singrdave

Join Date 07/2004

Beware the Supernote!

Kim Jong Il is all about the Benjamins, baby.

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The government's printing presses work every day making American $100 bills. The bills have red and blue fibers woven into the fabric. Watermarks and security ribbons are painstakingly put into the paper. Ink is pressed onto the paper by huge intaglio presses, cut exactly to size, and bundled for distribution around the world. And the government making those US $100 bills is North Korea.

Sadly, those American $100 bills are coming from Pyongyang, North Korea. They are perfect, from the pictures to the ink to the watermark. The masterful forgeries cannot be detected, unless taken to the "local" US Federal Reserve Bank.

From Slate.com:
The FBI claims an international ring has trafficked weapons, drugs, fake cigarettes, and more than $5 million in "Supernotes" to North America. What are Supernotes? Counterfeit $100 bills of very high quality. Supernotes are incredibly deceptive. They're printed on cotton-fiber paper using the same expensive "intaglio" printing presses used by the U.S. government. An intaglio press creates tiny ridges on a piece of paper by forcing it into the ink-filled grooves of an engraved plate at very high pressure. That's what gives dollars—and Supernotes—their characteristic feel.

A member of the Congressional Research Service reported that the government of North Korea produces millions of dollars a year with intaglio presses. In the meantime, the government ordered an extensive redesign of U.S. currency in 1996. (Supernote versions of the new $100 bills have been discovered.)

The Treasury Department estimates that 60 percent of U.S. currency is held overseas, where Supernotes seem to be in wider circulation. In 1998, Russia's central bank estimated that $4 billion in Supernotes were floating around the country. And this past March, Supernotes turned up in Peru.

If you think this program is insidious, it is. North Korea is producing hundreds of millions of fake US dollars a year. And those North Korean $100 bills don't stay in North Korea, my friends. They're not for internal use -- they're using that funny money to finance their government's operations. Treasury officials have admitted that the recent changes to the dollar printing processes are to counter North Korean Supernotes.

From the Washington Times:
North Korea's government has produced more than $45 million in high-quality fake $100 bills since 1989 and is the world's only state-sponsored producer of the so-called "supernote," according to U.S. law-enforcement officials.
The recent arrest of Sean Garland, head of the communist Workers Party of Ireland, provided the first confirmation of the Pyongyang government's links to the supernote or superdollar, which was discovered as part of a 16-year-old probe by the U.S. Secret Service, which is in charge of investigating illegal money production.
Vic Erevia, assistant special agent in charge of the criminal investigative division at the Secret Service, said the probe resulted in 160 arrests linked to counterfeiting and related activities worldwide.
Meanwhile, the State Department yesterday defended Treasury Department sanctions imposed in September on the Banco Delta Asia in Macao for its role in North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering.

North Korea has produced 19 variations of the supernote since it first appeared in Manila in 1989, law-enforcement officials said. Each variation was an improvement and looked and felt almost identical to genuine $100 bills. A close look shows the printing on a supernote is slightly lighter than that on a genuine note. The bills were printed on North Korea's intaglio-process offset printing presses bought in the 1970s. The machines are used by governments worldwide to print currency and by private firms that do so. The North Korean supernotes are considered the highest-quality forgeries.

So remember: next time you have an American $100 bill in your hand, it may be fake. Kim Jong Il's fingerprints may still be on it.

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

Maybe it's time to switch to plastic money like in Australia. It's even more difficult to fake and doesn't dissolve in the wash.

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There was an MSM video of the Israeli raids in Lebanon. I dont have the link (I think it was MSNBC), but there was a clear shot of sheets of $100 bills. The Federal Reserve never allows those out into the public. So the only conclusion that can be drawn, is they are doing it as well.

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Dr Guy: There was a report a couple of years ago about the Iranian government churning out a billion dollars in counterfeit US money every year. Since Hezbollah is backed by the Iranians, no doubt it's there. One wonders how much of it ends up being laundered by the Lebanese government through their "legitimate" Hezbollah politicians.

