Support The Earl Hays Press by checking out their props: www.theearlhayspress.com/memorabilia-prop-shop Follow Props to History @PropsToHistory at th-cam.com/users/propstohistory
Adam, I've always wondered why they don't just use a real bill on top of a stack of paper. It looks like the real thing because it is the real thing. A few $20's, or even $100's, is nothing to a production budget. Shoot the scene then buy lunch with the props.
In the early 1980's a friend of mine worked at an Italian deli in Cicero, IL that was owned and operated by The Outfit. She had to get some supplies from the basement one day, and hidden down there behind boxes etc was a printing machine with $20, $50, and $100 plates! She of course didn't say anything to anyone about them... But back then the Mob ran Chicago and the suburbs! I actually kind of miss it, because they did a good job! I would have thought they did an even better job though if they would have greased my palm with some $100 bills! LOL!
The Secret Service really is no joke when it comes to counterfeiting. I grew up in and around a family owned print shop. I'd go to work with my mom during the summers and when I was old enough I worked. Our two primary printing presses were AB Dick 360's, which at the time (don't know if they still are) were one of the most popular printing presses in the world for counterfeiting -- because of the relative ease of use, size of plates they took, and printing accuracy. ANYWAY, one of our biggest clients was a regional bank and they wanted to do a promotion printed on paper stock that was basically the same/similar linen paper used for currency (but without the imbedded blue and red fibers and I don't know if it was the exact ratio of linen and cotton... but it was meant to have the same feel). Secret Service agents accompanied the delivery of the paper and literally stood guard during the entire printing process. They gave guidelines for how much of the paper had to be "ruined" by being covered by ink and what colors of ink were allowed (nothing in the artwork could resemble money in any way) and they confiscated every single scrap, test print, etc. They VERY closely monitored the plate making process to ensure that ONLY the approved artwork was on any of the plates that got anywhere near the press the paper was being used on. I'm not sure what the rules are today regarding using the linen paper for non-money purposes, or even if it was or wasn't frowned upon at the time and only allowed because a bank was the client. But it was a very interesting few days in that particular Sir Speedy print shop...
Lots of countries solved "the paper problem" by switching to polymer, which really doesn't matter for theatrical use, because the prop notes don't need to feel real in the hand, because actors are literally being paid to pretend it's real while on stage or in front of a camera.
the way you read this story out, I can't help but picture in my head that the Service Agents present gave all those rules and commands at constant gunpoint, like pseudo-reverse robbery XD
@@Gojiro7 To my 13 year old self, it sure FELT like we were all at gunpoint. They were intimidating and absolutely ZERO sense of humor. Which if you've ever been in the back of a print ship, press operators basically talk and joke like line cooks - and absolutely nothing phased those agents. Not even a smirk.
I've gotten counterfeits 7 times over the 10 years as a cashier. Five of times, I noticed quickly and refused. They were different proportions, the coloring was noticably bad and one even had lines on it like the printer skipped a few times. Two of the times, one looked absolutely perfect and even felt real, best counterfeit I've ever seen. I realized its fake only because the safe scanner kept refusing. Luckily I had a 20 in my wallet and put that in and threw away the fake. The other time, they bleached real $5 bills and printed 20s on them.
Fake notes for film production is not just an issue for the US. There was a big story in the UK when the BBC got into trouble over a Dr Who episode, the money had David Tennent rather than the Queen on it.
@@HariSeldon913 future printings will feature charles, but money with the queen will stay in circulation for its normal lifespan. given the lifespan of coins, there will be coins featuring the queen still in circulation when William is on the throne.
The David Tenant faux-notes situation should have ended in laughter, because it would have been abundantly clear when actually handling the faux-notes that they're printed on paper and not polymer like modern Pound Sterling, being laughably different from real money.
Apparently in GoodFellas, Robert Deniro didn't like the feel of the fake money, so the Prop Master basically took out thousands of dollars of his own money from the bank to use in the film, and he made darn sure he got every bill back when they weredone using it.
So going beyond prop, money, props in general, and to include things like sets and costume…. There is a physiological bias in television and movie views that things in a previous ages had to often LOOK OLD (ie careworn). Part of that is completely understandable…. In previous ages the act of repairing and reusing things as they break down was more common then contemporary times…. So the use of new and unblemished props in movie is intentionally suppressed
lol, I worked at a graphics company and we had a visit from the secret service because our retail sticker was on a can of speedball printing ink that they found when they arrested a counterfeiter. And it’s true, they are all serious and absolutely not ready for humor. They made us close the store down and we all were questioned thoroughly. We were closed almost the whole day and not allowed to leave until they were done with their investigation. Luckily they realized we weren’t involved. It’s an experience I will never forget!
Hopefully they compensated everyone for their lost time and money, if they forced the business to close for a day just because a customer purchased one of your products! Seems a bit excessive.
@@Berkeloid0 that would have been nice, but , nope they didn’t. At least I didn’t, the owners may have. I was just glad to get out of there and go home:)
The Secret Service didn't get anti-counterfeiting 'by default' as Adam claims. It is the very reason they were founded. Protecting the first family came later.
Correct. They became the go to people for protection of the president because they had offices and armed agents already located in every state, available when the president traveled.
so does that mean it's a "yes but more" situation? that no department wanted the job and pushed against getting the job hard enough that they made a new department for that job specifically?
@@ARockRaiderno, the Secret Service has always been part of the Treasury Department and was established by Abraham Lincoln as the Secret Service Division of the Treasury Department specifically tasked with combatting the rise in counterfeiting during the Civil War. Their protective services division wasn’t established until 1901, 36 years after their inception.
The Secret Service has always been part of the Treasury Department and was established by Abraham Lincoln as the Secret Service Division of the Treasury Department specifically tasked with combatting the rise in counterfeiting during the Civil War. Their protective services division wasn’t established until 1901, 36 years after their inception.
A one-time co-worker said he got robbed by a bank ATM that dispensed fake money to him on payday. When he stopped at the liquor store, his $20 bill was declared fake, as were several others. The private security van company contracted to service those machines was involved in a few shenanigans around that era. Counterfeit money is NOT a victimless crime. Regular people end up losing their money down the line.
I was surprised that the counterfeiting scene from ""To Live and Die in LA" didn't come up in discussion. They had a real counterfeiter actually make real counterfeit 20 dollar bills using an offset printing process, and they showed everything, right up to using poker chips and rags in a dryer to age the fake bills and add the red and blue threads. IIRC, there was much paranoia during the filming of the scene because they were skirting legality pretty closely and didn't want to get raided by the Secret Service.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't *quite* exactly like that, apparently revealed elsewhere that none of those banknote sheets were duplex printed (IE: were blank on one side). Also, you can make some pretty egregious errors on prop banknotes and for the flash of time that they're motionless on screen, it's almost impossible for the audience to notice. Unless you're going frame-by-frame on a 4K Bluray of the movie...
Sadly enough, one of the senior citizens around here actually got tricked into selling his car to someone for about $10,000 worth of theater prop money. He discovered it about 30 minutes after he signed the title over, due to being vision impaired. The way he discovered it was when a restaurant rejected his money because it said "theater prop money" where the seal of the United States Treasury is supposed to be. Thankfully, there are solutions for situations like this. And if it ever happens to you, contact local law enforcement and your local department of licensing to report it. The paperwork is a pain, but you can file it as a stolen vehicle.
$10,000 in cash feels surreal and absurd to me. No one would buy a car with cash here if it was sold for more than a thousand euros, and more importantly, most definitely no-one would sell a car for cash of that amount. People don't really want cash for even minor transactions these days, everyone just wires some cash and through the magic of internet the receiver checks that they got the money before handing away the product.
A few people I know who work at banks say that they receive several pieces of prop money every year, mainly through gas stations, vendors, and people who have to deal with a constant flow of people that they don't have time to check smaller bills carefully.
My dad worked as a teller back in the 70s and he said he would regularly drop out counterfeit bills just by feel as he was counting them out. At least up to a few years ago he could still do it (says the weight is usually wrong). He's had a stroke since then so probably can't do it now but it was cool to watch him do it as a kid!
A print company I worked at years ago had a visit by the CID. They were checking all local printers because someone had been printing money but had sent the guillotine off cuts to the paper recycling mill, which had the trim area on it. FYI it wasn't us.....
Printers leave a mark that identifies them called the Machine Identification Code. It is a series of dots produced throughout the printed image, at minimum print resolution, that identifies the machine it came from. So if you're counterfeiting currency, swap out your printers often.
fun little anecdote, for TV filmed in Canada (Toronto, Vancouver etc.) they just use Canadian money, because it can't be mistaken for US currency (our money is very colourful) and we don't have the same regulations about not using the real stuff as a prop. There is an episode of Stargate Atlantis where Canadian fives change hands very predominantly and it gives me a little bit of a giggle knowing why.
