The simplest way not to end up with a counterfeit is to exchange at a counter, where notes go through a detector. But when dollars are handed to you directly, it is worth checking them yourself. Daylight from a window and fifteen seconds are enough.
Five signs you can see without equipment
The blue ribbon is the key sign on a modern hundred
On 100-dollar notes of the 2013 series and later the vertical blue ribbon is woven into the paper, not printed on top. Tilt the note: the bells on the ribbon turn into the number 100 and move across the direction of your hand. This is the hardest element to fake, and it is where counterfeits fail most often: on them the ribbon is simply printed.
The watermark is a portrait, not a smudge
Hold the note up to the light: the same portrait appears to the right of the printed one, only without ink. On fakes the watermark is often drawn — then it is visible at an angle, without any light behind it.
Raised printing on the collar
Run a fingernail along the collar of Franklin’s coat: a genuine note is printed from a metal plate under pressure, and the ink sits in a raised layer. Smooth paper on a fake has nothing to feel.
The colour-shifting numeral
The 100 in the lower right corner shifts from copper to green as you tilt it. On 50 and 20 dollar notes the denomination behaves the same way.
Microprinting
Around the portrait and on the collar there are tiny inscriptions. Without a lens they look like a thin line — but the line is even and crisp. On a fake there is a smudge or a dotted trace instead.
What not to rely on
Do not trust the counterfeit pen alone. The iodine pen reacts to starch in ordinary paper, and it misses fakes printed on bleached paper taken from genuine small-denomination notes.
Do not judge by touch alone in poor light. Five signs together are reliable, one is not.
Do not accept notes you «had no time to look at». A seller in a hurry is exactly the reason to look more closely.
If in doubt
Come to the counter. At our branches in Kharkiv and Chernivtsi notes are checked with a detector, and it is free — whether or not you go on to exchange anything.
Frequently asked questions
Are old dollars without the blue ribbon accepted? Yes, they are genuine and legal, but at a discount for the series and the condition — details in our article on old and worn dollars.
Can a phone check a banknote? A camera shows microprinting when zoomed in, but a phone will not see the watermark or the raised printing. It supplements the check, it does not replace it.
What if a counterfeit is already in my hands? Do not try to spend it: passing one on is a criminal offence even for someone who received it by accident. Take it to a bank or the police.