Getting counterfeit money at a restaurant

(sorry)

please tell me you registered a whole new email address for that one.

Hahahah awesome.

i got a fake pound coin a couple of weeks ago -- wtf? surely this is more trouble than it's worth?

Once I got a 10p coin that I thought was a pretty lousy counterfeit until I realised it had a layer of tinfoil compressed all over it and was apparently a genuine 10p under that. Why would this ever happen?
(This was back when 10p got you a call in a phonebox; the person in front of me was agitated cz it was their last coin and the machine wouldn't take it, so I swapped it for one of mine, since it was only 10p and they were getting pretty stressed)

Coming back from Northern Ireland with a purse full of NI money is a pain. Are they legal in England? I'd been assuming not (you're not even meant to use Scottish notes, are you?) but NI friend is convinced they should be, except good luck getting one recognised, especially with 4 or 5 different NI banks all issuing different designs.

A few years ago when I was on the dole I worked in an Oxfam shop - we got a fake pound coin in the collection box! Thanks for that, fake donor.

scottish notes are fine, though yeah you get some looks

since N.I. is part of britain i don't see why those notes wouldn't be fine too

Lots of counterfeit quid coins; I had one refused in a shop once but not seized by the assistant. Also, always always check fivers you get back from cabbies, I've had a duff one there but the guy behind the bar at the gig venue later also did not seize it.

Wow. I've never ever had a counterfeit anything (to my knowledge), but that could be because our money is almost impossible to counterfeit and I don't ever have 100s.

Scottish, NI, Channel Islands, and Manx notes are all acceptable in the UK. They can be refused since technically they're not actually legal tender - but then neither are cheques, credit cards, large amounts of coinage...

When I was 14 or so I paid for an 80p sandwich with a scottish £1 note (in England). There was the usual conversation about "is it legal tender" etc, and she gave me £4.20 in change. Woo bonus.

Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, and St Helena pounds are apparently separate currencies fixed to the UK pound so they're not acceptable.

There's almost never a problem with Scottish notes but I live quite near to Euston and King's Cross, which is where Scots alight from trains with pockets full of Scots notes. Though every so often there's one of those braindead sales clerks that needs management input re: whether to shit or go blind who gets my Legal Tender 101 lecture on the odd occasion I have a Scottish £10 to spend.

whether to shit or go blind

thankyou for introducing this awesome phrase into my lexicon.

That's one of my dad's.

Looking at North Korea's counterfeiting operation

Funny encounter at the dollar store yesterday. The cashier, a punky girl in her 20s, looked my five-dollar bill up and down, declared it counterfeit, and called over a co-worker for confirmation. She mentioned two specific problems with it that I didn't catch, but the co-worker said it was legitimate. So she went ahead with the transaction, but she laughed and said, "It is counterfeit, but nobody cares."

is that her way of saying "I refuse to admit I'm wrong"?

When I was 14 or so I paid for an 80p sandwich with a scottish £1 note (in England). There was the usual conversation about "is it legal tender" etc, and she gave me £4.20 in change. Woo bonus.

― Thomas, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 09:33 (2 years ago)

haha that's great

i've never knowlingly been given counterfeit notes iirc, but surely they'd have to be pretty shit for you to notice? how many shopkeepers even check the watermark these days

the better stuff probably stays in circulation for ages with nobody noticing

is that her way of saying "I refuse to admit I'm wrong"?

Could be--I know I immediately went home and dismantled my printing press, just to be safe.

if I ever visit england I'm gonna pay for something with postage stamps because ricky gervais said you could on the office

now, consider what if I paid with counterfeit postage stamps

hmm

silly. who is going to pass counterfeit bills at a dollar store of all places? also, why would someone counterfeit such a small denomination?

The fact that it was dollar-store doesn't seem relevant. I don't think she was accusing me of being the counterfeiter, just that the bill itself was phony. It could have originated anywhere. But you might be right about your second point. I don't know where counterfeiters set the bar in terms of denomination.

i just mean i imagine a counterfeiter passing his bills at a high-end electronics store or something, rather than stocking up on paper towels and dishrags at the dollar store. but anyhow, yeah, i can't remember where the bar is set, either. perhaps it's changed in recent years with the advent of new technologies, and people do forge smaller bills these days.

I would think passing the bills is more to get real money as change than to buy desirable goods, no?

Although quite possibly that's not true for forging small denomitations. Hmmm.

yeah, i think you're right.

Just clicked back on this thread only to be faced with 'denomitations'. What the hell is that, emil.y? Jesus.

When I was in Buenos Aires there were counterfeit bills everywhere! Friends got them from all manner of stores, ATMs, you name it. They would then immediately plot where they were going to spend the fake cash to get rid of it.

Half-related, but it's always a strategy to find a place that will accept a Canadian quarter. In Mpls, it wasn't too difficult, but down South, you'd have better luck using Aladdin's Castle tokens.

At the coffee shop I used to work at, someone paid with a counterfeit five, once. My co-worker spotted it and held up the transaction. I told him to go ahead with it, because, frankly, who gives a shit? Other than the treasury department, I mean.

I knew the guy wasn't the original counterfeiter. I knew we weren't going to have to eat that five dollars, and even if we did, well, it's five bucks. Not something to alienate a customer over.

the plan with most counterfeiters is to exchange low-denominational bills in inconspicuous places for real cash. they favor fives and tens b/c these are most likely to pass without scrutiny.