There's no regulations about using real money as a prop, just risks. Can have it stolen, or lose it. Or it's just plain old expensive. The issue is making fake stuff that's too realistic. If you need a briefcase with 100,000 there's nothing saying you can't just put 100,000 in a briefcase and use that, but why risk it?
@@chrisws1878spot on! And the idea that "productions in Canada just use Canadian bank notes" is nonsense: they *don't* tend to use Canadian money *precisely because it doesn't look anything like* American money. Not at all. The example of _Stargate Atlantis_ was not one of trying to pass Canadian fivers off as American: within the context of that show they were using Canadian dollars. Bright blue bank notes stand out as clearly not American money...
@@lilaclizard4504 nothing is impossible to fake accurately if it's possible to be mass produced. All currency can be counterfeited, it's just a matter of resources and determination.
There was a stand that had counterfeit money and real money and the guy told me to guess which ones were fake and which ones were real. The best way i could think of telling them apart was to smell them. Money has a very unique smell and it would be difficult to recreate that smell on counterfeit money because you would have to have a lot of people hold it touch it throw it in therir wallets ect. I could tell which ones were fake and which ones were real. He was very impressed to say the least and told me he thought of everything else to make it look perfectly real but never thought about the smell. I walked away $50 richer that day😂. That would've made a very good episode on Mythbusters
The odour of money - At least nowadays - Is intentionally engineered in much the same way as perfumes and eau-de-toilette, which is done partly as a means of verifying genuine notes by those without certain senses (Primarily sight) and also to make large movements of money identifiable to trained cash detection dogs, which are usually deployed in airports and other border crossing points. ✈ Each countrys money has a different and distinct odor for these purposes. You quickly get used to your own countrys cash odour from childhood so it doesn't register in your mind at all, but the easiest way to smell it in action is to buy a quantity of foreign currency and ask for new/clean notes. 💶 For UK nationals like myself, the odour of US currency (Which has a somewhat Heathery smell) is immediately apparent, and I guess the same could be said for British money to a US citizen who doesn't handle Sterling on a regular basis. 😇
I did an art project a few years back on real money, with the presidents wearing covid masks and I wanted to scan it an make a poster, but photoshop has a money detection filter and wouldn't let me open the image to enlarge and make a print. was so frustrating.
There are certain anti-counterfeiting features that are present on currency, legal documents, etc. that rely upon geometric arrangements of printed elements. We had an issue with my in-law's estate when we tried to scan a death certificate to e-mail it (the receiving party was fine with an unofficial copy). It is possible in some cases to outsmart these features, but it would probably be imprudent to further elaborate.
it depends on the bill, most of the time its just a little thing on te bill that the printer or software detects, like a few lines that are a code, if you block these with a paper it works tho. afterwarths you can edit these back in if necassery
It feels that money is art project. afaik there are these cycles of value. Now printed money is still in vogue. but looks like hard assets like commodities/houses/btc/stocks are gaining more traction. But what is the best inflation hedge while they are printing more money to dilute their the amount of debt. f*ck I don't know but again excellent episode!
The secret service showed up at my junior high school once back in the 90s, because some students in a drafting class had printed a bunch of poor quality fake $20 bills and had actually tried to use them to do things like order pizza or buy snacks at the gas station. I doubt the students faced any harsh punishment since they were minors and weren't making high value bills, but the secret service takes the counterfeiting thing pretty seriously.
In the 2000s, with the advent of digital scanners and color laser printers, this actually became a problem. I read stories of high school kids printing money that looked real, only lacking the paper stock. But there were 2 students, I don't remember where, who were actually bleaching $1 bills and printing $20s. They got caught because someone reported them, but criminal organizations started using the same technic, which is why we've had all the changes in actual money the last 20 years.
@@srellison561 The polymer notes were supposed to fix that but I guess the crooks figured out how to duplicate the special polymer version passably enough. I've been mainly avoiding currency for so long that I don't think I even have a natural feel for what the real polymer stuff should feel like. After my mom was fed bad money from an ATM twice, I stopped using it where possible. If the banks' own machines are untrustworthy I won't use the stuff.
@@samueldeter9735 Her bank deducted an amount from her daily account to offset what they said was fake currency deposited into one of her accounts. She only got notes of that denomination from an ATM - most likely one of the two banks she used. She'd withdraw from one and deposit to another for grocery shopping or something to get loyalty points or some such nonsense. If it was a fake five or ten then it could have come to her as change on a cash transaction but not 20s. In effect, the bank system and their contracted ATM armoured truck company laundered fake notes through a trusted branded ATM network. Neither bank took responsibility. A similar thing happened to a young guy from work but he knew precisely which ATM and which bank branch. They still said he was SOL.
When criminals launder fake money, the object is to exchange it for the real thing, rather than goods. To do this, they offer a high value bill, to get as much change as possible. Most fake bills are not the highest value, allowing the criminal to claim that he was given it in change. It is still risky, because when they are apprehended, after a body search, their car and home are searched.
@@wilsjane Never knew that re the "I was given it in change" claim, but that makes perfect sense doesn't it & you're right, it never seems to be the highest value bills they do. I always thought that was because staff tend to check those bills better, so given 2x$50 for a $60 purchase, they'll just process them without thinking, but given a $100, they will often hold it up ot the light or whatever to check it's real. Also, there tends not to be a lot of $100's in circulation, so they are more likely to notice them & even remember who gave them (especially if they're given them lots) whereas the $50's they would be less likely to remember as they don't stand out. The "got it as change" claim makes SO much sense though, but I'd never thought of that until you just said it
As a senior in high school I was in my 4th year of Auto Cad/ Mechanical Desktop. In between working on actual class work I measured and redrew an exact replica of our school’s Lunch ticket. Down to the miniature emblem included in the School name. It was perfect. It took some effort to find paper the same shade as the school lunch tickets, but lets put it this way. Myself and 2 of my closest friends didnt buy any lunch tickets our senior year. Hahaha. Sorry Mr. Bell. Haha
I want a series of these two just geeking out over props. Adam for the general knowledge and geeking out and Michael for the inside stories and tidbits.
I had to explain this to a company I worked for back in the 90's. They decided to put a display in the office which was basically bags of money spilling into a drain (It was supposed to be about 'waste' and how doing 'x' was like throwing money away)... except to make it they'd basically scanned real bank notes and printed them (this was before scanners were chipped to refuse to do that). I explained that they're basically just counterfeited a ton of money, and they told me it was okay because the bills they'd printed were black and white and no-one could mistake them as real... and I had to explain that just because it was a _bad_ counterfeit didn't mean it wasn't counterfeit. They didn't listen Eventually legal saw it and told them they needed to destroy it and the people responsible got a proper bollocking.
It’s such a delicate thing to have movie money. I have seen some movies use money that looked more like Monopoly money than real money. I have seen prop money with the “for movie use only” or something similar, and I feel that should suffice, because you really couldn’t pass that too easily, unless cashiers are not paying attention. Very informative video for sure!
That’s the problem, cashiers don’t pay attention. I worked at a restaurant in a tourist town that had some fake “Motion Picture Only” money passed simply because the cashier wasn’t looking out for counterfeit bills.
Prop money is great to have in the games cabinet. Poker night is so much more fun with realistic money and a bag of good costume jewelry. One of these days I'm gonna get some old-fashioned stocks, bonds and deeds printed up to go in there as well.
Back when I had a bunch of demonetized Mexican coins that were between two rounds of devaluation, I put together several sets of them for use as poker chips and solid them at the flea market.
These videos have been some of the best, truly a gift for film lovers, fans of film history and prop history. Thank you tested for these! I hope they never end!
Its not close at all. That is a key component, it fails the starch test as well which is all those pens check for. Newspaper passes it so it must be valid currency right?
I was really hoping to see some future money from Back to the Future. That briefcase always intrigued me and I'd love to hear about what details they put on the future cash.
A while back I worked at a place where we handled lots of GBP coins and Euro coins, anywhere from 0.5 to 2 coins. The coins would be passed from hand to hand in small numbers, its crazy how comfortable you get with the weight of specific coins. This was a case with all the staff, we were able to tell when the weight of the coin was off and would refuse to accept it. The detail on the fakes was insane, super hard to tell apart other than the weight.
wow, I've never heard of counterfeit coins before but it actually makes perfect sense to do it, especially with coins now covering amounts as high as $2. Could actually get some real profit going with something like that that would fly under the radar of most
I recommend you try to feel the difference (without looking) between a EUR 2,- and a THB 10,- coin. At the introduction of the physical euro, most machines accepted THB 10 (about EUR 0,40 at the time), for EUR 2,-.
The most fun at my old job was using my art program to replicate antique labels for myself. Find best image online, convert to line art for clarity, pick the right color shade for backgrounds, print out, tea stain, crinkle up & glue onto tins. Amazing results.
