[JumpCrisscross]

> the state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters

This is empirically untrue [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfeit_money#Penalties_by...

[cowsandmilk]

The number of countries where life imprisonment is available possible sentence for counterfeiting seems to confirm it having some of the harshest punishments.

[PowerElectronix]

One of the fastest ways to make a state powerless is to make the money they issue and use to pay for everything worthless.

[JumpCrisscross]

> number of countries where life imprisonment is available

All of those, I believe, have the death penalty for e.g. corporate fraud.

This is a bit of a nut job hypothesis. States don’t collapse because of private counterfeiting. It simply becomes an economic nuisance. The budget given to anti-counterfeiting in any country is generally a rounding error compared with other policing.