by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Sometimes a $1 bill isn’t what it appears to be. Actually, it’s more likely that a $20, $50 or $100 isn’t authentic, according to U. S. Secret Service Special Agent Jeffrey Rohrer, who was invited to the Sheriff’s Advisory Council Sector A meeting Wednesday at Independent Square.
SHADCO is a group of Downtown merchants and property managers and one of 18 councils that meet monthly in neighborhoods all over Jacksonville in order to enhance cooperation between the Sheriff’s Office and citizens.
“We want to know the problems that you’re seeing so we can help you handle them,” said Lt. Bob Jernigan of the JSO.
Rohrer said that his office receives between $15,000 and $30,000 worth of counterfeit bills each month that have been intercepted by local banks and businesses.
He brought several examples of seized currency and demonstrated ways to detect bogus bills.
Many merchants depend on using detection pens to reveal counterfeit bills, but Rohrer pointed out the pens are not foolproof. He said that with modern materials, methods and inks used by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a small battery-operated ultraviolet lamp is the best way to know if a bill isn’t what it seems. The light will reveal among other things the security thread woven into every authentic bill, a component of the genuine article that is impossible for counterfeiters to duplicate.
Rohrer also said that the Secret Service has determined that much of the counterfeit currency being passed nationwide is coming from Colombian drug cartels and that the North Korean government is getting involved with a bogus $100 bill he called “Super Note.”
While Rohrer couldn’t give many details due to the on-going investigation, he did say, “It matches our notes very well. That’s why we call it the Super Note.”