I have a good friend who has been a film prop master since the 70s. He never liked the look of prop bills, so if there is a need for a stack, he will have the prop bills form the stack with a real bill on top. Just because a suitcase full of bills is "full of bills", it doesn't mean that they ALL need to be real. Just what's showing on top. He's lost a few $20s over the years, and once a $100, but it was covered in the cost of his services.
I was once involved in a music video production and we used a lot of fake money in some shots. They were extreeeeemely serious about every single note not flying away. We had several people running down the mountain and diving into the harbor...
Loved seeing the plates! More of that, please. The props themselves are very cool, but I see props in every movie I watch. The way the props are made is super interesting to me.
I just want to give appreciation to the fact that one of the great inspirations from my childhood is on TH-cam and continuing to teach and share his interests to others. Brian May and Kirk Hammet were my inspiration to play the electric guitar. Mr. Adam Savage is the inspiration to understand how the instrument and the other pieces needed to make it work, work. Savage and May are the inspiration that has put me on the road to building my own guitar.
If I correctly from high school, 19 years ago, the Secret Service was originally created to combat counterfeit money, and then later was given the duty of protecting the President
I'm sorry, but if your prop house gets raided because your props are too good..how is that not the best advertisement for your skills ever?? Also...can we PLEASE get an entire channel dedicated to film prop history? I would watch the heck out of that.
Adam needs a few stacks of those to just leave sitting on a shelf, in his bathroom, on the table saw, or his mill in his shop. Just to see the reaction he gets when someone comes by and, while they are wondering around, happen to come across a few thousand dollars just sitting there. Great conversation starter, and the looks people would give him would also be great. Maybe use a couple of stacks to level one of his 3d printers!
In the late 90's I made a bunch of stage money for a production of Guys and Dolls. Knowing it only had to look good from 15+ feet away, I pixelated the image so they were made of 1/8" colored squares. Holding them in your hand, you had no idea what denomination they were supposed to be, but step back 10-15 feet and you could sware they were tens and fives. Only way I imagine doing that these days would be to take a photo from a distance so there is no detail, or purposely make it blurry. (oh, and since I worked at a print shop, I made a lot of calls and got my plan approved before making them)
Secret Service causality is a bit backwards. They were created SPECIFICALLY to counter counterfeiting. They later on picked up body guarding duties. They were only divorced from treasury after the formation of DHS.
I wonder if they could just print the bill in mirror image, then in the actual movie, reverse the film footage visually so it looks like normal money in the person's hand.
Sure, they could. But that closeup shot is not the problem. It's easy enough to use real money for that; there won't be many bills in a closeup and it's held by someone. The fake stuff is needed when there are hundreds or thousands of bills, when they are destroyed, or when they are thrown around.
I work in the security industry, and I use prop cash to stock up 'sacrificial wallets' to catch pickpockets & muggers - Depending on what our target is (we get a lot of theft from tourists around St. Patricks day), I get a wedge of Dollars, Euro or Sterling (- English, Northern Irish and Scottish) notes. I crumple up the notes- lower denominations more than the higher (as they change hands more often). I also 'mess up' the cash I rub in dirt, grease from food, etc (again lower denominations get dirtied quicker). So I will then stock the wallet with a couple of $1 dollar bills (about 5) 3-4 of these I'll have roughed up to varying degrees (I might throw a real $1 note at the front). A $5 dollar bill or two (both roughed up), a couple of tens & twenty's (again slightly roughed up to varying degrees) then either a fifty or two (one slightly roughed up) - and a $100, more often than not the $100 will be almost pristine. I then stock up the rest with 'pocket litter' -fake receipts, fake business cards, dummy ATM cards, post-it notes, stock family photo's.
2:25 funny enough in my retail days, I had someone try to pass a bill that looked pretty much right, but was about twice as large as it should be. As you might expect, they did not successfully check out that day.
My wife was a Christmas extra at venture back in the day & had someone do this. Lady behind the person was an off duty cop who spotted it and said "hold up!"... that person also didn't check out and had a very bad day!
The first runs of the EUR 10 bills had a minor problem that they shrunk if accidentally left in the laundry. The first time such a small bill was encountered, all alarms were raised. The holder of that bill was properly compensated (it was legitimate) and that run was quickly withdrawn.
For me those "blue" bills looked very real. I could see a touch of blue but it looked like a shadow or lighting issue, not like a blue bill. So those are probably the safest to use, since Adam said they looked the most fake.
I wonder if they were intentionally designed that way? Because I also thought they looked fairly convincing. Maybe they look good on camera (or even just from farther away) but fake if you are close enough to hold them. Seems like that would be what the designer would want, 'looks like money' on camera, but also 'looks fake enough to not be considered counterfeit-adjacent by the Secret Service'.
I did work experience as a kid with the Australian Federal Police, and I remember being shown a wall that was pretty much wallpapered in examples of money they had confiscated. One was a hand-drawn $100 bill... I was told a kid drew and tried to pass it off to his school canteen as a joke. The joke was not seen, despite it being totally obvious it was a hand-drawn note.
I remember during my time working for a repair and refurbishment company for a major printer manufacturer, we were told that it was important to report any copies of currency (no matter how accurate or silly) we might have seen. I remember some of my coworkers thinking that the secret service being involved sounded ridiculous, and me having a hard time convincing them that it was real and very serious.
My thought exactly. He has been giving Earl Hayes a lot of publicity, and you just know they hooked him up with some goodies, especially when they had bunches of the same thing. I can't imagine anyone who would object to that.
I was really hoping to hear about how they make the bills look like they aren't fresh out of the bank like the ones on their table here. Like making them crinkled, dirty, worn out, etc. To me that might be even more interesting than just the discussion of how you make a bill look "real enough" but not "too real".
Well, one of the reasons it's called money _laundering_ is because you can put your notes in the dryer with a bunch of golf balls to soften them, and maybe put soot or dirt on the outside of the golf balls to transfer it. You can also use the "tea staining" technique to add some brown. Finally, you can go over the edge of a small stack of money with a nail file to blur the edges.
They actually need to expend that money on actually making the film, and at that point, it is no longer available for shooting. Also, film sets usually have extras who make just slightly above minimum wage and would be tempted a bit too much to take a mostly unnoticeable bit off the top. You get two or three doing that, and then your fat stack becomes wafer thin pocket money by lunch!
@@edschelchang6123 Obviously you would not use real money in a bank heist film or something like that. But if you only need a couple of notes at a time, like regular people, then why not use real money..
This whole issue is obvious now you point it out, but I had never thought about it before. Thank you so much for doing this story. I was intrigued by the aside you mentioned that you were allowed pretty realistic currency provided it was double size. And the fact that a lot of the currency that Earl Hayes makes is a slightly different shade of ink, that's corrected by the lighting when the movie is shot. Excellent piece!! Thank you.
I've wondered if Canadian productions set in USA have it a bit easier, or is it the same as far as restrictions, etc. And thanks Adam and Tested and Earl Hays! This has been a fantastic series!
Going by the stories in this video I would think it is close to the same. Since the Secret Service gets involved and policies change when the movie bills are used by the public. I would expect if a movie American bill is used in Canada it would still get the same reaction as being counterfeit and the Secret Service would still be involved and the follow up situation would be the same.
In the US, any counterfeit currency, from any country, is investigated. One trick that's done often now is the use of real money. They changed the rules about using real money in films a long time ago, so directors will request a real bill at the top of any visual stack. It's risky for the production to do so, since it can be stolen, but it works so much better on film when you don't see, "For Motion Picture Use Only," on the front of the bill.
Canadian productions set in the USA? As in it's supposed to be Canada but it's filmed in the US? Does that ever happen? Film industry is so strong in Canada I would have thought only the reverse would happen
The rules for currency don't just affect money but also paper gift certificates and coupons. They all by law have to have an expiration date placed on them or the government will consider the company that issues them to be printing their own currency. If you ever have a gift certificate with an old expiration date on it, don't throw it away, the store where it came from will often honor it. For sales coupons they are generally issued for that particular promotion so the expiration date is the day the promotion ends.
I would think the simplest (and lowest cost) thing to do for a high budget movie is to just put a real $100 bill on top of each stack that is going to be in a close up.
I'm a big fan of film noir so I know I have seen the bills before. But a few of those movies revolve around counterfeiting specifically, I can't help but be curious if Earl Hays provided the engraving plates for on screen use as well. "Southside 1-1000" would be an example.
Now I'm remembering the bit which was added to the start of the ST:TNG episode "Darmok" when it was originally transmitted. This sequence is never included in the episode nowadays, since it involved people who were just fans of the show being "actors" for the sequence as a contest winner reward. The reason I was reminded of the sequence is that it involves a new (post-war) government on an alien planet and they are supposed to trade some mineral ore the Federation needs in exchange for some equipment their government needed. One of the pieces of equipment is a duplicator machine which is a step below a replicator and a few steps above a 3D printer. The new government has decided that they can't spare the ore and want to pay the Federation for the equipment using their worthless (to the Federation) currency chits. Ryker circumvents this by taking one of the chits and feeding it into the duplicator. He examines the duplicate and the original and muses that it's not quite right, but that'll be solved as soon as the machine is given locally sourced materials to work with, and adds that ensuring the serial numbers are different on each copy is a minor setting change. Then Ryker points out that they could try trading the equipment to the government's enemies in exchange for the minerals they want. The new government quickly backs down and decides to deliver the minerals as agreed.
