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A counterfeit is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. The word counterfeit most frequently describes forged money or documents, but can also describe clothing, software, pharmaceuticals, or any other manufactured item.1 History
This building was used to mint counterfeit American nickels in the late 19th and/or early 20th centuries. The picture was taken in 1911 and featured in a Chicago newspaper.
Counterfeiting money is probably as old as money itself. However, the introduction of paper money has made it an easier thing to do.
Nations have used counterfeiting as a means of warfare. The idea is to overflow the enemy's economy with fake bank notes, so that the real value of the money plummets. This was used by Great Britain during the Revolutionary War to impact the war effort and managed to significantly reduce the value of the Continental Dollar. This tactic was also employed by the United States during the American Civil WarThe American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as "the U. the Union," " the North," or "the Yankees"; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as "the Confederat. However, fake Confederate currency was of superior quality to the real thing.
During World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, the Nazis attempted to do a similar thing to the AlliesIn general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. In general English usage, those who share a common goal and whose work toward that goal is complementary may be viewed as allies with Operation BernhardOperation Bernhard was the name of a secret German plan devised during the Second World War to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes. The plan was directed by, and named after, SS M. The Nazis took JewThe word Jew is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for aish artists in the SachsenhausenSachsenhausen may refer to a quarter of Oranienburg in Germany, see Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg), and a detention facility here a quarter of Frankfurt am Main in Germany, see Sachsenhausen (Frankfurt am Main) a municipality of Weimarer Land, see Sachsenhau concentration camp and forced them to forge British pounds and American dollars. The quality of the counterfeiting was very good, and was almost impossible to distinguish between the real and fake bills. The Germans could not put their plan into action, and were forced to dump the counterfeit bills into a lake, and they were not recovered until the 1950s. Over one billion American dollars were forged, and economists estimate that that would have seriously damaged the American war effort.
Today the finest counterfeit banknotes are claimed to be U.S. dollar bills produced in North Korea, which are used to finance the North Korean government, among other uses. Bulgaria and Syria are also significant sources of counterfeit currency. In the early years of the 21st century, the United States Secret Service has noted a substantial reduction in the quantity of forged U.S. currency, as counterfeiters turn their attention towards the Euro.
