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3. Counterfeit Bills: A Closer Look at the Dollar

Are counterfeit dollar bills circulating in the market? If so, it's clear that this issue is not limited to Lebanon but also affects other global markets. However, the Lebanese are particularly sensitive to it due to the country's economic crisis, which has left the cash economy in a fragile state, all amid a "neither peace nor war" situation following a devastating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

This is not the first time, and certainly won’t be the last, that the Lebanese face such a situation. In this context, they must be cautious and stay especially vigilant about where their foreign currency is coming from.

Several media outlets have reported that, three weeks ago, hundreds of millions of dollars in counterfeit bills, mainly fifty and one-hundred-dollar notes, were brought into the Lebanese market from Turkey.

Laura, in her fifties, shared with This is Beirut that last Thursday, she was refused a one-hundred-dollar bill when trying to pay for lunch at a luxury restaurant in Beirut. While the waiter didn’t confirm or deny the bill was fake, he suggested she replaces it. Upon closer inspection, she noticed the background color was much lighter than the bills normally in circulation in Lebanon. She also mentioned that the bill had been withdrawn from an ATM at a major Lebanese bank.

The dollar and the banks

In a statement to This is Beirut, a banking source explained that the dollar bills dispensed by their ATMs can be easily traced, even without the receipt from the transaction. Each bank keeps a record of the serial numbers of the bills it distributes. All the customer needs to do is visit the bank that owns the ATM and provide the date and time of the withdrawal to track the specific bills.

When asked, the same source explained that banks are actively updating the software for their bill counters and counterfeit detection systems. However, the source acknowledged that this doesn’t fully eliminate the possibility of accidental errors.

A source close to Lebanon's central bank (BDL) told This is Beirut that reports about the amount of counterfeit bills in circulation are exaggerated, adding that the actual numbers are much lower than what has been claimed.

Precautions to take

The $100 bills, often targeted by counterfeiters, were redesigned by the Federal Reserve (Fed) in 2013—their first update since 1969. The new design added a touch of color while keeping Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, on the iconic green note.

Without relying on advanced electronic detection tools, a simple way to check a $100 bill is by touch. Run your finger over Benjamin Franklin's portrait; it should feel textured and slightly rough from top to bottom. The four corners of the bill, on the other hand, should be smooth and slippery.

Ensure that the purple vertical strip changes color and produces reflections when exposed to light. Additionally, when held up to the light, the watermark—an image of Benjamin Franklin's portrait, identical to the one printed in the center of the bill—should appear and be visible from both sides.

Next, there’s the thin security thread, embedded vertically in the bill, which becomes visible when held up to the light. It displays the word "USA" and the bill’s denomination. When backlit, the Liberty Bell, printed in copper, should change color and reflect light.

Finally, on a genuine bill, the fine border lines are sharp and continuous, while on a counterfeit, they often appear blurred or broken. The serial numbers should also be perfectly aligned, evenly spaced, and printed in the same color as the Treasury seal.