How to ACTUALLY Counterfeit US Currency

[dudewheresmytardis]

Hi, I'm the Doctor, and as you can see (if you are actually that curious) I just joined, yeah. So anyway, being new here, and having done a brief but thourough search about this site, I realised that noone seems to have even the slightest clue about how to forge a US currency note, I am going to fix this problem. Why? Two reasons, FIRST; I enjoy spreading information that dis-services the current government, and SECOND; after a couple of years out of the scene, I need some decent templates to either build off of, or to use for comparisons. I'm not the type to use another person's template (it's only really your's if the final build is all your work) but I no longer have the reference library I once did, perhaps some of you with good or better quality (at least) will feel the urge to share with me, as I am right now with you.


The materials you need are actually rather simple, you can buy well, pretty much everything retail if you have too, but in terms of printers, keep in mind you are more than likely going to have to spend a lot of time measuring for the offset programmed into them to prevent precisely this activity. I preffer a colour laser (CMYK) printer, Brother's are nice to me, but whichever printer you use, whatever quality you print, be familliar with your speciffic printer. If you nail the inbuilt offset (or manage an obscure foreign brand that always prints at perfect scale) you can pass bills through machines. Watermarking is simple and can be simulated in a variety of ways, my favourite though I'll get into later, all of them can be done cheaply.

Printer - use what you have but aim for a good colour laser, but you'll also need a decent inkjet too.

Template - as in any forgery project, build a good one yourself, I preffer a PS7 layered template that can be broken down and fed into alternate printing programs.

OV pigment dye - pearl ex is a good starting point, but there is a wide variety out there, hunt real art stores, you're going to have to mix this custom, Green/Gold and interference gold pretty much nail it.

Transparent Liquid Medium - you'll be mixing your pigment with something won't you? This is what you'll be using to simulate OV inks (pretty accurately too)

Spare Inkjet Cartriges - for loading the mixed ink into

Elmer's School Glue - seriously, this stuff is usefull when you laminate your bills, water it down

Paper - this you might have to order, you're looking for a fibreous material that has about the same ripping feel and look as a real dollar, this is a tactile process, I bleached a bill completely, cut down small sections and threw them into a sample pack I had happened on, (I'm still going through suppliers, though I have found a few that can provide about 80%) this is a process I'll leave each to go through themselves. Idealy you're looking for a half-weight version of as near identical non-acid (non UV reactive) currency paper or simillar. Actual purchase price is not too bad. Ipreffer a roll, as I'm going to be cutting this up anyway, a roll is far less suspicious than sheets sized to match bill-sheets.

Lanolin - this magic ingredient can be found in most arts and crafts stores. Buy a counterfeit pen and play arround with mixing this into a liquid you can spounge onto the paper, this sort of waterproofs the bill, it prevents the ink of the counterfeit detection pen from actually bleeding through which triggers a chemical reaction. Try one of these pens on a piece of butcher's paper or a thermal reciept if you don't believe, they say the receipt is a real bill usually. This is the same chemical used on real bills, and is usually washed out if you bleach a bill, THERE IS NO SPECIAL QUALITY TO THE PAPER IN US BILLS INTRINSICALLY, they just add lanolin before they cut them.

Paper Cutter - Duh. get a decent one, you don't really want to cut more than five complete layers at a time anyway, but it needs to be accurrate.

Paper Cutter Guide - I always have this made custom. Draw out a guide based on your papercutter with the exactl measurements for the bill, do this for both cuts, horizontal and vertical. Go to any machine shop and have them make these from a clean steel, they should essentially be little steel plates the length, and width individually

Spounges - For the lanolin wash, and the glue wash

Something flat and heavy - a clean piece of steel from a machine shop will work wonderously, two even better.