I once worked a stage show that needed $20 bills and I didn't have time to make anything, so I asked a friend. Two weeks later, he handed me a stack of $20s that appeared to be direct scans of real bills. I was horrified. As soon as the show was over, I collected them all and quietly destroyed them.
Every once and a while, I'll see a news story about someone trying to pass off movie money. It seems to be from the same source, it's $100 bill that looks similar, but Ben Franklin has this worried look on his face and it says "FOR MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY" instead of "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" and missing the green seal (which if you've ever been to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, you'll know is the last step in the process of making money that makes it official). And apparently it's easy enough for people to buy stacks of this stuff.
No, although you are right currency's get their worth from the agreement of people. How ever issued currency is is real and has fake. The US bank which issues USD likes to know how much money they printed and how much there are in circulation to know the worth of 1 dollar. Money not issued by the real issuing organisation dilutes the money to a degree. In fact first example of paper money which was used in "new France" which was the French own land in north America. The french crown sucked at sending coins to it's colonies and lord's started issuing playing cards with a value on it. Soon enough people started to trade their own cards. In the end these cards were getting issued like crazy with money and value people did not have causing inflation in the colonie. The King who initially thought the cards were a good idea because he dint have to send gold to the colonies had to ban the use of card and send coins to fix the inflation. This is why there is actual real and fake money
While it’s true that money’s value comes from our consensus of its value. That doesn’t make it fake or unreal. Your name is also something we have all agreed on, but that doesn’t mean it’s not your name.
This is a very tired, and very stupid take. The value of money is primarily built off of the aggregate productive output of the society for which it serves.
I actually found some Movie Money at a construction site one time. I serviced portable toilets at the time. What I found were a bunch of prop $10 bills, and several prop $2 bills. They all had the "For Motion Picture Use Only" bit on them, so it was easy to identify them as fake.
i know a few games companies in the past had similar issues because they were hunting decent hi-res grabs of bills for getting good renders and the Secret Service showed up wondering why this tech company wanted such high res grabs of legal currency.
Having been in the printing industry for a while, it was fun to learn more about this as I knew a good bit, but there was still plenty to learn from this video. Now go and properly reshoot that cable comparison video with the right items to compare against.
The movie Beverly Hills Cop 3. Was about counterfeit money. And showed money plates and a money making machine in that movie. I’m sure all fake. But I was thinking of that movie for this episode
Working for IBM, I repaired a laptop at the Secret Service office in Chicago once, and I can attest to the fact that they have NO sense of humor, whatsoever. I was accompanied the entire time by an agent, not to guard me, but to be sure I was where I was supposed to be and doing what I was supposed to be doing. I also repaired many, many laptops at the Federal Reserve in Chicago. They were more laid back than the Secret Service, at least until after 911. At that point, they took possession of the street in between their 2 buildings, and that was where I had to enter after 911, which was a little off-putting because of all the guards with sub-machine guns at the ready. However, I did get to go down in the area with all the vaults once, and I got a glimpse through the door of an open vault. Lots of gold and plastic-wrapped bundles of money about the size of a microwave. They did change to have service people enter the main doors, later. Probably because the other entrance was where all the armored trucks went to load or unload.
There is a great William Friedken film from the 80s called to Live and Die in LA. It contains the most amazing scene depicting money being made by a master counterfieter.
*Really* cool of Earl Hays Press to sell of some of that old memorabilia! I'm sure they've got warehouses of the stuff from over the decades just taking up space.
A german artist tried to make fake dollars from scratch. At first he he just wanted to know how close he could get and threw loads of sheets with misprints away. Later he was so convinced that his forgeries are as good as it gets, that he tried to sell them to an easteuropean-gang and got caught because of those misprints from earlier. He said that the feeling and texture of the bills and its imprints were the most complex features.
I'm reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes comic when Calvin decides to counterfeit money, drawing it with crayons. "Old George has the gout, I see." "I SAID it was hard!"
This is weird. I just saw a facebook post yesterday where someone working in a bowling alley received a couple prop bills and was warning others to watch for them.
I think there was a simple solution to make it invisibly different from real money. just print it mirrored and film everything mirrored.. when the movie is flipped, everything looks normal on the screen, but the money would still be mirrored irl, and everybody would see that
My first job was with Xerox, and I believe at the time copiers had to be set at either 103% or 97%, precisely because the law wanted it be be known as a ‘copy’, and not something that could pass as an original. This even included bonds, stock certificates, etc. forgers would either get some of the same paper, or run it through embossing rollers to give it ‘texture’
I saw a newspaper article about a guy in Serbia during the Balkan War who bought big sheets of printed money that was worthless because the value fell faster than they could print it, directly from the printers and used them as wallpaper in his house.
One money related prop I've always wanted to replicate is Doc Brown's briefcase from BTTF: Part II where he has an assortment of US cash from different decades.
This is awesome! How does totally fake money get made, like credits for Star Wars or Latinum for Star Trek? That bank heist scene in Andor especially used TONS of fake money. Someone had to spend a lot of time not only making all that money but creating something which looked great without relying on anything on Earth.
I'm surprised there was no mention of the film "To Live and Die in LA". Probably one of the better counterfeit caper films Hollywood has ever produced. In the film, it is also mentioned that the original mission of the Secret Service was to thwart counterfeiting.
Back in the 70’s, I remember there was a story in the news that genuine US currency was shown in a TV show for the very first time. It was an episode of Ironside. I remember it distinctly but have never heard it mentioned since.
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
Support The Earl Hays Press by checking out their props: www.theearlhayspress.com/memorabilia-prop-shop
Follow Props to History @PropsToHistory at th-cam.com/users/propstohistory
Ahahaha 🎉❤
Awesome collab, two of my favourite makers!
Adam, I've always wondered why they don't just use a real bill on top of a stack of paper. It looks like the real thing because it is the real thing. A few $20's, or even $100's, is nothing to a production budget. Shoot the scene then buy lunch with the props.
In the early 1980's a friend of mine worked at an Italian deli in Cicero, IL that was owned and operated by The Outfit. She had to get some supplies from the basement one day, and hidden down there behind boxes etc was a printing machine with $20, $50, and $100 plates! She of course didn't say anything to anyone about them... But back then the Mob ran Chicago and the suburbs! I actually kind of miss it, because they did a good job! I would have thought they did an even better job though if they would have greased my palm with some $100 bills! LOL!
The joke is that "real" money is also fake, ask the federal reserve
The Secret Service really is no joke when it comes to counterfeiting. I grew up in and around a family owned print shop. I'd go to work with my mom during the summers and when I was old enough I worked. Our two primary printing presses were AB Dick 360's, which at the time (don't know if they still are) were one of the most popular printing presses in the world for counterfeiting -- because of the relative ease of use, size of plates they took, and printing accuracy.
ANYWAY, one of our biggest clients was a regional bank and they wanted to do a promotion printed on paper stock that was basically the same/similar linen paper used for currency (but without the imbedded blue and red fibers and I don't know if it was the exact ratio of linen and cotton... but it was meant to have the same feel). Secret Service agents accompanied the delivery of the paper and literally stood guard during the entire printing process. They gave guidelines for how much of the paper had to be "ruined" by being covered by ink and what colors of ink were allowed (nothing in the artwork could resemble money in any way) and they confiscated every single scrap, test print, etc. They VERY closely monitored the plate making process to ensure that ONLY the approved artwork was on any of the plates that got anywhere near the press the paper was being used on.
I'm not sure what the rules are today regarding using the linen paper for non-money purposes, or even if it was or wasn't frowned upon at the time and only allowed because a bank was the client. But it was a very interesting few days in that particular Sir Speedy print shop...
Lots of countries solved "the paper problem" by switching to polymer, which really doesn't matter for theatrical use, because the prop notes don't need to feel real in the hand, because actors are literally being paid to pretend it's real while on stage or in front of a camera.
the way you read this story out, I can't help but picture in my head that the Service Agents present gave all those rules and commands at constant gunpoint, like pseudo-reverse robbery XD
@@Gojiro7 To my 13 year old self, it sure FELT like we were all at gunpoint. They were intimidating and absolutely ZERO sense of humor. Which if you've ever been in the back of a print ship, press operators basically talk and joke like line cooks - and absolutely nothing phased those agents. Not even a smirk.
I've gotten counterfeits 7 times over the 10 years as a cashier. Five of times, I noticed quickly and refused. They were different proportions, the coloring was noticably bad and one even had lines on it like the printer skipped a few times. Two of the times, one looked absolutely perfect and even felt real, best counterfeit I've ever seen. I realized its fake only because the safe scanner kept refusing. Luckily I had a 20 in my wallet and put that in and threw away the fake. The other time, they bleached real $5 bills and printed 20s on them.
