During the American Revolution against the British, the British counterfeited U. S. currency in such large quantities that soon Continental money became worthless.

     It was also a serious problem during the 19th century when banks issued their own currency. During the 1860s, it was estimated that one-third of all currency in use in the United States was counterfeit. What a nightmare!

     Congress started using a national currency in 1862. However, that new money was counterfeited so much that it became necessary for our government to enforce the laws against counterfeiting. You might never guess which part of the government got that job. It was the Secret Service!

     You may have watched the Secret Service on TV protect the President and Vice President, their families and their homes, check out threats against these people, etc. They also investigate counterfeiting, financial crimes and computer attacks on our banking systems.

     The Secret Service constantly reviews the latest copying technologies to stay one step ahead of the criminals. That's because many of today's counterfeiters have stopped using ink printers and now use expensive scanners, computers and color printers to print their own money.

     The Secret Service has caught a lot of people doing this crime. However, because of computers and color copiers, more and more people are trying it again. This crime continues to represent a potential danger to our nation's economy. By having fake money used in our country, it dilutes or waters down the value of the real money in the money supply.

Did You Know?

During the Civil War, about 1,600 banks designed and printed their own money. With so many designs it made it very difficult to detect counterfeit bills from the 7,000 varieties of real bills.