Ok, now, you have a spectacular template and all the stuff, first, print off the red and blue fires, these should be done well, fade parts of your little red and blue squiggle template so they look like they are going under other fibres. Print that off first on both halves of the full sheet. Now, on the inside face of one sheet, print the watermark. I like to use MICR toner for this, with a semi transparent template. I can also print any ghost images this way by using heavy Y and light C/M with a lightly coloured template. I then spread one sheet with watered down elmer's and the other I make barely damp. Line up both sheets on your appropriately sized slab of metal, brush out any bubles with a spatula (if you've ever done your own window tinting you can figure this out) and then press down with your other metal slab, though you're slabs should be covered with some fabric or fine felt for best results. once this is dried you will have a sheet that is pretty much the same as what the fed gets from Crane & Co up in Boston.

This sheet you will then feed into your printer as you print the back, the front, the serial numbers, and then you will move to to your inkjet printer. Having mixed up a good custom substitute of ink with the proper pigment matches, and loaded the ink into the cleaned out cartridges, you're going to print out any optical variable portions of your template. This requires a sepparate template done in black. For the $100, I use a base colour of black (in the template)for the whole piece which is printed first with Green-Gold mix, and then a sepparate time with a sepparate template for the wavy lines, which I go over in a mix of interference gold. This reproduces the effect on the 100 in the lower right-hand courner.

The easiest way I've found for doing serials, is to load a modified version of the "greenback" font made by Hoefler & Jones, into a custom Versa Cheque template, leaving only the cheque number area, the cheque number being of course started at a certain serial number and been accurately placed.

After printing wash the overall sheet with a lanolin solution that will suffice, and then cut using your guides. Throw a bunch in a drying machine to rough them up a bit if you want, but with this method you've got all of verification points nailed.

BTW a new $100 bill in a vacuum chamber at sea level, DOES in fact weigh 1.0000 grams

[groundzero_1]

Good info, you've clearly done your research. But it just seems to damn complicated. Now don't take my word for it because I haven't done it.

Also, you don't even give a location to buy the paper, which is the most important part. And you listed to many different ink types and mix this with that and whatnot, and it gets really confusing.

If you've done the amount of work I think you have, then I bet this process creates near-spotless bills, but the explanation does need some cleaning up, and we need a paper source.

It's still great though
Thanks!

[dudewheresmytardis]

Paper and ink are both tricky. When it comes to the ink used for the OV printing, you are basically left to trial and error untill you get as close as possible to the right shade and varience effect. There is no standard out of he box colour for this, though pearl ex dualtone green/gold does come very close, as does interference gold, still, you'll have to get some primary colour pigments and toy about with it.

As for paper it's not as complicated as you'd think, wash a bill (nail polish remover works if you don't have anything else available) and cut it down, tour about paper supply companies, as long as you have a good reason they are usually very helpfull. I pretned I'm an art student here in NYC and never get a raised eyebrow from even the most obscure requests. A linen/cotton, or primarily cotton blend will get you started on the right path, hell sumi rice paper actually works pretty well if you find a good consistency, it just doesn't wear well over time. I'm expiramenting with flash papers but that has to do with my magic routines.

Calculate the weight of a given, standard paper size for bills (I'll help; a dollar is 6.6294cm by 15.5956cm, is 0.010922cm thick and weighs exactly 1.0000 gram) Now half the thickness (0.005461cm) and the weight (0.5 gram) and you have the dimensions of what you'll be using, you can go overboard and calculate for the volume/weight of the dried glue as well if you want. Now convert this to a standard paper size and you'll have exactly the weight you're looking for. Now you can start asking around because I wouldn't give up suppliers anyway.

[groundzero_1]

Too bad I failed math :/

Anyway, yea trial and error is basically the way to go with everything these days. I'll google around a bit, thanks again for the info!

[dudewheresmytardis]

Personally I'm very hopefull of my expiraments with making a perfect note on flash paper, I'm planning a mad scientist stage show, and will likely be setting literally bags of the stuff on fire with a highpowered laser pointer dressed up as a death ray, it'll be fun.... of course I don't have to make them perfect for this, that's just the artist in me

[richierichtx]

Looks great, I am excited to see such a well researched guide out. the only thing that kind of bothers me, is the statement of...