@@ResurrectedBrush sounds like their job applications have a paragraph that says "you must be this dead inside to apply"
Fake notes for film production is not just an issue for the US. There was a big story in the UK when the BBC got into trouble over a Dr Who episode, the money had David Tennent rather than the Queen on it.
I believe the money from the opening of The World Is Not Enough also caused issues after getting in circulation.
Has the money changed since the coronation? The people probably hold David in higher regard than Charles from what I've heard.
@@HariSeldon913no still her majesty atm
@@HariSeldon913 future printings will feature charles, but money with the queen will stay in circulation for its normal lifespan. given the lifespan of coins, there will be coins featuring the queen still in circulation when William is on the throne.
The David Tenant faux-notes situation should have ended in laughter, because it would have been abundantly clear when actually handling the faux-notes that they're printed on paper and not polymer like modern Pound Sterling, being laughably different from real money.
Apparently in GoodFellas, Robert Deniro didn't like the feel of the fake money, so the Prop Master basically took out thousands of dollars of his own money from the bank to use in the film, and he made darn sure he got every bill back when they weredone using it.
Actually it is quite common in now productions to use real money if possible.
@@TheBaldr well even for flicking through stacks of cash, the top bill can be real and the rest just be fakes on linen paper.
Yes that story is true and i think it was 500$
@@rustycaplinger8036"thousands of dollars"
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂.
I would buy fake pesos as a reference to the classic movies. I always wondered why the prop money in old movies looked odd. This history is so awesome
They have real money on top and blank for the rest of the stack.
So going beyond prop, money, props in general, and to include things like sets and costume…. There is a physiological bias in television and movie views that things in a previous ages had to often LOOK OLD (ie careworn). Part of that is completely understandable…. In previous ages the act of repairing and reusing things as they break down was more common then contemporary times…. So the use of new and unblemished props in movie is intentionally suppressed
I could listen to these two gentlemen for hours! Both individually and together.
what's funny to me is that they could be brothers, they look so much alike.
@@neocat81 They really do. And they seem alike. Imagine the stories they could tell.
look no further, they just might have a podcast
@@xpwnx4 I would love that!!!!
lol, I worked at a graphics company and we had a visit from the secret service because our retail sticker was on a can of speedball printing ink that they found when they arrested a counterfeiter. And it’s true, they are all serious and absolutely not ready for humor. They made us close the store down and we all were questioned thoroughly. We were closed almost the whole day and not allowed to leave until they were done with their investigation. Luckily they realized we weren’t involved. It’s an experience I will never forget!
Hopefully they compensated everyone for their lost time and money, if they forced the business to close for a day just because a customer purchased one of your products! Seems a bit excessive.
@@Berkeloid0 if you can't afford to get investigated for 1 single day then I think you're in the wrong business
@@Berkeloid0 if you can't afford to get investigated for 1 single day then I think you're in the wrong business
@@Berkeloid0 that would have been nice, but , nope they didn’t. At least I didn’t, the owners may have. I was just glad to get out of there and go home:)
And this was also in the 80’s too,
The Secret Service didn't get anti-counterfeiting 'by default' as Adam claims. It is the very reason they were founded. Protecting the first family came later.
Well that was a quick Google search. I always wonder why people don't use the Googly machine.
Correct. They became the go to people for protection of the president because they had offices and armed agents already located in every state, available when the president traveled.
so does that mean it's a "yes but more" situation?
that no department wanted the job and pushed against getting the job hard enough that they made a new department for that job specifically?
@@ARockRaiderno, the Secret Service has always been part of the Treasury Department and was established by Abraham Lincoln as the Secret Service Division of the Treasury Department specifically tasked with combatting the rise in counterfeiting during the Civil War. Their protective services division wasn’t established until 1901, 36 years after their inception.
The Secret Service has always been part of the Treasury Department and was established by Abraham Lincoln as the Secret Service Division of the Treasury Department specifically tasked with combatting the rise in counterfeiting during the Civil War. Their protective services division wasn’t established until 1901, 36 years after their inception.
A one-time co-worker said he got robbed by a bank ATM that dispensed fake money to him on payday. When he stopped at the liquor store, his $20 bill was declared fake, as were several others. The private security van company contracted to service those machines was involved in a few shenanigans around that era. Counterfeit money is NOT a victimless crime. Regular people end up losing their money down the line.
Always glad to see Michael Corrie on the channel. He Adam have so much knowledge AND joy.
I was surprised that the counterfeiting scene from ""To Live and Die in LA" didn't come up in discussion. They had a real counterfeiter
actually make real counterfeit 20 dollar bills using an offset printing process, and they showed everything, right up to using poker chips and rags in a dryer to age the fake bills and add the red and blue threads. IIRC, there was much paranoia during the filming of the scene because they were skirting legality pretty closely and didn't want to get raided by the Secret Service.
AMEN BRUTHA truly great film :)
also, best carchase sequence in moviedom, can't even argue
I'm pretty sure it wasn't *quite* exactly like that, apparently revealed elsewhere that none of those banknote sheets were duplex printed (IE: were blank on one side). Also, you can make some pretty egregious errors on prop banknotes and for the flash of time that they're motionless on screen, it's almost impossible for the audience to notice.
Unless you're going frame-by-frame on a 4K Bluray of the movie...
I came here to mention "To Live and Die in L.A.", too. Great movie.
Sadly enough, one of the senior citizens around here actually got tricked into selling his car to someone for about $10,000 worth of theater prop money.
He discovered it about 30 minutes after he signed the title over, due to being vision impaired. The way he discovered it was when a restaurant rejected his money because it said "theater prop money" where the seal of the United States Treasury is supposed to be.
Thankfully, there are solutions for situations like this. And if it ever happens to you, contact local law enforcement and your local department of licensing to report it. The paperwork is a pain, but you can file it as a stolen vehicle.
@@ithecastic he had. The problem was that only a small part of the bill said that it was fake. Everything else looks like a legitimate hundred
So he probably shouldn't be on the road
@@arcxjoCoincidentally, he wasn't going to be.
@@arcxjowhy do you think he was selling the car? 😆
$10,000 in cash feels surreal and absurd to me. No one would buy a car with cash here if it was sold for more than a thousand euros, and more importantly, most definitely no-one would sell a car for cash of that amount. People don't really want cash for even minor transactions these days, everyone just wires some cash and through the magic of internet the receiver checks that they got the money before handing away the product.
A few people I know who work at banks say that they receive several pieces of prop money every year, mainly through gas stations, vendors, and people who have to deal with a constant flow of people that they don't have time to check smaller bills carefully.
My dad worked as a teller back in the 70s and he said he would regularly drop out counterfeit bills just by feel as he was counting them out. At least up to a few years ago he could still do it (says the weight is usually wrong). He's had a stroke since then so probably can't do it now but it was cool to watch him do it as a kid!
A print company I worked at years ago had a visit by the CID. They were checking all local printers because someone had been printing money but had sent the guillotine off cuts to the paper recycling mill, which had the trim area on it. FYI it wasn't us.....
Printers leave a mark that identifies them called the Machine Identification Code. It is a series of dots produced throughout the printed image, at minimum print resolution, that identifies the machine it came from.
So if you're counterfeiting currency, swap out your printers often.
fun little anecdote, for TV filmed in Canada (Toronto, Vancouver etc.) they just use Canadian money, because it can't be mistaken for US currency (our money is very colourful) and we don't have the same regulations about not using the real stuff as a prop. There is an episode of Stargate Atlantis where Canadian fives change hands very predominantly and it gives me a little bit of a giggle knowing why.
There's no regulations about using real money as a prop, just risks. Can have it stolen, or lose it. Or it's just plain old expensive. The issue is making fake stuff that's too realistic.
If you need a briefcase with 100,000 there's nothing saying you can't just put 100,000 in a briefcase and use that, but why risk it?
@@chrisws1878spot on! And the idea that "productions in Canada just use Canadian bank notes" is nonsense: they *don't* tend to use Canadian money *precisely because it doesn't look anything like* American money. Not at all. The example of _Stargate Atlantis_ was not one of trying to pass Canadian fivers off as American: within the context of that show they were using Canadian dollars. Bright blue bank notes stand out as clearly not American money...
Is yours polymer? If so, that's why the non-issue with fake stuff, cause they know it's impossible to fake accurately :)
@@lilaclizard4504 nothing is impossible to fake accurately if it's possible to be mass produced. All currency can be counterfeited, it's just a matter of resources and determination.
