Press Used To Print Millions of US Banknotes Seized In Quebec

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian Royal Mounted Police report: An offset printing press used to manufacture counterfeit $20 banknotes was seized by the RCMP and US Secret Service. This significant seizure was made earlier today in the Trois-Rivières area. The authorities had been looking for this offset press for several years. A large quantity of paper was also seized by police, that could have been used by the counterfeiters to manufacture from $40-$200 million. The very high quality counterfeit notes were virtually undetectable to the naked eye. Some of the features they had were uncommon, including the type of paper used, which was especially made with a Jackson watermark and a dark vertical stripe imitating the security thread found in authentic notes."

Comments

How they were detected

[Anonymous Coward]

They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

Re:How they were detected

[Anonymous Coward]

The "In God We Trust, eh?" was another tip-off.

Re:How they were detected

[Thomas Miconi]

They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

Actually, they weren't. Which is the *real* reason why the Quebec police busted them.

Re:How they were detected

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Big bad counterfeiters! 200 Mil!

I guess they're right. The best way to illegally make money is to own a bank.

HSBC alone, payed out 2 BILLION in just fines, for laundering drug cartel money. And were glad to do it! 2 Bil was only 5 weeks of it's annual profits. Heck, the man responsible at HSBC, Gulliver, got a personal windfall 2 Million in BONUS!

So, if there are "BIG PENALTIES" for these Canadian operators, it's only to keep the ankle-biters off of the big banks' turf.

Re:How they were detected

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Canada certainly DOES deserve some better jokes, however I don't think the case for new and funnier jokes should come at the expense of any of the other 50 states. North Dakota and Missouri are also candidates for better representation.

Go after the real thieves lol

[oic0]

Now if we could just stop our government from printing themselves money.

Re:Go after the real thieves lol

[Cyberax]

Nope. US Fed did what is required from the start, so the recession in the US turned out to be far more shallow than in Europe (where the ECB blundered for several years). In Japan it's the contrast is even more stark - after a decade of slow stagnation and deflation (or near-deflation) they started growing almost immediately after the central bank and the government decided to be 'irresponsible'.

Then there's China, its inflation rate skyrocketed into hyperinflation several times during the recent 30 years, yet they've had double-digit growth for about as long as that.

Oh, and inflation primarily hurts 1%-ers because they have to actually invest their capital in risky businesses (work!) rather than sit back and enjoy risk-free rent. For a general worker a mild inflation is a plus, because it erodes the debts (mortgage!) over time.

Re:Go after the real thieves lol

[SeaFox]

It steals nothing. My $100 in the bank is worth $105 after the fed increases the money supply 5%. My house goes from $200,000 to 210,000, again, matching the inflation.

What? Inflation makes your buying power less not more. The house may go up in (numeric) value, but you $100 in the bank is worth less now since it's not worth as much in actual exchange for goods and services.

Re:Go after the real thieves lol

[TheLink]

It's still printing money.

My left hand borrows money from the future and passes them to my right hand which gives you cash. What does that really look like to the rest of the world in practice?

Or how about this, I lend 9 trillion dollars "from the future" to my friends at below market interest rates. My friends make a few millions or even billions with it and pay me back in full (can't be that hard - it's below market rates after all). So how's that not printing money? It may not be printing trillions but it's printing millions or billions.

plastics the new paper

[the 0x]

switch to australian made notes, i'd like to see them try and replicate those notes!

Re:plastics the new paper

[spasm]

The Australians license the polymer process to a lot of countries (including Canada) and an offshoot of the Australian Reserve Bank actually prints polymer notes for about 30 countries directly including Mexico.

Re:plastics the new paper

[mendax]

switch to australian made notes, i'd like to see them try and replicate those notes!

Yes, I've advocated the US switching to Aussie plastic ever since my first experience with it when I visited Oz in 1995. Canada is now doing it and Mexico has been using it for several years. Even the damn Romanians are using it! The polymer money has its detractors (it's slippery and doesn't fold nicely unless you put a book on the fold for a month and then you can't get the fold out) but it's pretty much damn impossible to counterfeit unless you're a government. And I suspect even the North Koreans will have trouble with it since I have no doubt the Aussies will ever license the technology to them for obvious reasons.

Re:plastics the new paper

[failedlogic]

Canada makes polymer bills. The first polymer bill produced was the $100 CAD. Not too long after it was released, counterfeits were reported. This is a CBC story from May 2013. Too bad, for the longest time $100 and $50 paper bills weren't accepted at retail even if legal tender for fear it was counterfeit. Hopefully this doesn't happen with the new polymer bills.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla

[flyneye]

If you suspect you have government printed currency, you should send it to me, flyneye.
I will inspect it for bugs, flaws and make sure it works.
Bulk, no problem, will pay shipping fees or postage for large amounts.
Be safe, be sure, send your money to flyneye.

Re:Are they embossed?

[Areyoukiddingme]

Fancy heavy-weight offset printer, so yes. The press is what enables that difference, and this is one of those presses. Who gets to even buy these presses if quite tightly controlled. The fact that authorities spent years looking for it meant that its purchase was very carefully done and it was probably disassembled and moved after initial delivery. A difficult and expensive operation, but presumably the years it was in operation paid for it.

Re:How is this any different from Fed practice?

[AK Marc]

How can the person in charge of printing money be counterfeiting money when they are authorized to print more? Though most of the easing isn't in printed money anyway, right?

Re:learn proper economics please

[argStyopa]

I don't know if being able to diagnose a disease means you know how to cure it.

If we're all Keynesians, why aren't we all breaking windows to improve the economy? The theory is utterly stupid EVEN IN THEORY, much less in application.

Increasing money supply doesn't magically make people want to consume, all it really does is threaten blackmail to people "stupid" enough to try to save money.

Keynes vs Hayek rap battle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... "Fear the Boom and Bust"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... "Fight of the Century"

Keynes was, like Freud, a brilliant man whose observations are seminal to our understanding of his field, but who was in many ways overwhelmingly wrong.

I'll take Adam Smith, Frederic Bastiat, and ultimately Friedrich Hayek over JMK, thanks