THERE IS NO SPECIAL QUALITY TO THE PAPER IN US BILLS INTRINSICALLY, they just add lanolin before they cut them.

And I'm assuming that you mean that there is no special quality that makes them pass the counterfeit pen test besides being coated in lanolin. I however must point out that if that is what you are saying, you are incorrect. The counterfeit detection pens are simply iodine pens, and they react to the starch present in common printer paper and many other types of paper. In that reaction the iodine changes color. US currency is made of starch-free paper, thus, no reaction and no color change.

Although I am wondering if besides the compression from the printing, if lanolin gives that characteristic crispness to new bills... I have never used, nor heard of lanolin before so I'm not sure of its characteristics.

EDIT: Although don't think that I am not very excited to try this. Its great to see someone dedicated to finding a way to make things perfect. I'm quite a perfectionist , so I am quite ecstatic to see such suggestions of even calculating the volume of glue if wanted.

[noodels]

could somebody post some pics of the finished product so i can compare with 123shadow123's way?

[richierichtx]

Originally Posted by noodels

could somebody post some pics of the finished product so i can compare with 123shadow123's way?

I haven't used this method but I can already see that this would yield a much better product if done right, because it solves the problem of the watermark and security strip. Also when you take the ink off of real money, it makes the paper really warn down and in the end you get kind of a really warn down note. where this method will make crisp money that you can wear down to your liking if you even have to wear it down at all.

[richierichtx]

You say that you print the OV portions of the bill with a inkjet printer. How do you print pearl ex with an inkjet? If you added pearl ex to ink wouldn't it clog the print-head?

[P41NK1LL3Rx]

epson C-80 series small appeture / nozzle headed Printer,....and if you step it down Properly then NO it Wont gum up But only if you do it Properly Mad Props to the Doctor !!! I raise $5s to $20s and would just love to try this !!!

[apacaston]

what about the security thread and the watermarks anybody got any ideas?

[thatcaffinatedguy]

Ok im new to all of this Counterfitting/forging stuff. The best i can do at this stage is Cheque washing. With the starch thing, Im pretty sure theres starch in a can. Is this not able to be sprayed over the note or something?

[J_Frost24]

Originally Posted by richierichtx

Looks great, I am excited to see such a well researched guide out. the only thing that kind of bothers me, is the statement of...



And I'm assuming that you mean that there is no special quality that makes them pass the counterfeit pen test besides being coated in lanolin. I however must point out that if that is what you are saying, you are incorrect. The counterfeit detection pens are simply iodine pens, and they react to the starch present in common printer paper and many other types of paper. In that reaction the iodine changes color. US currency is made of starch-free paper, thus, no reaction and no color change.

Although I am wondering if besides the compression from the printing, if lanolin gives that characteristic crispness to new bills... I have never used, nor heard of lanolin before so I'm not sure of its characteristics.

EDIT: Although don't think that I am not very excited to try this. Its great to see someone dedicated to finding a way to make things perfect. I'm quite a perfectionist , so I am quite ecstatic to see such suggestions of even calculating the volume of glue if wanted.

Im new to the fourum. Im super interested in being able to make my own money! If ya ask me MAKIN YOUR OWN MONEY is the American Dream. I was watchin this program called Masterminds. It basically talks about the worlds greatest criminals, and how they wouldve gotten away with their flawless operations if it wasnt for 1 simple slip up. Some of you may be familiar with this show, but they had this 1 crew who made flawless counterfeit money and when I say flawless, I mean flawless!! But they starting gettin very sloppy about their operation. They had this part covered when they started but they slipped up once they started gettin greedy and careless. Guess what this was? Well the cereal number on each bill is suppose to be different, but one of their crew members went to a high end clothing store and dropped $3200 on a outfit, and the store cashier noticed the 50 100 dollor bills all had the same cereal number. I was like damn!! yall had such a good operation for it to all go down hill over the cereal numbers all being the same. That shit pissed me off cause you know I was on the crews side. But anywayz imma try this and do some major research on this subject, cause I really wanna be able to master this 1 day. But remember, ALL BILLS MUST HAVE A DIFFERENT CEREAL NUMBER AT THE BOTTOM. Just wanted to share that bit of very critical info with the clique.