There was a stand that had counterfeit money and real money and the guy told me to guess which ones were fake and which ones were real. The best way i could think of telling them apart was to smell them. Money has a very unique smell and it would be difficult to recreate that smell on counterfeit money because you would have to have a lot of people hold it touch it throw it in therir wallets ect. I could tell which ones were fake and which ones were real. He was very impressed to say the least and told me he thought of everything else to make it look perfectly real but never thought about the smell. I walked away $50 richer that day😂. That would've made a very good episode on Mythbusters
The odour of money - At least nowadays - Is intentionally engineered in much the same way as perfumes and eau-de-toilette, which is done partly as a means of verifying genuine notes by those without certain senses (Primarily sight) and also to make large movements of money identifiable to trained cash detection dogs, which are usually deployed in airports and other border crossing points. ✈
Each countrys money has a different and distinct odor for these purposes. You quickly get used to your own countrys cash odour from childhood so it doesn't register in your mind at all, but the easiest way to smell it in action is to buy a quantity of foreign currency and ask for new/clean notes. 💶
For UK nationals like myself, the odour of US currency (Which has a somewhat Heathery smell) is immediately apparent, and I guess the same could be said for British money to a US citizen who doesn't handle Sterling on a regular basis. 😇
You get a close look/smell of that $50? 😉
Michael Corrie was an absolute delight to listen to, would love to see him come back for future prop episodes!
I did an art project a few years back on real money, with the presidents wearing covid masks and I wanted to scan it an make a poster, but photoshop has a money detection filter and wouldn't let me open the image to enlarge and make a print. was so frustrating.
Yeah that's definitely a thing. I think they have filters for a lot of other things too like IDs and passports etc.
There are certain anti-counterfeiting features that are present on currency, legal documents, etc. that rely upon geometric arrangements of printed elements. We had an issue with my in-law's estate when we tried to scan a death certificate to e-mail it (the receiving party was fine with an unofficial copy). It is possible in some cases to outsmart these features, but it would probably be imprudent to further elaborate.
it depends on the bill, most of the time its just a little thing on te bill that the printer or software detects, like a few lines that are a code, if you block these with a paper it works tho. afterwarths you can edit these back in if necassery
It feels that money is art project. afaik there are these cycles of value. Now printed money is still in vogue. but looks like hard assets like commodities/houses/btc/stocks are gaining more traction. But what is the best inflation hedge while they are printing more money to dilute their the amount of debt. f*ck I don't know but again excellent episode!
Wow, that's fascinating!
This is honestly fascinating, one of the best videos on this channel I've ever seen. I was engrossed the whole time.
The secret service showed up at my junior high school once back in the 90s, because some students in a drafting class had printed a bunch of poor quality fake $20 bills and had actually tried to use them to do things like order pizza or buy snacks at the gas station. I doubt the students faced any harsh punishment since they were minors and weren't making high value bills, but the secret service takes the counterfeiting thing pretty seriously.
High School versions of Mister 880?
In the 2000s, with the advent of digital scanners and color laser printers, this actually became a problem. I read stories of high school kids printing money that looked real, only lacking the paper stock. But there were 2 students, I don't remember where, who were actually bleaching $1 bills and printing $20s. They got caught because someone reported them, but criminal organizations started using the same technic, which is why we've had all the changes in actual money the last 20 years.
@@srellison561 The polymer notes were supposed to fix that but I guess the crooks figured out how to duplicate the special polymer version passably enough. I've been mainly avoiding currency for so long that I don't think I even have a natural feel for what the real polymer stuff should feel like.
After my mom was fed bad money from an ATM twice, I stopped using it where possible. If the banks' own machines are untrustworthy I won't use the stuff.
@puirYorick how did that happen? How'd she find out it was fake?
@@samueldeter9735 Her bank deducted an amount from her daily account to offset what they said was fake currency deposited into one of her accounts. She only got notes of that denomination from an ATM - most likely one of the two banks she used. She'd withdraw from one and deposit to another for grocery shopping or something to get loyalty points or some such nonsense. If it was a fake five or ten then it could have come to her as change on a cash transaction but not 20s.
In effect, the bank system and their contracted ATM armoured truck company laundered fake notes through a trusted branded ATM network. Neither bank took responsibility. A similar thing happened to a young guy from work but he knew precisely which ATM and which bank branch. They still said he was SOL.
Interesting to see, though they never mention it, that all the fake notes have the same serial number.
HUH. I have a couple thousand in prop money. I just checked and you are correct.
@@alaskansummertimeit makes sense for it to have only one serial number, makes the printing that bit more simple.
@@Dwarg91 yup twofold reason, simpler to make & easier to identify if it gets into the currency circulation system
When criminals launder fake money, the object is to exchange it for the real thing, rather than goods. To do this, they offer a high value bill, to get as much change as possible. Most fake bills are not the highest value, allowing the criminal to claim that he was given it in change.
It is still risky, because when they are apprehended, after a body search, their car and home are searched.
@@wilsjane Never knew that re the "I was given it in change" claim, but that makes perfect sense doesn't it & you're right, it never seems to be the highest value bills they do. I always thought that was because staff tend to check those bills better, so given 2x$50 for a $60 purchase, they'll just process them without thinking, but given a $100, they will often hold it up ot the light or whatever to check it's real. Also, there tends not to be a lot of $100's in circulation, so they are more likely to notice them & even remember who gave them (especially if they're given them lots) whereas the $50's they would be less likely to remember as they don't stand out. The "got it as change" claim makes SO much sense though, but I'd never thought of that until you just said it
As a senior in high school I was in my 4th year of Auto Cad/ Mechanical Desktop. In between working on actual class work I measured and redrew an exact replica of our school’s Lunch ticket. Down to the miniature emblem included in the School name. It was perfect. It took some effort to find paper the same shade as the school lunch tickets, but lets put it this way. Myself and 2 of my closest friends didnt buy any lunch tickets our senior year. Hahaha. Sorry Mr. Bell. Haha
I want a series of these two just geeking out over props. Adam for the general knowledge and geeking out and Michael for the inside stories and tidbits.
I had to explain this to a company I worked for back in the 90's. They decided to put a display in the office which was basically bags of money spilling into a drain (It was supposed to be about 'waste' and how doing 'x' was like throwing money away)... except to make it they'd basically scanned real bank notes and printed them (this was before scanners were chipped to refuse to do that).
I explained that they're basically just counterfeited a ton of money, and they told me it was okay because the bills they'd printed were black and white and no-one could mistake them as real... and I had to explain that just because it was a _bad_ counterfeit didn't mean it wasn't counterfeit. They didn't listen
Eventually legal saw it and told them they needed to destroy it and the people responsible got a proper bollocking.
It’s such a delicate thing to have movie money. I have seen some movies use money that looked more like Monopoly money than real money. I have seen prop money with the “for movie use only” or something similar, and I feel that should suffice, because you really couldn’t pass that too easily, unless cashiers are not paying attention.
Very informative video for sure!
That’s the problem, cashiers don’t pay attention. I worked at a restaurant in a tourist town that had some fake “Motion Picture Only” money passed simply because the cashier wasn’t looking out for counterfeit bills.
They could just put a real bill on top of the stack and have the fake bills in the middle.
Out here far away from Hollywood, most people don't even know about prop money so it's easy to get away with.
Prop money is great to have in the games cabinet. Poker night is so much more fun with realistic money and a bag of good costume jewelry. One of these days I'm gonna get some old-fashioned stocks, bonds and deeds printed up to go in there as well.
Back when I had a bunch of demonetized Mexican coins that were between two rounds of devaluation, I put together several sets of them for use as poker chips and solid them at the flea market.
These videos have been some of the best, truly a gift for film lovers, fans of film history and prop history. Thank you tested for these! I hope they never end!
That was a fascinating watch. It would have been nice to hear more about the paper itself and how close it is to real currency.
Its not close at all. That is a key component, it fails the starch test as well which is all those pens check for. Newspaper passes it so it must be valid currency right?
I was really hoping to see some future money from Back to the Future. That briefcase always intrigued me and I'd love to hear about what details they put on the future cash.
Probably an image of Arnold Schwarzenegger as president.
A while back I worked at a place where we handled lots of GBP coins and Euro coins, anywhere from 0.5 to 2 coins. The coins would be passed from hand to hand in small numbers, its crazy how comfortable you get with the weight of specific coins. This was a case with all the staff, we were able to tell when the weight of the coin was off and would refuse to accept it. The detail on the fakes was insane, super hard to tell apart other than the weight.
wow, I've never heard of counterfeit coins before but it actually makes perfect sense to do it, especially with coins now covering amounts as high as $2. Could actually get some real profit going with something like that that would fly under the radar of most
@@lilaclizard4504 metal costs a lot more than paper and is harder to work with.
I recommend you try to feel the difference (without looking) between a EUR 2,- and a THB 10,- coin. At the introduction of the physical euro, most machines accepted THB 10 (about EUR 0,40 at the time), for EUR 2,-.
The most fun at my old job was using my art program to replicate antique labels for myself. Find best image online, convert to line art for clarity, pick the right color shade for backgrounds, print out, tea stain, crinkle up & glue onto tins. Amazing results.
My favorite scene with money prop is in BTTF 2. Doc Brown opens his briefcase and its filled with US cash from different decades.
Earl Hayes Press is an awesome place. I love their discutions about the props and I hope we'll dive deeper into the archives.
I have a good friend who has been a film prop master since the 70s. He never liked the look of prop bills, so if there is a need for a stack, he will have the prop bills form the stack with a real bill on top. Just because a suitcase full of bills is "full of bills", it doesn't mean that they ALL need to be real. Just what's showing on top. He's lost a few $20s over the years, and once a $100, but it was covered in the cost of his services.
I'm puzzled they never mentioned that strategy, and I vaguely recall that was _the_ preferred method in movies.
I was once involved in a music video production and we used a lot of fake money in some shots. They were extreeeeemely serious about every single note not flying away. We had several people running down the mountain and diving into the harbor...
Loved seeing the plates! More of that, please. The props themselves are very cool, but I see props in every movie I watch. The way the props are made is super interesting to me.
This series has been amazing! Thank you for sharing with us
It was nice seeing Adam and Jamie back together lol
I just want to give appreciation to the fact that one of the great inspirations from my childhood is on TH-cam and continuing to teach and share his interests to others. Brian May and Kirk Hammet were my inspiration to play the electric guitar. Mr. Adam Savage is the inspiration to understand how the instrument and the other pieces needed to make it work, work. Savage and May are the inspiration that has put me on the road to building my own guitar.
If I correctly from high school, 19 years ago, the Secret Service was originally created to combat counterfeit money, and then later was given the duty of protecting the President
These visits with Michael are absolutely brilliant!
someone should use that guy a narrator, he's energy and voice is so nice!
Thank you
Please do more videos like this.
Was really interesting.
I'm sorry, but if your prop house gets raided because your props are too good..how is that not the best advertisement for your skills ever?? Also...can we PLEASE get an entire channel dedicated to film prop history? I would watch the heck out of that.
Big sign outside with a number that’s flip.
Raided by secret service N times.
The guy Adam is talking to *literally has that channel!* It's called PropsToHistory and it's right here on TH-cam!
Adam needs a few stacks of those to just leave sitting on a shelf, in his bathroom, on the table saw, or his mill in his shop. Just to see the reaction he gets when someone comes by and, while they are wondering around, happen to come across a few thousand dollars just sitting there. Great conversation starter, and the looks people would give him would also be great. Maybe use a couple of stacks to level one of his 3d printers!
I know this might be a huge ask, but I LOVE maps, can you do an episode on maps by Earl Hays maps or prop maps in general? Thanks in advance!
In the late 90's I made a bunch of stage money for a production of Guys and Dolls. Knowing it only had to look good from 15+ feet away, I pixelated the image so they were made of 1/8" colored squares. Holding them in your hand, you had no idea what denomination they were supposed to be, but step back 10-15 feet and you could sware they were tens and fives. Only way I imagine doing that these days would be to take a photo from a distance so there is no detail, or purposely make it blurry. (oh, and since I worked at a print shop, I made a lot of calls and got my plan approved before making them)
Secret Service causality is a bit backwards.
They were created SPECIFICALLY to counter counterfeiting.
They later on picked up body guarding duties. They were only divorced from treasury after the formation of DHS.
Way of the Gun is one of my favorite movies and it never gets talked about. Great quote!
None of the characters are good people and they are all so compelling. Great movie.
Came here to say this. Plus the opening scene is one of the best ever filmed.
I wonder if they could just print the bill in mirror image, then in the actual movie, reverse the film footage visually so it looks like normal money in the person's hand.
Sure, they could. But that closeup shot is not the problem. It's easy enough to use real money for that; there won't be many bills in a closeup and it's held by someone. The fake stuff is needed when there are hundreds or thousands of bills, when they are destroyed, or when they are thrown around.
@@HenryLoenwind You could still use the technique for that. You just have to make sure no other text or noticeable reversed elements are on-screen.
I work in the security industry, and I use prop cash to stock up 'sacrificial wallets' to catch pickpockets & muggers - Depending on what our target is (we get a lot of theft from tourists around St. Patricks day), I get a wedge of Dollars, Euro or Sterling (- English, Northern Irish and Scottish) notes.
I crumple up the notes- lower denominations more than the higher (as they change hands more often). I also 'mess up' the cash I rub in dirt, grease from food, etc (again lower denominations get dirtied quicker). So I will then stock the wallet with a couple of $1 dollar bills (about 5) 3-4 of these I'll have roughed up to varying degrees (I might throw a real $1 note at the front). A $5 dollar bill or two (both roughed up), a couple of tens & twenty's (again slightly roughed up to varying degrees) then either a fifty or two (one slightly roughed up) - and a $100, more often than not the $100 will be almost pristine. I then stock up the rest with 'pocket litter' -fake receipts, fake business cards, dummy ATM cards, post-it notes, stock family photo's.
2:25 funny enough in my retail days, I had someone try to pass a bill that looked pretty much right, but was about twice as large as it should be. As you might expect, they did not successfully check out that day.
My wife was a Christmas extra at venture back in the day & had someone do this. Lady behind the person was an off duty cop who spotted it and said "hold up!"... that person also didn't check out and had a very bad day!
The first runs of the EUR 10 bills had a minor problem that they shrunk if accidentally left in the laundry. The first time such a small bill was encountered, all alarms were raised. The holder of that bill was properly compensated (it was legitimate) and that run was quickly withdrawn.
I stumble across this in my main TH-cam feed. Very, very fascinating.
I had always wondered about money used in movies. And now I know how they do it.
For me those "blue" bills looked very real. I could see a touch of blue but it looked like a shadow or lighting issue, not like a blue bill. So those are probably the safest to use, since Adam said they looked the most fake.
Interesting that he said it was obviously the most fake. I also thought they easily looked the most real.
I wonder if they were intentionally designed that way? Because I also thought they looked fairly convincing. Maybe they look good on camera (or even just from farther away) but fake if you are close enough to hold them. Seems like that would be what the designer would want, 'looks like money' on camera, but also 'looks fake enough to not be considered counterfeit-adjacent by the Secret Service'.
I did work experience as a kid with the Australian Federal Police, and I remember being shown a wall that was pretty much wallpapered in examples of money they had confiscated. One was a hand-drawn $100 bill... I was told a kid drew and tried to pass it off to his school canteen as a joke. The joke was not seen, despite it being totally obvious it was a hand-drawn note.
So the company basically has a money making monopoly on making monopoly money.
I remember during my time working for a repair and refurbishment company for a major printer manufacturer, we were told that it was important to report any copies of currency (no matter how accurate or silly) we might have seen. I remember some of my coworkers thinking that the secret service being involved sounded ridiculous, and me having a hard time convincing them that it was real and very serious.
There’s no way Adam didn’t add a Godfather II, pre-Castro, Cuban bank note replica to his prop collection. 😂
My thought exactly. He has been giving Earl Hayes a lot of publicity, and you just know they hooked him up with some goodies, especially when they had bunches of the same thing. I can't imagine anyone who would object to that.
I was really hoping to hear about how they make the bills look like they aren't fresh out of the bank like the ones on their table here. Like making them crinkled, dirty, worn out, etc. To me that might be even more interesting than just the discussion of how you make a bill look "real enough" but not "too real".
Well, one of the reasons it's called money _laundering_ is because you can put your notes in the dryer with a bunch of golf balls to soften them, and maybe put soot or dirt on the outside of the golf balls to transfer it. You can also use the "tea staining" technique to add some brown. Finally, you can go over the edge of a small stack of money with a nail file to blur the edges.
Film budgets are often so astronomical that you would think that using real money would be no problem in many cases...
Or at least the first note on the bunch
They actually need to expend that money on actually making the film, and at that point, it is no longer available for shooting. Also, film sets usually have extras who make just slightly above minimum wage and would be tempted a bit too much to take a mostly unnoticeable bit off the top. You get two or three doing that, and then your fat stack becomes wafer thin pocket money by lunch!
Fake money is mostly used to be destroyed which is illegal, or they need large stacks of it and don't wanna risk someone stealing it
@@edschelchang6123 Obviously you would not use real money in a bank heist film or something like that. But if you only need a couple of notes at a time, like regular people, then why not use real money..
This whole issue is obvious now you point it out, but I had never thought about it before. Thank you so much for doing this story. I was intrigued by the aside you mentioned that you were allowed pretty realistic currency provided it was double size. And the fact that a lot of the currency that Earl Hayes makes is a slightly different shade of ink, that's corrected by the lighting when the movie is shot. Excellent piece!! Thank you.
I've wondered if Canadian productions set in USA have it a bit easier, or is it the same as far as restrictions, etc. And thanks Adam and Tested and Earl Hays! This has been a fantastic series!
