Thinking about how George Floyd was killed for supposedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. I worked in casinos so it’s something I know a little about. Those pens? They’re garbage and it’s actually more accurate to just use your fingers.

Legal tender is printed using the Intaglio process, which uses metal plates to stamp the ink into the paper. Which results in a kind of “relief” pattern in the paper due to the grooves in the printing plates (pic)

Those raised ridges and valleys in the finished bill are very easy to detect with your fingers. And when they’re absent...such as the case where a bill has just been printed on, say, a laser printer...you notice right away.

In the casinos, we actually had a whole security process we followed if a counterfeit bill was discovered, which involved contacting the FBI and Secret Service (because that is the Federal law enforcement agency that handles counterfeit currency).

Of course, Surveillance would be tasked with running back the tapes and an effort would be made to identify the person responsible for passing the bill. But you know what we *didn’t* do?

We didn’t call 911 and involve the local police, because in the vast majority of cases, the counterfeit bill was passed by someone who had no idea the bill was counterfeit. They obtained it innocently, through getting change somewhere or being paid in cash for something.

In other words, most people who pass counterfeit currency do so in ignorance, and are almost never the actual person who created the bills. Tracing the bills is the job of the Secret Service investigative division.

I don’t know why this has been bugging me, but I hope whoever placed that 911 call is haunted forever by their stupidity. I hope karma is real and I hope it finds them.

Intaglio printing plates: