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Teezers jilted with fake $50
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By CHUCK CLEMENT, Staff Reporter
| 08/20/2009 |
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While some merchants might cast a cautious eye on crisp, new greenbacks wondering if they're funny money, one Madison business was cheated earlier this week by a fake featuring an older bill design with a smaller Ulysses S. Grant.
According to Terry Ellingson, co-owner of Teezers Lounge, a customer paid a waitress on Tuesday with an older-styled $50 note that was later determined counterfeit. Ellingson said when she counted the cashier's till on Wednesday, she took a closer look at the counterfeit bill. After doubting its authenticity, Ellingson tested it with a marker that indicates whether U.S. paper money is real or fake.
The ink from the marker turned a dark color on the paper bill indicating a counterfeit. Ellingson then called the Madison Police to report receiving the fraudulent currency.
She said the Federal Reserve Note was an older-style fifty with a smaller portrait of President Grant on the front. Ellingson also described the note's condition as worn with some smearing to its ink.
"It looked a lot like an older $50 bill, but some of its details indicated that it wasn't a legitimate fifty," she said.
Ellingson also noted that the $50 bill didn't have an embedded security strip. The federal government started issuing its older-style $50 notes in 1991 with embedded security strips and microscopic printing.
To further deter counterfeiters, the fifties were redesigned featuring larger, off-center portraits of Grant and were released for public use in October 1997. The redesigned $50 bills still used the traditional green and black inks but they also displayed some new features, including color-shifting ink and a watermark.
The Federal Reserve released the latest redesigned fifty in 2004, The most recent $50 bills are printed with background colors of blue and red and have an image of a U.S. flag on the front.
According to Ellingson, the man who gave the counterfeit $50 bill to the waitress is a regular customer who said he received it from another Madison business.
However, it doesn't matter who reports receiving counterfeit money, either an individual or a business; the last one holding the funny money when the police are called takes a monetary loss. The government does not provide compensation for receiving counterfeit cash.
About 5 percent of all Federal Reserve notes are $50 bills. The Fed reported in 2004 that about 1 in 25,000 of the $50 notes are fake.
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