The One Dollar Counterfeiter

Post by lukan » Sun, May 10, 2026, 12:28 PM UTC

tux3 wrote: post #27

seabass-labrax wrote: post #13

> 10 years went by and the search for Mister 880 turned into the largest and most expensive counterfeit investigation in Secret Service history. The article doesn't explain why the Secret Service made this their biggest case, and it doesn't make much sense to me. If the dollars were accepted by the general population, it would cause an infinitesimal increase in inflation of no consequence to others. And if shopkeeper…

The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself. The US secret service was originally created specifically to combat counterfeit money, it's no surprise that they would keep tracking this man for a decade. This man is unusual because he did the tiniest amount of one the most severely punishe…

Post by noduerme » Sun, May 10, 2026, 12:33 PM UTC

slazaro wrote: post #42

noduerme wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about the vague implications the parent poster was making - the purposes of which weren't very clear, but which I interpreted as: "A) Money is worth less than it was, (so printing fake money is justified) B) But on the other hand maybe he was part of the propertied class (in which case it wouldn't be)". I was asking whether they had a moral compass.

I think you're reading way too much into that comment. Sometimes questions are just questions out of curiosity, not accusations of the opposite.

Post by denkmoon » Sun, May 10, 2026, 12:46 PM UTC

lukan wrote: post #61

tux3 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself. The US secret service was originally created specifically to combat counterfeit money, it's no surprise that they would keep tracking this man for a decade. This man is unusual because he did the tiniest amount of one the most severely punishe…

"since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself" If somebody beats someone else up, to teach him a lesson - this is also a direct attack on the state itself, the monopoly on violence. But "large scale"? This old man with his crude tools and bad 1 dollar notes? "The press adored him and the public sympathized with him. " That is probably the bit, that got them e…

Post by sidewndr46 » Sun, May 10, 2026, 12:48 PM UTC

hankerapp wrote: post #60

Slightly off-topic, but the first time I saw a (real) 2-dollar bill, I almost called the Secret Service on a customer. Was then educated about the legality of 2-dollar bills.

Post by cowsandmilk » Sun, May 10, 2026, 12:53 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62

tux3 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself. The US secret service was originally created specifically to combat counterfeit money, it's no surprise that they would keep tracking this man for a decade. This man is unusual because he did the tiniest amount of one the most severely punishe…

> the state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters This is empirically untrue [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfeit_money#Penalties_by...