Fake Money Used In Movies/Videos
Author: Amy Nutt

In Hollywood's infancy, filmmakers used real money in their
productions, only to run into legal and administrative problems
such as workers stealing the money. At the time, very strict
laws prohibited the filmmakers from copying, photographing or
imitating American currency in any way. This presented Hollywood
with a very tricky problem. Always resourceful, filmmakers found
a way around it.

At the time, there happened to be large amounts of devalued
currency printed by the Confederates during the American Civil
War and Mexican Money printed during the Mexican Revolution.
Both failed governments had issued a lot of money, hoping the
volume would help stave off the money's declining values. Of
course, they failed and the money was useless until Hollywood
bought up caches of both types of cash, and the first Hollywood
prop money was created.

Over time, the Confederate and Mexican folding money wore out,
and most of it was thrown away or lost. By then, laws governing
the reproduction of fake currency had loosened somewhat.
Prop-making manufacturers began to print false money.

Much of this early fake money is now available via specialty
Hollywood memorabilia stores. The makers of this money often
copied Mexican and Confederate designs and used deliberate
misspellings like "Steats of Amreica" to be sure the money could
not be passed off as real. Many of these designs are interesting
and very beautiful to look at. Though the designers were making
obvious fake money, they took the time to make it look great.

In more recent history, laws loosened even more and the stacks
of prop dollars being printed by manufacturers became even more
convincing. There have been several incidents where the Secret
Service (which oversees American currency and stings
counterfeiters) has stepped in and confiscated Hollywood prop
money, and forced companies to discontinue printing it.

In one notable case, bills with a total face value close to $1
Billion was blown up during the filming of "Rush Hour 2" in Las
Vegas. A significant amount of the fake money, which happened to
be very convincing, drifted into crowds of people in Las Vegas.
Knowingly and unknowingly, people began to use the bills. Large
amounts of this money began turning up in the Las Vegas and Los
Angeles areas. Many bills were being passed successfully.

As the incident grew more widespread, the Secret Service got
involved and the company that produced the bills, Independent
Studio Services, Inc., became embroiled in legal trouble. The
Secret Service deemed their fake money product too realistic and
seized the prop money from ISSI's facilities. Eventually the
company had to stop printing fake money altogether.

Today, prop money is still widely available via memorabilia
stores, prop suppliers, private collectors and online auctions.
But this prop money is almost always obviously fake, with
indicators printed on the bills. Also, much of this fake money
is smaller than its real counterpart. Worldwide collectors are
eager to spend great amounts of money in order to acquire these
fake prints that have been used many years ago.


About The Author: I Test Cash offers counterfeit money pens and
counterfeit money tools as well as information on how to protect
you against counterfeit currency. http://blog.itestcash.com