[heyitsalan]

I wish someone could find a useful website or something about Canadian currency... a site that can at least tell me what paper is used to make Canadian bills.

[Paranoid Ecstasy]

Originally Posted by heyitsalan

I wish someone could find a useful website or something about Canadian currency... a site that can at least tell me what paper is used to make Canadian bills.

Typical....
Letting other people find the site for your needs.

By the way its SERIAL, idiot...

This whole thread is pointless, we already have a counterfeit thread.

Originally Posted by J_Frost24

If ya ask me MAKIN YOUR OWN MONEY is the American Dream.

Is that so?

[dudewheresmytardis]

Basically the addition of lanolin prevents the ink in counterfeit detection pens from actually seeping through the bill, it sort of waterproofs it so to speak, I've found that if you add this (and why not, the fed does) it not only defeats these pesky pens, but it also does give that extra crispness/ durability to the finished bills. Basically buy a can of lanolin at a crafts store, and a counterfeit pen and play arround with the two untill you have the right consistency for the paper you're using. I've been having my fun with niro-cellulose (flash paper) and the funny thing is that two sheets laminated has the right feel weight, and it's very durable, the fibre is close in look to currency paper and I believe it is starchless as well. While not everyone would want to go this route (Never use the stuff with a laser printer (obviously) however, plain cellulose paper should also work very well for anyone interested...
adressing apacaston's question; re-read the original post and you'll see that the thread is printed on the inside face of one side of the two laminated pieces.
to P41NK1LL3Rx; precisely how to do it. Anyone good at ID forgery can easily hash out how to do this with their current set-up, it's nearly the same as printing OV devices on teslin with an inkjet.
to J_Frost24; I believe I've heard of the same operation, it's not really an issue if you leave a sepparrate field in the template for serials, basically I print in sheets and die-cut later, so my template is for 9 bills, everytime I load a template I just put new numbers on each bill, you can also build a font (or use someone else's though I dislike doing this) and load that font into any program that assigns serials (I like using versa cheque to be perfectly honest) I usually leave my serial field hidden and re-load the paper and print the serials all at once using a custom template sized fro 9 bills. It's never failed me and it auto assigns a progression as though it's a cheque, meaning the serials are in order. Cut down the bills and then shuffle them like cards and you never grab any bills that are in sequence either.
to Paranoid Ecstasy; not really, there's a convoluted thread dealing with bill washing, top of the line stuff... in the 1980's, sort of stupid these days if you want to take this seriously and not serve 6-28 months in federal prison for toying arround, believe me, this is 90% of the cases the secret service persues. And really, what was the point in even posting to this thread if you arn't going to say anything usefull?

[heyitsalan]

Since when does asking for help means that you haven't done your own research? You're a complete fucking tool. I've done my share and haven't had any luck. I forgot that asking a question on a forum means you're a pathetic, lazy idiot.

Oh im sorry, I forgot that your high post count means that you know everything about everyone. Dork.

[dudewheresmytardis]

It's not hard to get a high post count when you flame... the brunt of this kid's posts seem to be griping about people's speeling errors. Ignorance is such a loud disease

[bostonboy]

Well its high tme someone said it. I for one find this thread much more informative than the ¨freebase method¨. I find that I actualy look forward to the updates and the fact that there is less in fighting makes this hobby much more enjoyable and for that I say thank you. Oh and asking questions is infact a sign of INTELLIGENCE.

[MurderSkillz]

I'm glad you feel that way bostonboy. You can't count on asking me or shetlan for anymore answers.

PS. Oh and asking dumb questions like yourself is a sure sign of a FAILURE.

