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Counterfeit Bills and bill changers

copperglobe

copperglobe

Active member
How confident are you in your changer's ability to reject counterfeit bills with MEI or Coinco acceptors? Reason I ask is that our area (Rocky Mtns) there has been a big upswing in $20's circulating around. During our deposits in the past weeks we've had several bills pulled from our deposits by the bank as counterfeit. Don't know if they went through the changers or simply passed to our attendants for change or wash purchases. The last deposit had a $20 that was very good but was determined counterfeit by a counterfeit pen and closely examining it in direct sunlight by myself and two bankers.

Are MEi and Coinco's good enough to reject these?
 
So far no current issues here. Some years ago they had old style $10.00 counterfeits that worked in the changers, but nothing since. The software was updated to reject old 10's completely. I recall at that time contacting Hamilton who supposedly knew nothing about it but the local shop that serviced stuff here did. Perpetrators were later caught because someone had good cameras by their changers. Instruct attendants to use the pen on all bills given to them. That way you know any counterfeit without the pen mark came thru the changer.
 
idk the answer to your question, but the easy way to find out is to take the bills the bank wouldnt accept and run them through your mei & coincos.
Another possibility that I dont want to mention is they came from your attendants - hope not, but dont completely ignore the possibility.
 
Ghetto Wash said:
You won't get them back after the bank says they are counterfeit.
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Yeah, that's that problem. Once the bank thinks they're counterfeit they have to pass them along to the Feds- they won't give them back to you. I've tried. And you're out the $20 or whatever it's worth.

I've not been able to test a known counterfeit in a changer.
 
The last counterfeit $20 bill we got was a really bill, it was the new style bill. The printing/color on it was prefect, but the paper feel of it was off. It wouldn't work in the Mars AE2631 or the Hamilton XE validators that I tried it in. Get yourself a counterfeit pen and check your $20's or large bills.
 
Turn off the ability to take 20’s, and give your attendants counterfeit pen checkers so that customers are forced to come to them. Maybe do this for a month or so? That way the hacks will go elsewhere.
 
I want them to go through the changer. I have a lot more faith in Mars rejecting them than an attendant that may be rushing around. In the event that they get past the validator, the alarm will go off on the third one, sending them scurrying to an easier target.
 
I.B. Washincars said:
I want them to go through the changer. I have a lot more faith in Mars rejecting them than an attendant that may be rushing around. In the event that they get past the validator, the alarm will go off on the third one, sending them scurrying to an easier target.
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Alarm on the third one? What’s that all about?
 
It’s actually counting coins going out. That way, it will stop a myriad of cheating techniques. Back in the 90s I was getting robbed blind, with no end in sight. I actually thought bill validator updates always worked. Boy was I wrong. I came up with the idea and pitched it to someone I knew could make it work. It’s worked flawlessly for 20 years.
 
Before we rely too heavily on the "pen" ... keep in mind that counterfeiters for over 5 years now commonly use an easily available hair spray that will defeat the counterfeit pen check. It is common knowledge in our area ... not sure in other areas of the country.
 
There are plenty of ways to check for counterfeit bills that there's no reason to rely on just a pen or buying a UV detector. Do you guys know about the watermark? That can't be faked. The color-changing ink, the band with $20 printed down it, all almost impossible to copy. They can't fake the paper, but they're washing $1 bills and printing old $20's on them. Just don't take old $20 bills.
 
MEP001 said:
There are plenty of ways to check for counterfeit bills that there's no reason to rely on just a pen or buying a UV detector. Do you guys know about the watermark? That can't be faked. The color-changing ink, the band with $20 printed down it, all almost impossible to copy. They can't fake the paper, but they're washing $1 bills and printing old $20's on them. Just don't take old $20 bills.
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After seeing your post I searched Youtube for checking for counterfeit bills and there are a ton of them. Some do show the pen and UV light but as you say there are lots of other ways to check without those items.
 
copperglobe said:
I go back to my original question: Has anyone had a known counterfeit ten or twenty go through a bill changer?
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I’m gonna go with NO! I have all MEI acceptors in all equipment. Unless me or my clean up guy are on sight....all bills go through MEI. In 10 plus year...I’ve never had a bill rejected by my bank. So I guess that would be no?
 
chaz said:
I’m gonna go with NO! I have all MEI acceptors in all equipment. Unless me or my clean up guy are on sight....all bills go through MEI. In 10 plus year...I’ve never had a bill rejected by my bank. So I guess that would be no?
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Same with me. When you dispense dollar coins you don’t have to deal with manually breaking the large bills. MEI checks them for us.
 
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