real money; and an increase in prices
(inflation) due to more money getting circulated in the economy - the unauthorized artificial increase in the money supply; a decrease in the
acceptability of paper money; and losses, when traders are not reimbursed for
counterfeit money detected by banks, even if it is confiscated. Traditionally,
anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised intaglio printing
on bills which 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.
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