[bostonboy]

Ahhh MurderSkillz, let me say firstly say that english is not my fist language so yes there will be spelling errrrrroorrrsssss. You like most americans cant seem to get around the idea that there are OTHER countrys in this world that YOU aparently created. Perhaps you can give me a spelliing errrororrrrs WARNING. The FACT is that this thread is MUCH better than yours and is not GOVERNED by GODS, such as your self. Life moves forward MurderSkillz, yours was then, horse and bugy, and now we have this thread that is more like spaceage compared to your string. Dont sulk, the topic of the thread should have given you a clue, ¨How to ACTUALLY, ACTUALLY, ACTUALLY Counterfeit US Currency. Theres a clue in the tiddle but dont worry some of us can spell but not read verywell. I can help you Danielson, wax on wax off......

[purplecheeser]

You guys can print with OV ink? How do you do this?? Been looking for this information but couldnt find anything

[bostonboy]

Well I wanted to thank you formaly Doc, good job on this thread. I have a question, I use the twoply method but wanted to know more about this flame paper. Also when you print the watermark on the left(I print 100´s) and the face on the right does it show through the paper without holding it up to the light? At this time I use the local money and wash it and then print over it. This does the trick for the pen test as I am ussing real paper to start the process. Lastly here they use scanners or the pen test, it scan the bill for what I belive is the magnetic pull of from the ink. How can one get around that? What can I do to trick the scanner? I thought of filling down a magnet and placing small amounts inbetween the two halfs of the product. What do you think?

[heyitsalan]

No disrespect to anyone but I will have to agree with boston. This thread might not be 20 pages long but it sure is creative and informative. It's also not filled with egotistical pricks who think they're the shit. Not going to name any names but some people on this forum sure feel like they can play god and talk down to people for no reason.

On the other hand, there are a lot of good people here who just want to contribute instead of being a jackass, thanks.

[shetlan]

Originally Posted by heyitsalan

No disrespect to anyone but I will have to agree with boston. This thread might not be 20 pages long but it sure is creative and informative. It's also not filled with egotistical pricks who think they're the shit. Not going to name any names but some people on this forum sure feel like they can play god and talk down to people for no reason.

On the other hand, there are a lot of good people here who just want to contribute instead of being a jackass, thanks.

I'd like to point something out:

If you'd like to know how to currency on par with the mint, this thread isn't going to help you - nor is the other one. Both of threads contain concept ideas that are home-methods for making counterfeit money on a tiny scale.

Whether one method or the other appeals to you should depend on whether or not the materials are available to you. Personally, I don't see the value in this thread, as the materials required are of high cost and the methods themselves still appear to be theoretical.

Secondly, the entire printing "UV ink" point is void - one can use an anti-theft pen to duplicate that aspect on virtually any bill.

All that remains to produce a high quality fake is a watermark - which was already discussed in the other thread; color shifting ink - which was already discussed in the other thread; and paper thin enough to use 2 layers on a single bill - which neither thread has given a source for.

All in all, the threads give two slightly different methods which thus far would produce almost identical products.

None the less, posters who left the other thread did so, not because the thread isn't informative, but because "it's too long". One must ask himself how interested you are in the subject if you're that lazy about researching it.

[bostonboy]

Shetlan, if the thead is pointless I dont understand the nead you and Murder feal to post negative comments on it. Why is the thread such a threat to you and the ego of Murder? I dont agree on a couple of your points also. I for one did not leave your thread because I am ¨to lazy to search¨ or because the thread i to long. The thread was and is helpfull from a given point of view as you clearly stated, however if my interest takes me more to this thread whats the problem? I dont like to read about how one commenter is to lazy, cant spell, did not read the thread there for should have his skin peald off etc. I am looking for help on a hoby, thats it, dont want anyone to get personal with me that does not know me. Just help. Also your point about the paper not having been addressed here is not correct perhaps you should have read the whole thread as your so fond of pointing out. Here is Docs stated comment, just one of them, ¨I've been having my fun with niro-cellulose (flash paper) and the funny thing is that two sheets laminated has the right feel weight, and it's very durable, the fibre is close in look to currency paper and I believe it is starchless as well. While not everyone would want to go this route (Never use the stuff with a laser printer (obviously) however, plain cellulose paper should also work very well for anyone interested... Lastly you should know I for one do stop by your thread still to see if theres anything I could use, but this thread for now holds most of my interest.

