I'm Pretty Sure This Is Illegal. Counterfeit Bills On Ebay.

These notes are, as the listings usually say, "bank training money". They use them in China to train and test their International Desk tellers. They use fake money because, if they used real money, a trainee might be tempted to swipe some of the money; they'd fail the test (and not get the job), but they'd score some cash.

The notes usually say "Training money - property of the bank - do not remove" or some such (in Chinese, of course). Given the amounts of these notes we're seeing on the market, it appears that someone isn't paying attention to that particular clause.

It's also entirely possible that counterfeiters are counterfeiting the training money, realising they can sell "fake notes" perfectly legally this way.

The bills are defaced, so there is no way people are going to mistake it for a real twenty. Why are these any different than putting Bill Clinton's face on a hundred dollar bill?

Just noticed something else. The serial number and the Federal Reserve bank code don't match. The serial number begins "PF...", "F" being the Atlanta bank, but the bank code "B2" refers to the New York bank.

If these notes truly are for training bank tellers to work by feel, they don't need the appearance to be completely accurate, just close enough. The printer probably made this and other subtle changes in an attempt to keep them from being exact counterfeits. Doesn't make them any more legal, though...

Interesting point, Finn, but I'm not sure about that. See, the U.S. dollar is probably the single most-circulated currency outside the U.S. In fact, in some countries, the dollar is preferred over their own currency.

I believe international law allows for the prosecution of counterfeiting a nation's currency even if it is done outside that nation. After all, money from many nations changes hands and is exchanged countless times in every nation every day. For an individual (or a rogue nation such as North Korea) to introduce counterfeit currency into circulation OUTSIDE a country would be just as harmful to a nation's currency as if it had been printed and introduced INSIDE that country.

The U.S, China, and 78 other countries are signatories to the International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency, originally created in 1929.

INTERPOL works to combat international counterfeiting, in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service, Europol, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other entities.

But if you think about it for a bit, if China turned a blind eye to the counterfeiting of U.S. dollars (or Euros for that matter), then they would not have much of an argument if the U.S. or European countries turned a collective blind eye to the counterfeiting of Chinese yuans. So China (theoretically) has a vested interest in assisting the international community in stopping the counterfeiting of U.S. currency.



... theoretically ...

Intent is part of it. If the person or entity who produced those "training notes" intended for them to be used solely for training purposes - and can prove it - that would get them past the "intent to defraud" portion of the law.

However, an attorney specializing in counterfeit law gives a really useful definition of a counterfeit: "In order for a bogus bill to be counterfeit, it must be similar enough to the authentic bill so as to confuse an ordinary, unsuspecting person." If someone makes counterfeit "training notes" of sufficient quality that they might "confuse an ordinary, unsuspecting person," then they had better exercise strict control over them so that they do not get released into the public's hands.

The notes on ebay have hashed lines (cancellation marks?) over one corner of both the obverse and the reverse. They also have the Chinese characters in supposedly irremovable ink saying something like "training notes - do not take" or whatever. But is that enough to prevent someone who cannot read Chinese and who is totally unaware of the existence of "training notes" to accept one of these things as though it was a genuine bill? After all, genuine U.S. money often has writing, printing, markings, and even stamps on them, and yet they're still genuine and still acceptable as payment.

Where do you draw the line? The printer seems to have taken care so as to ensure that the notes are not perceived as genuine. They were also apparently not intended for use outside of China (or a Chinese-speaking country), or the "training notes" text might have been printed in other languages. But whoever intended for them to be used as "training notes" within China obviously did not exercise the proper control, because a pretty large amount of them have made their way to ebay, where a considerable number of them have been sold. One single listing for packs of 100 $100 "training notes" has sold over 200 packs (that's 20,000 bills, folks, representing $2 million in counterfeit currency). At least one seller in the United States has apparently bought packs of several denominations and is selling the notes individually.

Obviously, the top is now off the bottle and the genie has escaped on this one. Now, it is just a matter of time before we see a segment on the news where someone has passed one of these at a Wal-mart or a Burger King.

But the point here should be that because they are actual size, nothing else matters. They are illegal to import into the US, or to have in your possesion once here. Any real size reproduction of US currency is illegal, defacement not withstanding.

I doubt if the BEP has the resources to deal with this international "problem".

In all actuality, this falls under the Secret Service, FBI and DHS umbrellas and they usually are looking for bigger fish to fry.

When they eventually realize it is a problem that's costing a lot of money they'll get around to looking in to it. The wheels of justice seem to move very slowly.