Going by the stories in this video I would think it is close to the same. Since the Secret Service gets involved and policies change when the movie bills are used by the public. I would expect if a movie American bill is used in Canada it would still get the same reaction as being counterfeit and the Secret Service would still be involved and the follow up situation would be the same.
In the US, any counterfeit currency, from any country, is investigated. One trick that's done often now is the use of real money. They changed the rules about using real money in films a long time ago, so directors will request a real bill at the top of any visual stack. It's risky for the production to do so, since it can be stolen, but it works so much better on film when you don't see, "For Motion Picture Use Only," on the front of the bill.
They often just use foreign currency.
Canadian productions set in the USA? As in it's supposed to be Canada but it's filmed in the US? Does that ever happen? Film industry is so strong in Canada I would have thought only the reverse would happen
The rules for currency don't just affect money but also paper gift certificates and coupons. They all by law have to have an expiration date placed on them or the government will consider the company that issues them to be printing their own currency. If you ever have a gift certificate with an old expiration date on it, don't throw it away, the store where it came from will often honor it. For sales coupons they are generally issued for that particular promotion so the expiration date is the day the promotion ends.
Can they make polymer bills like our Australian ones? 🤔
I would think the simplest (and lowest cost) thing to do for a high budget movie is to just put a real $100 bill on top of each stack that is going to be in a close up.
I bet Adam grab some GF2 bills 😂
I'm a big fan of film noir so I know I have seen the bills before. But a few of those movies revolve around counterfeiting specifically, I can't help but be curious if Earl Hays provided the engraving plates for on screen use as well. "Southside 1-1000" would be an example.
This guy looks like if Adam and Jaime had a kid 😂😂
Now I'm remembering the bit which was added to the start of the ST:TNG episode "Darmok" when it was originally transmitted. This sequence is never included in the episode nowadays, since it involved people who were just fans of the show being "actors" for the sequence as a contest winner reward.
The reason I was reminded of the sequence is that it involves a new (post-war) government on an alien planet and they are supposed to trade some mineral ore the Federation needs in exchange for some equipment their government needed. One of the pieces of equipment is a duplicator machine which is a step below a replicator and a few steps above a 3D printer.
The new government has decided that they can't spare the ore and want to pay the Federation for the equipment using their worthless (to the Federation) currency chits.
Ryker circumvents this by taking one of the chits and feeding it into the duplicator. He examines the duplicate and the original and muses that it's not quite right, but that'll be solved as soon as the machine is given locally sourced materials to work with, and adds that ensuring the serial numbers are different on each copy is a minor setting change.
Then Ryker points out that they could try trading the equipment to the government's enemies in exchange for the minerals they want. The new government quickly backs down and decides to deliver the minerals as agreed.
I once worked a stage show that needed $20 bills and I didn't have time to make anything, so I asked a friend. Two weeks later, he handed me a stack of $20s that appeared to be direct scans of real bills. I was horrified. As soon as the show was over, I collected them all and quietly destroyed them.
Never get over how Micheal Corrie bears an almost familial resemblance to Adam, especially when looking back at the earlier seasons of MythBusters.
Every once and a while, I'll see a news story about someone trying to pass off movie money. It seems to be from the same source, it's $100 bill that looks similar, but Ben Franklin has this worried look on his face and it says "FOR MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY" instead of "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" and missing the green seal (which if you've ever been to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, you'll know is the last step in the process of making money that makes it official). And apparently it's easy enough for people to buy stacks of this stuff.
Real money is fake too. Money is only worth anything because people say it is.
No, although you are right currency's get their worth from the agreement of people. How ever issued currency is is real and has fake. The US bank which issues USD likes to know how much money they printed and how much there are in circulation to know the worth of 1 dollar. Money not issued by the real issuing organisation dilutes the money to a degree. In fact first example of paper money which was used in "new France" which was the French own land in north America. The french crown sucked at sending coins to it's colonies and lord's started issuing playing cards with a value on it. Soon enough people started to trade their own cards. In the end these cards were getting issued like crazy with money and value people did not have causing inflation in the colonie. The King who initially thought the cards were a good idea because he dint have to send gold to the colonies had to ban the use of card and send coins to fix the inflation. This is why there is actual real and fake money
While it’s true that money’s value comes from our consensus of its value. That doesn’t make it fake or unreal. Your name is also something we have all agreed on, but that doesn’t mean it’s not your name.
That applies to gold too, though.
Spoken like someone who doesn't have money
This is a very tired, and very stupid take. The value of money is primarily built off of the aggregate productive output of the society for which it serves.
Mad respect for Michael at PropsToHistory. Almost wish you'd brought out the book of the dead today too.
I actually found some Movie Money at a construction site one time. I serviced portable toilets at the time. What I found were a bunch of prop $10 bills, and several prop $2 bills. They all had the "For Motion Picture Use Only" bit on them, so it was easy to identify them as fake.
i know a few games companies in the past had similar issues because they were hunting decent hi-res grabs of bills for getting good renders and the Secret Service showed up wondering why this tech company wanted such high res grabs of legal currency.
I didn't know that! Something new to talk about comes Monday morning!
You guys should keep doing episodes together! Very interesting!
Having been in the printing industry for a while, it was fun to learn more about this as I knew a good bit, but there was still plenty to learn from this video.
Now go and properly reshoot that cable comparison video with the right items to compare against.
The movie Beverly Hills Cop 3. Was about counterfeit money. And showed money plates and a money making machine in that movie. I’m sure all fake. But I was thinking of that movie for this episode
I had a kid do community service at a place I worked because he and a friend printed money in a color copier. He was 12 years old.
Working for IBM, I repaired a laptop at the Secret Service office in Chicago once, and I can attest to the fact that they have NO sense of humor, whatsoever. I was accompanied the entire time by an agent, not to guard me, but to be sure I was where I was supposed to be and doing what I was supposed to be doing.
I also repaired many, many laptops at the Federal Reserve in Chicago. They were more laid back than the Secret Service, at least until after 911. At that point, they took possession of the street in between their 2 buildings, and that was where I had to enter after 911, which was a little off-putting because of all the guards with sub-machine guns at the ready. However, I did get to go down in the area with all the vaults once, and I got a glimpse through the door of an open vault. Lots of gold and plastic-wrapped bundles of money about the size of a microwave.
They did change to have service people enter the main doors, later. Probably because the other entrance was where all the armored trucks went to load or unload.
There is a great William Friedken film from the 80s called to Live and Die in LA. It contains the most amazing scene depicting money being made by a master counterfieter.
*Really* cool of Earl Hays Press to sell of some of that old memorabilia! I'm sure they've got warehouses of the stuff from over the decades just taking up space.
A german artist tried to make fake dollars from scratch. At first he he just wanted to know how close he could get and threw loads of sheets with misprints away. Later he was so convinced that his forgeries are as good as it gets, that he tried to sell them to an easteuropean-gang and got caught because of those misprints from earlier.
He said that the feeling and texture of the bills and its imprints were the most complex features.
I'm reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes comic when Calvin decides to counterfeit money, drawing it with crayons.
"Old George has the gout, I see."
"I SAID it was hard!"
Fascinating! I love the movie references and stories.
I hope your cameraman is feeling better 😕.
This is weird. I just saw a facebook post yesterday where someone working in a bowling alley received a couple prop bills and was warning others to watch for them.
I think there was a simple solution to make it invisibly different from real money. just print it mirrored and film everything mirrored.. when the movie is flipped, everything looks normal on the screen, but the money would still be mirrored irl, and everybody would see that
LOVED this, thanks for making and sharing!
My first job was with Xerox, and I believe at the time copiers had to be set at either 103% or 97%, precisely because the law wanted it be be known as a ‘copy’, and not something that could pass as an original. This even included bonds, stock certificates, etc. forgers would either get some of the same paper, or run it through embossing rollers to give it ‘texture’
Time to enjoy another video by Adam, and get on another watchlist!
I saw a newspaper article about a guy in Serbia during the Balkan War who bought big sheets of printed money that was worthless because the value fell faster than they could print it, directly from the printers and used them as wallpaper in his house.
Very interesting and informative video here Adam and crew! Thanks for sharing to the world!
One money related prop I've always wanted to replicate is Doc Brown's briefcase from BTTF: Part II where he has an assortment of US cash from different decades.
This is awesome! How does totally fake money get made, like credits for Star Wars or Latinum for Star Trek? That bank heist scene in Andor especially used TONS of fake money. Someone had to spend a lot of time not only making all that money but creating something which looked great without relying on anything on Earth.
I'm surprised there was no mention of the film "To Live and Die in LA". Probably one of the better counterfeit caper films Hollywood has ever produced. In the film, it is also mentioned that the original mission of the Secret Service was to thwart counterfeiting.
I absolutely love these videos at Earl Hays! Right On! 🙌
This was so much fun!
Back in the 70’s, I remember there was a story in the news that genuine US currency was shown in a TV show for the very first time. It was an episode of Ironside. I remember it distinctly but have never heard it mentioned since.