[shetlan]

Originally Posted by bostonboy

Shetlan, if the thead is pointless I dont understand the nead you and Murder feal to post negative comments on it.

I posted nothing I would deem "negative" or purposefully malicious, I simply refuted the existing negative claims about the other thread.

The thread isn't pointless, but it doesn't offer anything "superior" to the existing thread - which several posters have claimed it does. More to the point, there's no reason to have two threads on the same subject when the methods are so similar that they produce virtually identical results.

IE: If one person told you to light a cigarette with a match and another told you to use a Bic lighter - would you consider the answers truly "different"; or would you look at the identical result and file them together?

Originally Posted by bostonboy

Why is the thread such a threat to you and the ego of Murder?

It's not. The ego is one's own evaluation of himselfs, nothing that happens here (on any forum) changes my ego - nor should it change anyone else's.

That being the case, I don't see the thread as threatening - only misleeding. The thread itself and several of the posters have made multiple claims that the thread produces a superior product in comparison to the "freebase" thread - when in fact it does not.

Originally Posted by bostonboy

I dont agree on a couple of your points also. I for one did not leave your thread because I am ¨to lazy to search¨ or because the thread i to long.

I meant that as a rule, not as an absolute. Most of the complaints I saw where based entirely on the other thread being too long - others ventured into the territory of the "bitching and moaning" section.

Nevertheless, if that doesn't reflect your position then it wasn't directed at you to begin with.

Originally Posted by bostonboy

The [freebase] thread was and is helpfull from a given point of view as you clearly stated, however if my interest takes me more to this thread whats the problem?

There's no "problem", but this thread offers nothing that the previous hasn't explored.

Try to see this from my perspective:
People are asking questions that have already been answered - I suggest a source where they can find the information they're looking for - they refuse to look for the information and instead start an entire new thread.

My position is neither one of insult nor of offense, but rather it's one of confusion. Why would you re-invent the wheel when you already have one?

Originally Posted by bostonboy

I dont like to read about how one commenter is to lazy, cant spell, did not read the thread there for should have his skin peald off etc. I am looking for help on a hoby, thats it, dont want anyone to get personal with me that does not know me. Just help.

1: Let's be serious boston, some people are just 'too lazy' to look anything up - these people get annoying fairly quickly.

2: If someone's spelling is so poor that it makes his post un-readable, then yes, it's fair to ridicule them. Intentionally bad spelling (ie: uno i nede 2 no bout wtrmrks) is just annoying.

3: I don't recall the skin thing, but let me put this in perspective for you. If a child sat next to you and repeated "Why?" over and over wouldn't it annoy you?

4: Some years ago, I took up magic as a hobby. The first thing I did was read books on the subject - rather than e-mailing the people who wrote the books for advice. They already made the information available - askign them for clarification is one thing, asking them to repeat everything they wrote is quite another.

Originally Posted by bostonboy

Also your point about the paper not having been addressed here is not correct perhaps you should have read the whole thread as your so fond of pointing out. Here is Docs stated comment, just one of them, ¨I've been having my fun with niro-cellulose (flash paper) and the funny thing is that two sheets laminated has the right feel weight, and it's very durable, the fibre is close in look to currency paper and I believe it is starchless as well. While not everyone would want to go this route (Never use the stuff with a laser printer (obviously) however, plain cellulose paper should also work very well for anyone interested...

Perhaps you should do a bit more research before you correct me.

