By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
GENEVA — Like a dealer playing a card trick, the tellers at Northwest Savings Bank in Geneva count out cash in a flash.
Always double checking their count, the tellers feel every bill that comes through the bank on East Main Street, and they know what real money feels like.
“Our tellers can pretty much spot a counterfeit bill on the spot,” bank branch manager Shirley Lehmann said. “Real money has a very specific look and feel. Anyone who handles a lot of money every day, like one of our tellers, would know a fake bill immediately.”
Lehmann said particularly accurate counterfeit money is sent to the bank’s security department and then forwarded to the United States Secret Service, which handles fraudulent bills.
Lehmann said there are several ways for a person to detect a counterfeit bill.
“First, touch the money and see if it feels thinner, or more paper-like than usual. Real money is printed on a cloth-like paper. Then, hold the bill up to the light. If the images on the bill are blurry, then it may be a fake.”
Lehmann said sometimes the best way to see if a bill is real is to look for what the average person wouldn’t notice.
“A real bill will have red and blue fibers running through it,” she said. “It will also have a strip that reads ‘USA’ running through it,” she said.
But even money experts can be fooled by funny money, she said.
“A few months ago we got a bill that was very difficult to tell if it was real or fake,” Lehmann said. “The counterfeiters are getting very sophisticated. They are getting good at making this money. While they can’t possibly manufacture money the way the government does, in this digital age they can make if hard for the everyday person to detect fake bills.”
Lehmann said she encourages clerks and store owners to be aware of the money they take in by looking at and feeling each bill as it enters their cash register. Special counterfeit detector pens can be purchased to authenticate money. Each pen costs about $5.
Anyone who accepts counterfeit money is out that amount, she said.
Manufacturing counterfeit United States currency or altering genuine currency to increase its value is a violation of Title 18, Section 471 of the United States Code and is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to 15 years, or both.
