[intrasight]

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.

[technothrasher]

> 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.

[chuckadams]

The fraud of passing off something of lesser value as the genuine article is the definition of counterfeiting.

[Uvix]

But there is no such thing as a “genuine” $30 bill.

[chuckadams]

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. Probably not a high priority for them given the overall lack of believability, but the attempt is what counts.

[9935c101ab17a66]

I don't think that the parent comment is making the case it's not a crime, but rather that it's not specifically counterfeiting. There comment reads as playfully snarky to me, since, when discussing counterfeit currency, we almost always take counterfeit to mean "to make a fraudulent replica of".

It's still fraud, and an attempt to deceive.

[iambateman]

If you’ll allow yourself to go one step further in the pedantry, there is no such thing as genuine money either.

[margalabargala]

There is if we agree that there is.

Which we have.

[selimthegrim]

Isn’t this “uttering”?

[tekla]

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4489683

[gblargg]

The best are sheets of $2 bills with perforations, as Steve Wozniak did: https://youtu.be/LJ1TIYxm1vM

[Wowfunhappy]

^ This clip made me want to watch the full interview, which was somewhat difficult to find. I eventually managed to pull a copy out of the Wayback Machine. In case anyone else wants it: https://web.archive.org/web/20111214055934if_/http://cdn22.c...

[intrasight]

That's wonderful. what a prankster is Wozniak!

[bombcar]

https://www.usmint.gov/paper-currency/uncut-currency/ Expensive wrapping paper and cutting it wrong may be defacing currency!

[PantaloonFlames]

Darren Brown paying with blank paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vz_YTNLn6w

[ghtbircshotbe]

What is neppy?

[shepmaster]

At a Pittsburgher, I assumed it was a misspelling of “nebby”.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nebby