Flash paper, heavily used in magic, feels nothing like a dollar bill - it feels much less like one if laminated. Secondly, flash paper is extremely fragile, that's largely the point of it's use - so it can burn immediately and completely and leave no ash.

He also mentioned "plain cellulose paper", which is absolutely any type of paper containing cellulose. This is an entire classification of papers types which covers everything from newsprint to the 20lb cotton rag paper suggested in the "freebase thread" - neither of which would allow the poster to produce a watermarked, security stripped, final product. A suitable paper would need to be 80-100% cotton and 10-12lb - so, as I said - "which neither thread has given a source for."

[bostonboy]

Point taken Shetlan, however I would take what not just I but others have said about your thread into account and not dismiss it. There is grad deal of back and forth about things that have nothing at all to do with the subject at hand. Look how many times you and I have talked about this with the marked diffrence that things are getting clearer. My point about the paper was not that he was correct or wrong but that he addressed it. Lastly I am sorry but I dont agree that if someones spelling or questions rubbs you the wrong way you should waste type on him or her. Anyway thanks for listening

[dudewheresmytardis]

Shetlan, I can tell you unequivocally, and without a doubt that if you take two sheets of flash paper, print them, and laminate them with watered down elmer's school glue, and then treat them with lanolin that they produce a bill that feels almost exactly like the real thing, that if you carry it stuffed in your pocket for a week it's only worn down a bit, still completely passable though. The only thing I don't have nailed down with this method is that the flash bill doesn't burn as quickly or as cleanly as normal flash paper. Still I have no problem burning them in my hat, or wadding them up in my hand/ loading them into my igniter ring to produce fireballs from "money" I can also use this method to make a "money envelope" containing 2-3 more flash bills (inspired from Mark Wilson's "Complete Course in Magic" which was my first magic book) I use this all in my "worl'd poorest millionaire" street show, and am converting the routine to stage. It's quite fun. Anyway, my point being that this method is not theory at all. No, it is not quite suited to a large counterfeiting operation, though the basic method could be converted to such an endeavor. This method isn't actually expensive either, I mean, I order flash paper in bulk through the magic shop attached to my girlfriend's store, and yes, she gives me a very nice discount, but it wasn't that expensive to begin with. The cellulose paper that flash paper is made from, well I have no idea where to get it, but I'm sure if someone had the drive to do as I originally reccommended, calculate out the paper weight, halve it, and then actually go arround to paper suppliers then you'd deffinately find something. I live in New York, and when I did exactly that a couple of years ago and found exactly what I was looking for, and in roll form so I could contiuously print. I no longer have my old hard drive which had all of these sorts of specifics, otherwise I'd have posted them. Also since I am no longer using this method for anything other than my magic show I'm not especially motivated to do all of that leg-work for no gain.

To answer other questions, I always liked to print the security strip with MICR toner or ink, same stuff you use to print cheques so that they're machine readable, available at pretty much any large chain office supply store. For printing the OV portions, you can refill a cleaned out cartridge from an inkjet printer with clear base and a mix of dual tone OV pigment. You can do something simillar for printing any colour shifting part of any bill. When it comes to the "ghost image" on some new bills, simply print on the inside face of the paper before lamination, you can adjust the opacity in photoshop.

Thanks for the imput, and the kind words everyone.

[shetlan]

Originally Posted by dudewheresmytardis

Shetlan, I can tell you unequivocally, and without a doubt that if you take two sheets of flash paper, print them, and laminate them with watered down elmer's school glue, and then treat them with lanolin that they produce a bill that feels almost exactly like the real thing . . .

Now that's an interesting idea. Using watered down Elmer's as the laminate would add strength and a soft feel to the paper, which might actually work.
When you said "laminate" I assumed you meant using actual laminate materials to do it; but the elmer's idea is more of a "glaze" than a true laminate. I'll order some more flash paper and give that a shot.

Additionally, you know they already make "flash bills":
The Magic Cafe Forums - Looking for Realistic Flash Bills