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So, I assume if people are smart they'll stop doing business with NK. Or perhaps they don't care, as long as they can still pass off the notes.

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One wonders how much of it ends up being laundered by the Lebanese government through their "legitimate" Hezbollah politicians.

yes, one does wonder. And you are right. I doubt Hezbollah has the facilities. But Iran does.

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We should all go back to using gold and silver. Wouldn't matter then where it came from as gold is gold.

Be a real bitch to carry around though.

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Hello. I was amazed by the article you presented. I am shocked that so many dollars are produced and that no one can detect them. Thank you for bringing this article to our attention.

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So does this mean Kim Junior's cut back on his drug running and kidnapped Japanese actress pornography flicks to focus on something more lucrative?

Plastic money in Australia, what???!!!

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

Plastic money in Australia, what???!!!

You haven't seen it? Australian money isn't made out of cloth or paper but a special kind of plastic. Because of that it can incorporate more anti-faking technologies and can only be produced by highly specialised machinery, something most criminal organisations don't own. The medium also allows for finer detail (there's a microdot printing of a famous Australian poem on one note) and cheaper costs (the notes last a lot longer - 40 months for a $5 compared to 5 months for the old paper version). The addition of clear windows and holograms makes it even tougher.

It can be counterfeited but it's extremely difficult and not that common. It's cheaper and easier to fake US notes which are worth more. Maybe if the US switched to plastic we'd see some serious threats to Australian currency but at the moment the attempts are pretty amateur.

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This is horrible to hear! I wish they could really do something about it. I thought of the coins too like Mason but that would be too heavy, and I wish they could do the plastic!

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I wish they could do the plastic!

How on earth would I fold a plastic banknote into my wallet?! :

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

How on earth would I fold a plastic banknote into my wallet?!

They're thinner and more flexible than paper so I'm guessing quite easily. In dimensions it's exactly like a paper note only made out of plastic.

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In dimensions it's exactly like a paper note only made out of plastic.

Why not? Paper bags are now made out of plastic.

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I really don't see how changing the base material of the currency from paper to plastic would solve the problem. Those making the funny money can't get plastic?

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

Those making the funny money can't get plastic?

Of course they can. But for some strange reason they tend not to buy the machinery they need - possibly because it's not economically viable, as I mentioned before. If for some reason you're particularly interested in the note's security features check here: Link

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I have not (knowingly) seen the North Korean counterfeited supernotes, either the $50 or $100 denomination. However, in the last decade our own United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing has produced for collectors reproductions of valuable American postage stamps--the 1930's Graf Zepplins, the 1893 Columbian commemoratives, the 1898 Trans Mississippi issues, and so on; these are legitimate productions, of course, meant for collectors and printed intaglio from plates very close to if not identical to the issues they reproduce.

As one who possesses a few of the valuable orginials, I note that there is a slightly different feel between the new reproductions and the old originals. The new ones are "finer," perhaps in the way that the North Korean counterfeits are "finer" than the genuine American notes. The paper on which the reproductions is slightly harder. The ink does not sink into that paper--whose fibers are not arranged in the same way as those of the original, earlier stamps were--in the same way it did on the 1893 Columbians, 1898 Trans Mississippi issues, and so on. There is a new technique for examining paper fibers that may be to the point.

Has anyone with experience noted what I am saying? Can anyone out there speak authoritatively to these matters?

In my capacity as a publisher, I buy a fair amount of printing. I once was given in a bank a counterfeit $100 bill. Fortunately, I noticed it and reported it immediately; there was an FBI man present at that time who verified the fact. However, this counterfeit was an offset job; the face of the note (an older series one, with small portrait) was well done, but the back was to my eye quite sloppy. These new counterfeits would be interesting to examine. If there was a place (Bureau of Engraving Printing? Smithsonian?) I could look at one, I would like to. Is there one? If anyone knows anything specific and technical about the production of these notes I would also like to know that.

siwelregor

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Please to drop back onto the face of the earth soon? Yes? Very good, thank you very much........................

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How in God's green Earth did North korea get those printers!?

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