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about 18 months ago we took out a huge amount of cash in $100 bills from the bank. They were all crisp new bills. We have slowly been using this money for cash purchases.
yesterday we were using one to pay for $45 worth of merchandise at a local drug store. The clerk used his counterfeit detection pen, the mark stayed there (apparently it is supposed to turn clear), whipped the bill back to my husband and said "That's no good. Do you have another way to pay for this?" I was shocked. DH was pissed. He then handed the clerk another bill and the same thing happened. I was beginning to panic. We have a whole drawer at home full of these bills. Are they all bad? Husband got really angry and got out $600 worth of these bills, told the clerk they all came from the bank down the street and there must be something wrong with his pen. The guy marked all the bills. same thing happened. Line forming behind us...kids wanting to know what was going on...why was daddy mad. Finally husband said "Your pen must be dirty. I've spent these bills all over the country with no problem till today. Go get a different pen. Which he did and the mark disappeared.
clerk never apologized but said he was just doing his job. I told him I understood but we were concerned for the rest of our money. Husband told him to throw the defective pen away but clerk did not.
Questions.
We are now stuck with $500 worth of bills with this mark on them. Will this cause suspicion with other retail establishments?
Should we call the manager of the store and tell them what happened? not to get the guy fired but to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else.
Should we take these and all the other bills back to the bank and ask for different ones?
what would you do? can these pins be purchased at staples or elsewhere? how does a pen like that get defective?
Bills get marked all the time and even get torn. It's why the treasury dept has a policy that as long as over 55% of a bill or pieces to construct said bill is sent to them they can send you a replacement. Old people who stuffed bills under mattresses were able to get a fraction of the money they had stored this way when the house caught fired.
The bank has better detection equipment then a pen test and should be able to test and exchange the bills.
I would call the store manager and talk to the bank manager about that incident. As far as the marked bills, I don't think it matters. Paper money has all kinds of marks all over them. However, the bank manager will probably exchange them if you are very concerned about it. Sorry this happened to you.
Bills with marks on them are no big deal. FWIW, most of the pens work with a reaction to the iron in the pigment and are an interesting way that the pen maker has discovered to make money. You can do the same type of test with a small magnet for free for as many bills as you can ever count.
A word of warning though - do NOT trust that a teller is always going to give "honest" money. There are scams that happen in banks as well.
With all the security features in today's currency it's pretty easy to know if you have been duped with fake bills.
The older bills have the standard color shifting ink, security thread in locations based on denomination, and the portrait visible holding the bill up to a light. These features are almost never correctly duplicated by counterfeiters.
Also, I always ask for smaller bills because so many places refuse to take anything over $20. It's more to carry around, but saves the headache down the line.
Around here, if a store receives a counterfeit-- or what appears to be a counterfeit-- bill, they are required to call the police and are not supposed to give the money back to the customer.
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